Sorcerer: Betrayal: Power of Air (Book 4) (4 page)

Thursday, June 9
^th
, 2016, 9:18 AM

I was back in my office, when I got my second text message with
a picture for today, this one from Mike.  I took that as a good sign, the last
week or two he’d been having Aiya do all the contact work for their cases.

Pete Anderson was eleven.  He had two older brothers,
Timothy and James, who beat him up on a regular basis to
toughen
him up,
and their father did nothing to stop it.  He was at the bus station trying to
get to Springfield where his father said their mother was.

Problem was, Pete’s mother was doing twenty years for armed
robbery and drug possession.  Something he didn’t know about.

It was cases like this that really bothered me, or worse,
ones where the child in question was already dead.  Generally, my visions stuck
to kids I could actually help, perhaps my subconscious once again protecting me
from bad news.  Of course, that didn’t get me completely off the hook, because
walk-ins and helping the police was more random.

I sent Mike a text back where to pick him up, and that the
home should be checked out by child services.  Sometimes, kids ran away for a
good reason.

I’d barely hit send when a strange woman walked in my
office.  She had short curly hair that barely reached her shoulders.  I was far
from fashion conscious, but I could tell she was very expensively dressed, and
her carriage showed a woman who was used to getting what she wanted.

Sharon Tanner, her six-year-old daughter had been kidnapped
three days ago.  All the information related to that filled my mind, including
the fact that FBI agent Tom Kilmer was on this case, and he’d advised Sharon
not to come here.

I played ignorant, people wanted to believe in psychics, but
would be freaked out if I actually showed a small portion of my ability, “Hello,
would you take a seat?  How can I help?”

She introduced herself, “I’m Sharon Tanner.  My daughter Amanda
was kidnapped and is being held for ransom.  The FBI screwed up the first drop,
and I haven’t been contacted again.  I’ll pay anything if you can help me.”

I nodded, “I charge a rate of a thousand a day, not on a
sliding scale per client.”

She raised an eyebrow, but then nodded once.

“I’ll get on it right away; I just need a day’s pay to get
started.”

She narrowed her eyes, “Just a day?”

I frowned, “Yes.  I normally don’t need any longer than
that, I don’t pad either.”

She wrote out the check and stared at me expectantly, this
woman had a formidable personality.  It didn’t look like she’d fall for my
usual wait an hour then send the information gig.  On top of that, I wasn’t
positive Tom would follow up on any tips I gave, he’d be sure to recognize the
voice if I left a message.

She asked, “You know already, don’t you?  I wasn’t sure if I
believed in this psychic claptrap, but I can see it in your eyes,” she said
halfway accusing, and half fascinated.

I supposed rules were made to be broken.  I pulled out a pad
and wrote down an address where she was being held.  I had information for her
of course, the man that took her was Kyle Johnson, unfortunately, he was
Kaitlyn’s ex-boyfriend.  Kaitlyn, was Amanda’s older sister of course, which
explained why Kyle knew the house well, as well as the alarm code that Kaitlyn
had foolishly shared.

The only good part to this story, was that Kaitlyn had no
clue about it.  Of course, I held all that back, she’d find out all about it
anyway.

I handed her the address, which had Aiya’s number on it.  It
was something I normally wouldn’t do, but formidable or not, this woman
wouldn’t make a stupid mistake and go there in person.  That said, I thought it
would do her good to be a part of the process, even if just to make the phone
call.

“Call that number, it’s for detective Aiya Takahashi in
missing persons.  Your youngest daughter is safe, but the man holding her is
armed.  Don’t go there yourself.”

She asked, “Why wouldn’t I call the FBI?”

“Tom Kilmer really doesn’t like me.  I’m sure you’ve seen on
the news that I work with the police department quite well.”

She nodded thoughtfully, “Very well, if this information is
accurate… thank you.”

I could sense she was trying to hold it together, and I
could see the strong connection she had with her daughter, like a rope
connecting them.  Something I could use to find her daughter, if the
information hadn’t been so readily available.  She got up and had her phone
pulled out before she left.

I took some time to meditate about air and fire.  I couldn’t
afford to slow down or stop my quest to become more powerful, not with my
family’s enemies still out there.  Whoever or whatever they were.  Perhaps
when, or if that danger passed, I could afford to slow down.  I had no
inclinations toward megalomania, or even a thirst for revenge.  Though I did
swear to get justice for my mother’s murder.

Self-preservation also drove me.  I just hoped my
motivations wouldn’t change, they say absolute power corrupts absolutely.  It
wouldn’t take much to push me off in that direction.  From everything I’ve
heard, most sorcerers did eventually go that way, even if only to see others around
them as less important than they were.

I wanted to stay unique, as Tara described it.  Not to be an
unfeeling creature who only cared about my own power.  Ironically, it is
perhaps because I grew up without my power that I actually had a chance to
succeed.  My morals and center were defined and set.  I could imagine how much
different it would have been with these powers as a teenager.

I knew a lot about each.  Fire, I needed more experience,
but I already had a lot of knowledge.  Sure, there was more, but I knew
everything about fire that Jaben had known, so it was more a question of
lacking experience, and practice.  I turned myself invisible, and tried to hold
it as I considered other things.

Air was a little more complicated, if only because it had
been completely self-taught.  Knowledge, intellect, healing, mind manipulation,
and of course, physically manipulating air such as a breeze, or a hurricane.  I
considered that I probably knew more about air, than I did about fire. 
Considering that what I knew about fire, should with practice, get me to a
three-hundred-foot radius of power and control as Jaben had… 

Did that mean the same, and more, was true of elemental air?

I came to the conclusion that for now, practice and using my
power often would be of more importance than gaining more knowledge or even
just a new perspective about the elements.  I wouldn’t completely ignore it
though, I was sure there was still plenty to learn, but practical application
was where I was lacking at this point.

Much like this morning, learning the difference between
having the knowledge of several four star chefs, and actually having the
experience of cracking eggs open without getting shell pieces into the bowl. 
Surprisingly, magic was the easier of the two, at least for me it was.

I felt someone enter my reach with air, and then within the
bounds of my fire magic.  I dropped the invisibility, or the illusion of it. 
Semantics.  I recognized who it was right away, Kira Downs, the reporter.  She
was alone this time, no cameraman.  I got up and walked over to grab a coffee,
I was still making it as she came into my office.

Without turning I said, “Good morning Kira, do you want a
coffee?  Or a bottled water?”

Kira grunted, “Coffee.  How did you know it was me?”

Many ways, the shape of her body in the air I was connected
to, the way she walked, the connection we had together that I could read with
my fire magic, and simply because I wanted to know, and my power reached out for
the information.  Of course, I couldn’t tell her any of that.

I laughed and said in a conspiratorial voice, “I’m psychic
remember?” and started to make her a coffee.

I turned around and handed her the coffee, and then gestured
invitingly toward the seat.

“What can I do for you today?”

She raised an eyebrow, “Don’t you know?”

Actually I didn’t, I could, but I didn’t.  Life would get so
boring if I pulled information about my day all the time.  Sometimes it was
just better to live life, and be surprised on occasion.  Of course, customers
with missing children were immune to this policy.

I shrugged, “I assume it has something to do with me, and
television.”

She giggled and then snorted a laugh, “Fine, I walked right
into that one.  You’re right of course.  My producer wanted me to ask if you
would come into the studio sometime for an interview, and perhaps some kind of
reading?”

I shook my head, “I’m not that kind of psychic.  I can find
people, and I choose to concentrate that on children who were taken, or can’t
defend themselves.  I don’t do messages from beyond, tell fortunes, or whatever
else it is that you have in mind.”

I looked at her directly, “I do like you miss Downs, but
neither do I have a need for attention, and I truly have no care for your station’s
ratings.  In fact, too much attention would be a detriment to what I do, and
put at risk the children I save.”

I knew if things went too far, where my life was under a
microscope, I’d have to fake my death or something.  That would mean the pack
would have to follow me to a new life, and I didn’t want to be that much of a
burden.  As it was, I knew in five years when I was twenty-six, and still
looked nineteen, it would be time to move on.  I wasn’t in a hurry for that to
happen at all.

I wondered if I could get Tara to make me some kind of
illusion amulet, maybe there was a way I could stick around longer if it seemed
like I was aging.  I really didn’t like the idea of never seeing my aunt and
cousin ever again because I wouldn’t age for hundreds of years.

I was getting a little off point, which was that it was time
to put an end to the news coverage.

I went ahead and laid a subtle compulsion without any
guilt.  She wouldn’t forget me, and would probably still do a report on me, but
she wouldn’t dig too deep or chase me either.  There was something to be said
for hiding in plain sight, but I worried the line was getting closer.  If too
many people looked into me, it would be almost impossible to cover up.  I
wasn’t nearly ready to fake my own death and move on, something supernaturals
had to do from time to time.

Kira sighed, “I didn’t think you’d say yes, but I had to
ask.  Thanks for your time… and the coffee.”

I let out a sigh of relief despite me stacking the deck when
she left the office, and I went back to my magic practice.

Thursday, June 9
^th
, 2016, 11:21 AM

My phone went off again, another text, this time with no
picture.  The council wanted to see me.  I knew the intention of it, the time
had come and they planned to kill me.  Both the information and the connections
were screaming it.

Damn vampires.

Still, I gave it some thought before I went.  I could leave
town if I wanted to after all, and I was wondering exactly what would happen to
the vampire population if the council went away.  The council were like strict
parents that didn’t spare the rod.  A lot of vampires were selfish, and the
power went to their heads, they saw other people as lesser.  In a way, a lot
like I was told sorcerers are, just with less power.  In some cases, it might
even be worse, because the power was freely given in the change, they didn’t
have to work for it at all.  Even strength came automatically with age.

The threat of the council kept them all in line.

On the other hand, I’d bent over backwards to not only keep
the peace, but help them with their issues, and they were going to repay me
with death?  Or at least, they would try.  They truly were evil, but leaving
them alive seemed to be the lesser evil up until this point.

What made me decide was that if I didn’t go, and just ignored
them, their next step would probably be to get leverage.  I knew vampires and
the shifter species didn’t get along.  Vampires were air, shifters were fire
and earth, and it was the earth and air part that probably drove this split
more than anything else.  Point being, I knew they wouldn’t have a qualm about
using people against me, threats, hostages, murders, and who knew what else.

It wouldn’t be the first time the council used such tactics.

I imagined that included others as well, Tara, and even the
humans in my life, Mike, Jenna, Aiya, my Aunt Mary and Cousin Amy.  No one
would be safe.  This was why I thought the council evil, they didn’t just rule
the vampires and punish transgression, they actively killed whoever they wanted
in their paranoia to keep their power.

It was a simple equation to them.  I was powerful enough to
harm them, so I had to die.  Doesn’t matter what my intentions are, to them
even if I don’t oppose them now, in a hundred, or maybe two hundred years, I might
change my mind.

So that’s why I decided to reply to Diana’s text, and let
her know I’d be over in a few minutes.  I was fairly confident they would
fail.  I was surrounded in my double air and fire shield, even if I didn’t
speed myself up to see their attack, I didn’t believe they’d be able to break
through.  Anything strong enough to do so would take out the entire building.  Regardless,
they wouldn’t live long enough to regret their betrayal.

I was very angry, but I used most of that to feed my fire shield,
to both make sure I didn’t do anything stupid, and of course it made my shield
quite a bit stronger.  I say most of my emotions because that was Jaben’s
mistake.  He died because he subsumed too much of his emotions, such as a
healthy dose of fear.  Still, I wasn’t too worried.  Vampires were fueled by
the power of air, my own element.

When I arrived at the building I checked for wards, just in
case they’d been clever enough to hire a coven to help them.  I walked in and
saw Diana waiting by the elevators, standing between them.  She was in leathers
that showed her curvy body, and a pair of calf high boots.  Her light blonde
hair was up and she looked very good.  Okay, honestly she looked sexy as hell. 
She didn’t have a welcoming look on her face or in her eyes though, but I knew
she was still angry, if not with me, because of me.

I was tempted to reach out and grab the whole plan just
then, but I truthfully didn’t want to know if she knew.  Despite knowing she’d
have no choice due to her oath, I didn’t want to know if she’d chosen the
council over me in her heart as well.  Perhaps I should have, but I was
confident in my shields.

As I walked over she reached behind her and pushed the
button to call the elevator.  I just nodded, and she nodded back.  I missed my
friend, the friendly vibrant woman I’d met ten months ago who led me through my
first steps in the supernatural world.  Yes, I had Sierra, and wouldn’t change
that for anything.  That didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.  I didn’t say anything
though, because at this point it would just cause her pain, so I sucked it up
and pulled on my big boy pants.

The elevator door opened and I walked in.  Diana followed
me, hit a button and turned toward me, standing in front of the buttons.  I
didn’t understand my mistake, or what she had done, until the elevator started
moving, and not up as it usually did.  Diana had blocked my view, so I didn’t
see her hit the down button out in the lobby, and she had blocked my view again
in the elevator, so I didn’t see her hit the basement button.

I imagine my face drained of blood as I realized how stupid
I was for not pulling the whole plan, just because I was guarding my heart, and
I was so damned arrogant that the council could never take me with my shields. 
I think I might have growled as my connection to air faded as I sunk beneath
the ground.  But I wasn’t the same kid that had to be rescued by Diana in a
basement, that could hardly control fire.

I had a fifty-foot radius now to draw for my elemental fire,
and an understanding of fire beyond that ability.  I pumped as much energy as I
could into my fire shield.  I took all my freaked out emotions and fears at
being below ground, and added it to the mix.  I also modified it since now it
would be impossible to speed my body and perceptions, it wouldn’t just protect
me, it would burn anything that tried to touch me.

I spared Diana a glare and warned her, “Don’t touch me,” and
then I faced the door, and when it reached the third basement level, the door
dinged. 

Ding.  It stuck in my mind.

It was such an absurd sound to herald fighting, and death. 
The doors opened, and I could see down a long hallway.  A long, empty hallway.

Diana said, “I’m sorry love, I don’t have a choice.”

Her words were nonsensical at first, I didn’t understand. 
But then I did, the council wasn’t down here at all, the damned cowards had
ordered Diana to do it all, not just trick me to get me down here for them to
kill as I’d first thought.  In a panic now, I tried to turn off the deadly
nature of my fire shield, but it was too late.  Just as I’d had the thought,
Diana’s teeth dropped and she rushed forward to grab my head, presumably to
twist it and feed on me.

She lit up like a torch, and I stared at her in horror.

I reached for the fire, called it back to me desperately,
but it was too late.  I’d made my shield deadly, and she fell to the ground,
blackened, eyes open, unseeing, and so very empty.  I shook my head in denial,
and my roar of outrage came out like a sob.

Arrogant, stupidly so.  It would have been so easy to stop
this, prevent her death if I’d just pulled the information.  Now she was dead. 
I felt horrified, and guilty, and angry as hell.  Yes, it was partially my
fault she was dead, but ultimately it was the council who had killed her, and hidden
like children.

I reached over and hit the button for the right floor, and
felt numb as the door closed, and I started to rise.  As soon as I reached the
first floor my magic rushed back and I reinstated my three tier shield, and
then reached out for the plan.  It was rather late, but I wanted to know who
came up with this plan and the conversation that led them to betray their ally.

The council was easily in my range, a hundred and fifty feet
was a whole lot of floors.  They’d been watching on the closed circuit camera
in the elevator, and now they were getting ready to flee.

Hell no.

I reached out and ordered the air to hold them there.  I wrapped
the three of them in their own shields so tightly they couldn’t even move a
finger.  I read their panic through my fire element as they struggled, and I smiled
a mirthless smile.  A week ago I hadn’t been strong enough.  Oh, I could have
killed them a week ago, but held them helpless in the grip of my power?  That
was new.

I thought of Diana, and wished I hadn’t been so high
minded.  I could have killed them all long ago and freed her.  Instead, she was
dead.  I sighed, and shook my head with regret, that was a path I didn’t want
to travel, would never travel.  If I had killed them long ago I’d have been
wrong too.  This was self-defense, and justice.  I wouldn’t be like them, not
even now.

The elevator opened and I walked over to the conference
room, they had the elevator camera on the television.  I turned to the three of
them.  Charis and Alexios glared at me with an implacable hatred in their
eyes.  They were so cold.  Ceara’s eyes were still on the monitor, and I could
see the weight of grief in them as she stared at Diana’s blackened body.

They didn’t talk, but then they couldn’t.

My voice sounded empty, was I in shock?

“So many things have run through my mind to say to you. 
Angry words, lecturing words.  But as I bare your lives Charis and Alexios, I
see those words would be wasted.  It never would have occurred to you to ally
to a stronger power, and even now you won’t get it.”

I shook my head, I was just babbling, trying to make sense
of the senseless.  They were evil, an uncaring evil.  Something about being
turned to vampire leached their emotions after so many years.  Ceara while cold
at times, still had the ability to feel at nineteen hundred years old.  Charis
and Alexios were empty inside.

At first I considered that it might be the element of air
doing it, that air was intellectual, the power of the mind and not emotions. 
But I realized that wasn’t right, Aitheria was a pure elemental of air, and she
was caring, loving, and a being of deep emotion.  No, it had to be something
else, something that breaks with the making of a vampire.

Something unnatural, I would never be like them.

I looked at them, studied them, and Ceara with all my power,
and I couldn’t determine the cause.  It was time to end it anyway.  With a
small burst of power, I incinerated both of them within their shields, there
was nothing but a pile of dust swirling to the ground.  There was no
satisfaction, no feeling of… anything.  Diana was still dead, gone.  Forever.

I took a seat at the table and stared at Ceara and said
three words.

“You voted no,” and I released my power.

Well, the power holding her.  I wasn’t stupid, I kept my
triple shielding up.

Ceara sat across from me warily, “What now?”

I took a deep breath, “You tell me.  We can live in peace. 
You voted no, and that’s partially why I’m not going to kill you.  I want to,
because Diana was yours, and you went along with the others and ordered her to
do what she did.  For that alone I want to kill you, but I also recognize you
had no choice. 

“More than that, if at least one of the council lives, maybe
the vampire nation won’t go crazy.  I don’t want to be responsible for all the
vampires that would go rogue without someone there to put the fear of death in
them to keep them in line.

“Lastly, I’ll let you live simply because Diana loved you
like a daughter loves her mother, and would have wished it.”

I shook my head, “I’ll stop by tomorrow, and you can let me
know.”

I just couldn’t talk to her anymore right now.  I was too
angry, and at the same time numb and empty.  I felt helpless, because there was
nothing I could do to undo what happened in that elevator.  It was absolutely
stifling.  I didn’t think Ceara was doing that much better to be honest, we
both needed time to come to terms.

I wrapped myself in the power of air, and bade it take me
home…