Celtic Rose (24 page)

“William, you’ve been knocked out for several minutes. You just woke up when I picked you up.” Gabriel moved a little closer and put his hand out to help him up, but William slapped it away. Gabriel turned and walked away. He felt William’s anger at his back, but he didn’t expect what happened next in the least. Something hit him in the back and there was a slight tingling in his spine. William had actually thrown a low-voltage electric ball. Gabriel turned to face him, shocked, and immediately brought up another energy ball.

“Oh, so you’re ready for another shock?”

William conjured up a charged ball of his own, but it flickered and faded out. William was learning very quickly; Gabriel was slightly impressed. He hadn’t even started training Kalan, Talus, and Ramina yet. William was always a late bloomer. If he were to pick his powers up as fast as the others it would make him more arrogant. Even though his attitude made him a pain to live with, it’d come in handy in battle. He finally threw a full-blown electric ball, still low-voltage but completely formed nonetheless. Gabriel decided it was as good a time to try to instruct William.

“Focus all of your energy into the electric ball. It should take no effort at all to make one. It should be an involuntary reaction.”

William stared at his electric ball, squinting as he tried to focus. The energy flared once then settled back down. Seeing his frustration, Gabriel decided to push him as far as he could. It always worked before, but William was never so much in need of a good beat down as he was in this life. Something in him had changed; in this lifetime he was much crueler than ever before. That’s why Gabriel believed he’d be the one to betray everyone. Finally, William mustered a pretty pale-blue glow from his electrical ball, but there were beads of sweat on his forehead.

“All right, William, that looks good. Now, you need to be able to move and attack, dodge and defend. You ready?”

William looked up at Gabriel with a cocky expression on his face, and started moving forward. He matched Gabriel’s steps with his and they circled each other. Gabriel lowered the voltage in his ball, deciding William didn’t need to get knocked out again. William threw the first ball. Gabriel dodged and threw his own, hitting William in the backside. He grabbed the cheek and hissed with pain. He looked at Gabriel, rage flaring in his eyes and conjured another ball, stronger than the last. The others had stopped and were watching William and Gabriel. Gabriel conjured up another low-voltage ball and prepared for the next attack. William threw the next ball and Gabriel dodged, but it did scorch the wall a little.

“You’re gonna fix that, ya know.” Gabriel pointed at William with his free hand. William smirked and summoned another ball. It didn’t hit Gabriel that time but, it was a good throw; Gabriel was just quicker than a normal man. If he
had
been a normal man it surely would’ve hit him and stung quite a bit.

They circled each other again and again, trying to psych each other out. Gabriel threw one and hit William in the backside again. He took in a sharp breath but conjured an electric ball faster. Gabriel conjured another one and immediately threw it. It hit him in the backside again causing him to throw his in the air which in turn came back down and hit him on the top of his shoulder. He jerked slightly and fell down, but wasn’t down long. He got back up in one fluid motion and by the time he hit his feet there was already a ball in his hand. He threw it quickly and Gabriel dodged, conjuring and throwing another just as quickly. This time Gabriel missed his target and hit him in the face. His nose started to bleed.

“Oops, sorry about that.” Catching Gabriel’s sarcasm, William shot him a glower. The electrical balls came easier to him; he could conjure them left and right by the end. They just needed to work on his ability to dodge and aim. Gabriel misjudged his throws a few more times, only because William moved at the last second, trying to dodge unsuccessfully.

Blood trickled into the cut on William’s lip from his bloody nose. His left eye was red because of the cut above it. More blood flowed out of his right ear; Gabriel really hoped it was just blood and not brain matter. Electric balls were like taking a hit from a dodge ball, only harder and with a jolt of electricity attached. Gabriel thought William had taken enough abuse for today.

He held his hands up. “Alright, William that’s enough for now. We’ll continue this some other time. We need to work on sword play and other weapons. Those are what the witch and warlock trained their minions to use.” William stood with the ball in his hand. Gabriel could tell he was thinking about throwing it anyway. He just turned his back on him and started walking away. The others followed suit.

After a few moments, William extinguished the ball and followed as well. They walked over to the weapons vault. When Gabriel opened the door the group
oohed
and
aahed
at what was inside. Ancient weapons from centuries past lined the walls, but they were well taken care of and looked nearly new. There were Scottish dirks, sgian dubhs, which were small knives like the dirks, throwing knives, sword breaker daggers and other various daggers along the left wall. Sais, swords, spears, halberds, battle axes, maces, war hammers, and a chain blade took up the right wall. Whips, crossbows, and bow and arrows took up the wall around the door of the room. Gabriel named off the weapons as the others were looking. In the very back there was a display that was very interesting. Gabriel didn’t mention these in his inventory sweep. Talus caught that and looked at him skeptically.

“Sweetie, Gabriel knows us better than we know ourselves. He probably got it knowing I’d want it.” She grinned mischievously at Gabriel. He beamed back and made a sweeping motion toward the weapons. Kallisto bounced into the room excitedly, heading straight for the chakrams. Talus walked in behind her, seemingly impressed by her interest in the weapons. His eyes kept going back to the chain blade. He just couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off it.

Gabriel came up and clapped him on the shoulder. “That’s yours Talus. It has been in every life; that’s why you’re drawn to it.”

He tore his eyes from the beautiful sight to look at Gabriel.

His mouth dropped open, eyes bulging at the whip like weapon, and the sharp edges of the chain. “I didn’t cut myself up trying to use it?”

Gabriel laughed at his stunned remark.

“Only until you remember how to use it,” Gabriel chuckled, remembering him learning in the previous lifetimes. “The first life was the worst–you nearly sliced off your ear. Luckily, it was still hanging on and we were able to sew it back on. Kallisto was skittish around you for a while. She couldn’t even be in the same room with you when we put clean bandages on it. It was hilarious.”

Talus stared at Gabriel goggle-eyed. Kallisto stuck her tongue out at Gabriel and moved to a different area of the room. Gabriel pushed Talus’ mouth closed and turned his head back to look at the chain blade.

“Go ahead and pick it up, Talus. Get a feel for your old weapon.” Leaving him to it, Gabriel walked over to Kallisto, who was staring at the crossbows. She broke her gaze from them to watch Talus pick up the sword.

Grabbing the handle of the sword, he pulled it off the display. He walked past the others and back to Kallisto’s side. Kallisto smiled at him as Gabriel handed her a dainty crossbow with a pink feather on the side. Talus had a strange look on his face that made Gabriel chuckle.

“It’s a lady’s crossbow. Less bulk so she can hold it without her arms getting tired. She’ll be working with a sword, sais and a sword breaker dagger as well. Kallisto’s main weapon has always been the sword. Ramina’s weapon has always been the sais. Kalan’s always excelled with throwing knives, but he can use a sword just as well. William’s weapon is the halberd. You, Talus, have always used the chain blade, but you are also good with the bow and arrow. I prefer battle-axes and war hammers. Since this is Ephiny’s first time with us, I guess she can choose her weapon.” Gabriel turned to Ephiny to see what she had to say about it.

“I practiced with Kallisto with swords in our first life so I’ll continue that, but I believe I’d like to try a little bit of everything. Let’s just wait and see which one I pick up the fastest.” She went to the side and grabbed a sword. It was a beautiful sword; the sides of the blade were wavy and the handle was silver and had waves through it.

Ephiny shrugged her shoulders, smirking, and walked toward him. He grabbed a sword from the rack beside him and backed out into the training area. He and Ephiny started practicing together. Talus was so busy watching them he didn’t realize Kallisto came up behind him until she placed the sword at his throat.

“This looks familiar. I wonder where I’ve seen this before,” Kallisto whispered into his ear. He inclined his head to look at her and she leaned forward and kissed him. She shoved him away from her, and he whipped around to face her.

“Pick up your sword, sir, and have at thee.” Kallisto looked serious for a moment and then laughed. Talus smiled widely, dropping the chain blade. Gabriel was glad to see that he knew it was too dangerous for practice, at least against her. He grabbed another sword and they started swash-buckling. As they fought, Gabriel stood by the wall and watched, grinning whenever Ephiny got a good blow on William. Kallisto took Talus’ legs out from under him with her sword and he fell to the ground. He looked up at Kallisto as she smiled triumphantly at Gabriel. He started clapping and walked forward.

“That was very good, Kallisto, but it doesn’t count when he’s distracted. He wasn’t even paying attention at the time, but you did take advantage of the situation, which is what you need to do in battle. For practicing with Talus though, you need to fight fair. We’ll never know who’s better unless the fight is fair and has the full focus from both of you. I really want to know who’d win.” Kallisto pointed her sword at Gabriel with a fierce yet playful look on her face. Laughing, he backed up with his hands raised.

Talus stood quickly and pulled his sword up, ready to fight. The practice continued for a couple of hours.

After supper, Kallisto wanted to try the chakram. Gabriel made her put a steel guard on her hand. It wouldn’t do very well to have to reattach her hand. The first twenty times she threw it, the chakram stuck into the wall. Finally it started to come back to her, and Gabriel was very glad for the steel guard. It hit her hand with a loud clank and bounced off. She was jumping up and down holding her hand. Eventually she caught it and it excited her so much she threw it up and it stuck in the ceiling; Gabriel had to get the ladder to retrieve it. After she finally gained control of the weapon she came to Gabriel and they practiced with the electric balls again. She dodged several before conjuring one of her own. She was very quick, almost cat-like, in her movement. She flipped, jumped, bent, and twisted in different ways, dodging his throws. When she finally threw hers it caught him in the chin, knocking his head back. The current pulsed through his veins stronger than any he’d ever felt from her before. She truly was stronger than ever. Gabriel didn’t drop or scream; he just gritted his teeth as it pulsed through him. The veins in his neck and arms popped out with the strain it took to hold back even a whimper. When the pulsing stopped he let out the breath that he’d been holding in a huff and breathed normally. Kallisto stared at him wide-eyed. The others stopped practicing and watched as well. Gabriel took in a breath and smiled at Kallisto.

“I’m so sorry, Gabriel. I expected you to dodge it. I had no idea it’d actually hit you. Although it must not have been that powerful, cause you’re still standing,” Kallisto smirked.

“No, Kallisto, that was the most powerful ball you’ve ever hit me with in all our lives. And I really didn’t see it coming at all.” Gabriel closed his eyes and shook his head, grinning. “It was stupid of me. I just got too overconfident in my ability. Thank you for that humbling moment.” He turned away from the group for a moment, contemplating the new information. “William, I think I need to have another go at you.”

“Oh no, I’m not going to go up against you just so you can feel better about yourself. You can forget it, Gabriel!” William started to stalk off and Gabriel threw another low voltage ball at his hind quarters. He growled, very unimpressively compared to Gabriel’s, and turned to face him.

“I really just want to see if you are more powerful than you were before, like Kallisto. Whatever is different in this life isn’t just affecting Kallisto, its affecting all of us. Now attack, William, and don’t hold back anything.” Gabriel crouched, ready. He wouldn’t be caught off guard again.

William conjured a ball faster than ever and hurled it at him. He ducked and dodged, spinning and twisting almost like Kallisto. Gabriel needed to train as badly as the others. His students were starting to surpass him, because he’d gotten lazy. They trained through the evening and into the night. Eventually they were too tired to go on. William had gotten in a few good hits; nothing like Kallisto’s but more than Gabriel ever thought him capable of.

Talus, Kalan, and Ramina did well in learning their powers with the electric balls. Gabriel had everyone attack him at once, and received several hits. He looked like William after their session earlier. He never got knocked out, but Kallisto’s shots definitely made him dizzy. Gabriel had his at the lowest setting so as not to do too much damage, but the others, not knowing their powers well enough, varied in the degree of their hits. Kallisto didn’t seem to know how to back hers down, even though it wasn’t as high as she could take it. William didn’t seem to know how to pump his up, and the others were all over the place. Ephiny was familiar with how it worked but she still had problems with it. She might’ve known everything about being a werewolf but she lacked talent in energy balls. Gabriel had finally had enough and sent them off to train however they wanted.