The Unmaking (The Rayne Whitmore Series Book 1) (25 page)

             Selene shakes her head at
me in disappointment. “That is the most immature thing you’ve said to me in a
long time and you’re very close to pissing me off. I’m not trying to boss you;
I just want to be there,” Selene raises her voice, before lowering it at the
end. Her beautiful features are framed with irritation and I can feel the magic
rising within her. She was half ready to knock me on my ass.

            I don’t even know why I
said that.

            Maybe it was because I
felt that she herself was hiding something that I couldn’t yet place, nor ask
about. Selene was looking for something and I think tonight she left me alone because
she thought she’d found it. I’m not stupid. I obviously said some stupid
things, but I have good instincts. I could probably wait for her to tell me
what was going on. Besides, I probably don’t need any more surprises in my life
right now. I should just apologize and finish this conversation.

            “That was childish of me.
I know you trust me and I apologize. I never have liked to feel bossed around
and thought maybe it was just because it was another girl that had saved me. I
have to remember that I’m not dealing with humans anymore,” I respond to her,
reaching out for her hand, hoping she’ll let me pull her close.

            She looks into my hazel
eyes with her dark green ones, kisses my forehead, then my lips gently with her
soft, full ones. I respond to her kiss with a teasing tongue caressing her lips
before she slowly pulls away from me. It’s obvious that she’d like the kiss to
go deeper, but there are other matters to attend to first.

            “I forgive you, but don’t
ever think that’s the case. I trust you, just like you trust me. Now, if you’re
really hell bent on stopping these lamia, I found out where they’ve been
hunting the last two days,” Selene informs me.

            “Good, let’s do this
tomorrow night then,” I say excitedly.

            “Wait, there’s also some
bad news.”

            “And…”

            “There’s a nest of about
twelve of them.”

            “Twelve? Is that a normal
nest size? I’m going to assume that it’s not.”

            “Hell no it’s not normal
on our plane. They have been hunting for an extremely long period of time
without one of their group being killed or spotted, until now. Or so I was
told.”

            “Then all the more reason
to take them out. Let’s come up with a plan. I think our biggest disadvantage
and mistake we made when we were with the Immortals was not learning to fight
together enough. We need to be able to fill in for each other’s weaknesses and
watch each other’s backs. I say we do that now. There’s no point in waiting.”

            “And what do you propose
we do?”

            “Let’s start with sparring
each other. No holding back either. That way we can gauge each other’s
weaknesses,” I tell her.

            “Alright, if you insist. I
don’t think you’ll be able to handle me,” Selene warns jokingly.

            “Well, bring it. I think
you might want to tie that pretty hair of yours up. I wouldn’t want you to use
that as an excuse if it gets in the way.”

            She laughs and pulls it
back. Before we head to the basement to train, I grab Katsu and ask my sword
nicely to not cut my girlfriend. She reacts with a wave of magic. When I feel
her sleek white blade, I’m glad that it feels dull and unable to cut.

            “Thank you Katsu,” I say
to my magical katana.

            “So, you’re not going to
put on any clothes?” Selene asks me.

            “Naw, I’m hoping this will
be a distraction technique.”

            “Fine.” Selene proceeds to
strip down too. “Let’s see who gets distracted first.”

◊◊◊

            We stand about five feet
away from each other, face to face, and I smile appreciatively at her fantastic
body. “Maybe I should keep my sword sheathed until we’re sure we’re at the same
level,” I suggest, changing my mind slightly. Even though Katsu won’t cut, it
will still hurt like hell when I strike.

            “You said no holding back,
you pussy,” Selene teases dangerously before blasting me with some kind of orb
of energy.

            I shuffle to the side at
the last second, but it still catches me and it burns my arm before flickering
out. “Pussy huh? Such language, tsk tsk.” I respond, ignoring the tingling from
the graze. “So you really don’t have to use incantations for your spells?”

            “Oh, I’m beyond that when
it comes to many middle class and some high class spells. I’m a high priestess
remember? There is deeper magic inside me and I’m not limited to what other
witches may have to do. Now, I’ve got it figured out thanks to Kaede. So, are
we going to talk or spar?”

            I unsheathe my sword and
get into my fighting stance, but before Selene can adjust, I shift my foot and
run straight at Selene, swinging my blade down with fury. Still, she doesn’t
seem fazed by my speed or willingness to rush at her like this, she just stops
Katsu, my katana, with her hand, which causes a jarring motion in my body.

             I don’t have time to be
surprised. Selene uppercuts me hard in the chin and almost sends me to my
knees. Okay, now I am acting like a pussy. She gives me a smirk and a raised eyebrow
as if to ask me when am I going to stop holding back. Oh, she’s in for a shock.

            I drop down quickly and
trip Selene before rolling on top of her to send a blow to her face, but she
manages to throw me off in time. I roll away, grabbing Katsu off the ground,
before slicing through the air, and then feinting a swing of the blade, before
landing a leg strike into Selene’s midsection.

            Before I give her a chance
to react with a spell, I toss her across the room and into the wall, putting
some distance between us. Selene will expect me to try to actually attack at as
close a range as possible, knowing what I know about witches, but since she
clearly knows a spell that lent her some kind of strength, it’s more obvious to
me that I’ll have to wear her out until her chakra level becomes low before I can
attack close.

            Still, Selene isn’t the
type to attack unnecessarily, so I have to figure something else out. I take a
deep breath as I feel the strength given to me through my un-making course
through me. My tattoo begins to hum through my body, then glow, and I feel
Katsu become surer in my hands, more a part of me. Selene seems to breathe in
the air as if she feels it too. We lock eyes and smile before both of us poise
for attack. I almost miss it, her tell, the slightest twitch of her brow,
before another blast of energy seeks me.

            All witches have a tell
that gives them away, some are just better at masking theirs. This time, I’m
too fast though, too prepared. I’m on her before she realizes it. Or, so I
thought. A blinding light hits my eyes just before I get ready to make contact.
I see nothing and for a split second before I regain my composure, I have to
trust my other senses. A searing pain hits my back. I hiss and duck under the
next assault that I hear before my eyes start to work again.

            I remember all that
Lawrence taught me about the battle turning at any minute, to be prepared for
anything. It helps me clear my head and I spin to the left, landing a fierce
kick to Selene’s leg, even without my vision. I hear her grunt in pain and I
can’t help the satisfied smirk that paints my face. I slide back and put some
distance between us as my vision comes back into focus, with only tiny little
lights dancing in front of my eyes. Selene stands up, dusts herself off, and
wipes some loose hair from her face. Her bra is falling off her shoulders and
her eyes are shining with magic, making her green eyes brighter, and more
exotic looking.

            I lick my lips and motion
Selene to make a move as I get back into my fighting stance. Katsu’s stretched
out before me, my feet firmly rooted to the ground. Selene is much more skilled
than I thought and even though we both agreed not to hold back, we both know
that there was no way we’d attack each other the way we would a true enemy. I
can feel her love for me through her magic  as we come to blows. I know she can
feel my heart as well. Still, we will have to do this dance much more seriously
each time if we are to truly protect each other.

            She speaks something this
time, something musical that I don’t understand, two fingers held to her mouth,
her lips pressed against her pointer finger. The lights begin to flicker. I
force myself not to move, to remain in my stance, until I feel that it’s time
to strike. Suddenly, Selene is no longer in front of me. The air shifts, and I can
feel her magic behind me. But when I turn and swing, all I slash is air.

            The lights flicker again,
and I turn my head to the side trying to feel the surge of power I’ve come to
recognize as Selene’s magic. It doesn’t take long before I feel it and even
though I can’t see her, I trust my instincts as I let Katsu fly through the
air. Selene gasps as she drops her glamour and stares at my sword sticking out
of the basement wall a foot from her head.

            Then, there’s a tap on my
back and I spin around to see Selene standing with her arms crossed. I spin
back around to see what I thought was my witch disappearing from sight, no
actually, becoming Selene’s shadow, creepily sliding across the floor to
connect with her. “You lose,” she tells me smugly.

            “I see.” I had gotten
cocky again. Damn, that would be my downfall.

            “It’s called a shadow
puppet. The spell is a very difficult one and very draining, but as you can
see, it’s very effective because it mimics the feel of the users magic as well
as the person itself. It’s as if my shadow itself had become real. Mix that
with a glamour to disappear and that is what I did.”

            I look at her up and down,
the sweat on her brow, the slight shaking of her hand. Yes, very draining
indeed. She almost looks pale. “Let’s get some food in your stomach and we can
talk about each other’s assessments.”

            “Sounds good, but now
you’re starting to sound like a teacher.”

            “Hmm, now there’s some
role play we haven’t tried yet,” I respond.

            “Indeed.”

Chapter Twenty

           
A
fter filling our stomachs and then taking nice, long, hot
showers, we discuss each other’s opinions on our skills and how to best work
together. We both come to the conclusion that I get overconfident when I feel
that I’m winning and end up letting my guard down. Even though I’m excellent at
evaluating situations during battle, I need to learn to maintain that focus,
keep my training at the front of my mind. I also need to train with not only
Katsu, but other weapons as well, just in case. I told Selene what I felt with
Katsu and how she was supposed to get stronger as I did. So, it would benefit
us all for me to keep her by my side.

            Selene on the other hand
needs to first work on her tell which let me know when she was ready to attack
with her magic, then, she needs to learn more martial arts skills so that she
won’t have to rely solely on spells that will dry her chakra up too quick.
Although, when training with the Immortals, Kaede was able to assist Selene in
increasing her levels much more than before. In fighting, Selene isn’t adequate
at paying attention to how much magic she is using at the same time as hand to
hand combat. Because of this, she could potentially misread situations and use
a more powerful spell when there was no need and actually put her in danger if
she had no power left.

             For now, our strategy is
simple: Selene will attack first as a distraction while I get a feel for the
situation, then we’d go from there. If there’s a group of them, I’d engage the
strongest one while Selene played clean-up with the others until she could help
me from a distance. We’d tweak it as needed. When it came time to take out
Namen Young, we’d have to have a plan a,b,c,d,e… well, you get the point. We
need much more intel on him. I wanted to kill these damn lamia quickly and focus
on Namen. I want him dead like yesterday. But for now, the best thing to do is
rest.

◊◊◊

            I wake up to Selene doing
stretches, her long legs spread out in front of her, her back towards me. “Good
morning,” she says without turning around.

            “Hey, how long have you
been up?”

            “Maybe thirty minutes. Do
you want to grab something to eat? We could go out before we get down to
business.”

            “Sure, let’s go downtown
for a bit.”

            As usual, downtown is full
of people in a hurry to get places in expensive business suits and briefcases,
chatting away on their phones, cars honking bumper to bumper, and people
fighting for parking spaces close to their destination. The air is filled with
delicious scents of fresh food like bagels, bacon, eggs, fruits, and coffee. I
absorb the sights, sounds, smells and smile at the people who really have no
clue about the real world who only have to worry about their next business
meeting or their son’s next ball game.