On the Verge (A Charmed Life Book 1) (10 page)

Just for style, she turned her hand palm-up before her and made the classic 'bring it' gesture, a confident smirk on her face.

Craig let out a growl of pure frustration.  “So, that's how you want it?” he asked.  “I was going to let you go, girl.  You I didn't have an interest in.  But now, I'll destroy you.” Forgetting about his injury, he raised both hands and then started throwing fireballs, one after the other, in a barrage of flaming blobs.

Tracy took another deep breath and let it out, seeing the cool mist wafting before her, gathering around each of her forearms and protecting them from the heat of the flames.  Calmly, she reached up to each fireball as it reached her, pulling it to the side while leaning in the opposite direction, nudging each flame so that they sailed past her harmlessly.  The roar of the flames filled her ears, but seemed far away.  The stench of ozone filled her nose, mixed with the hot smell she usually associated with a hot summer day as the street baked outside.  One after another the fireballs came in, and one after another she brushed them to the side easily, her feet dancing lightly over the street in simple circular motions to keep her balance.  As strange and unnatural as these fireballs might be, they were slow compared to Grandmaster Lee's attacks.

She wasn't sure how long it went on.  She lost count of the fireballs, and of the time.  All that mattered was the next fireball, and then the next.  A faint hint of worry started rising in her mind, however.  She had no plan past distracting him - she didn't know how to attack him, only how to defend herself.  He could make a hundred mistakes in aiming without worry, but if she made just one mistake in defending herself, she'd be done for.

Well, she wouldn't end this by staying at range.  As she caught and deflected the next fireball, her footfalls brought her a little bit closer, and the same with the next.  Fireball by fireball, attack by attack, she moved step by step closer.  Her world was rather narrow - nothing existed except a line of endless fireballs and the man at the end of them.

Craig's shadow stretched and bulged, and Jacob leaped right out of Craig's back with knife drawn.  Twisting around swiftly, Jacob cut Craig from hip to armpit, then darkened to shadow and disappeared again.

Craig roared with pain, dropping to one knee and clutching at his suddenly bloodied side.  The barrage of fireballs ended, and the wall of flame flickered and died with a hiss and a crackle as an inferno wreathed Craig's entire form.  Craig seemed unharmed by the fires, kneeling there as he tried to recover from the intense pain of the knife wound, then he fell further down, cradling his broken hand to his chest as the flames raged on.

Jacob stepped out from a shadowed doorway to Tracy's side, red glinting from his blade.  “That was fairly impressive,” he said quietly to her.

“Thanks,” she responded, shielding her eyes with her hand from the bright fire in the intersection before them.  She was mildly surprised when the mists left her forearms and lifted a wall of mist between Craig and themselves, both dimming the light and dulling the flash of heat that had washed across them.  “What's he doing now?”

“It's a protective barrier.  If I tried that move again, I'd be crispy before I ever managed to land a blow.”

“If you could do that, why didn't you do it before?” Tracy asked.

Jacob shrugged.  “I only had one chance.  He thought the noon sun neutralized my shadow powers - superstitious idiot - but if he saw me disappear into shadow, he'd know what to expect, and block me.  He's seen me do it enough times before.  I needed to keep the element of surprise.”

“Well, it worked,” nodded Tracy.  “What next?”

“I think I'll piss him off,” Jacob replied with a reckless grin and a glint in his eye.  He stepped forward through the wall of mist and raised his voice.  “Oye! Craig! Your plans suck!”

Craig's silhouette inside the flames lifted its head, and a pair of brighter flames marked his eyes.

“I mean, first off, you think if you attack me when I'm with a newbie, you can use more tokens fairly - but you don't bother to think that the newbie might fight back, too! Congratulations, you outnumbered yourself!  Second, you figure you'll neutralize me with the noon sun, but you don't even research to make sure that'll actually work? What a moron!”

“Shut up, Jacob! I don't have to take this from you anymore!” Craig snarled, his voice almost lost in the roaring flames.

“How are you going to stop me?” Jacob asked.  “It's not like you can hit either of us with your little fireballs! Too bad you wasted a token on that mind wall! If you had actually used your brains, we'd be in an arena where you could psiblast us!”

“Jacob,” Tracy murmured, “Do we really need to give him ideas?”

Craig lifted to his knees, still clutching at his side with one hand.  “If I crush your mind quickly,” he snarled, “I can just go ahead and put the wall back up!”

Fear flashed through Tracy's mind.  She could defend against punches.  She could even defend against fireballs, apparently.  But how could she defend against an attack that didn't have any sort of physical nature at all? She felt a roaring silence, like a strong wind against her back, pushing her towards Craig.  There was a moment's respite, then Craig looked up towards them with a fierce glare.  She felt a pressure in her temples, like a sudden stress headache, and her vision swam before her.  “No!” she cried, trying to compose herself, a wild thought running through her head that perhaps her meditations would protect her from the attack.

With a cry of intense pain, Craig fell back to the pavement, clutching his head as the flames protecting him died.  Jacob didn't miss the opportunity - he darted forward, fist pulling back, and delivered a powerful blow with the iron knuckles of his knife right into Craig's face.  Craig toppled back and fell limply to the ground, eyes rolled up in his head with his nose a bloody mess across his face.

Jacob squatted down, resting his elbow on his knee, and plucked one charm from the three on Craig's glove.  “Thanks for the mind token!” he chirped merrily.

“Wha … what just happened?” asked Tracy, rubbing her temples at the memory of the pain that had just started to bloom there.

“Psiblasts aren't easy,” Jacob replied, walking back to her as he hung his new token on a chain that was suddenly dangling from the base of his knife.  “I'd never try one, myself - and I practiced with a mind token for two months.  As far as I know, a mind wall's about the only thing Craig learned to do with a mind token.  He's barely ever touched them.  But he always thinks that anything he doesn't know how to do is easy.”

Jacob looked at the crumpled figure with disgust.  “He just got hit with the mother of all migraines.”

Tracy narrowed her eyes, looking at Jacob more carefully.  “And exactly how do you know so much about him? What's between you two?”

Jacob shrugged uncomfortably.  “That's a long story,” he replied, “And I've got to do something quick.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone, flipping it open.  A series of rapid beeps sounded as he cycled through his contacts, then he raised it to his ear.  Tracy could softly hear the ringing - Jacob had the volume turned up.

Someone answered.  “Yes, m'lord,” replied Jacob, to the unheard greeting.  He paused, listening, then said, “I didn't get around to taking it off my list yet.” He listened for a bit longer, then replied, “I thought you'd like to know that Craig's violated one of the prime laws.  He dropped a mind wall in the middle of a public battle.”

Jacob's shadow bulged and a man stepped out of it, the same sort of move that Jacob had used against Craig, earlier.  The man was dressed simply in black slacks and a black silk dress shirt, his tie a bright blue spot in the dark outfit.  His clothes were fine, crisp, straight-lined.  The rest of him, though, was nothing but metal.  His short hair, his skin, even his eyes, were gleaming steel.  A sword lay across his back without any sort of strap or sheath to keep it there, simple in design save for the hundreds of tiny runes decorating its blade, which seemed to shift and ripple.  Tracy looked closer as those runes moved and realigned themselves.  She recognized the water, earth, and air marks that decorated her own charms, and realized that those runes were all the hundreds of charms he had won from hundreds of others.

The man raised his hand, and Tracy felt a brief pressure against her mind that swiftly passed, that feeling of a silent rushing wind, like when Craig had taken down the mind wall.  Jacob instantly turned towards the man and dropped to one knee in the middle of the street, his head bowed.  “Lord Brin,” he said, simply.

Lord Brin ignored Jacob for the moment, walking around him to look Tracy up and down.  Tracy felt herself straighten slightly under the examination, bristling just a little.  He stood there silently, as if waiting for something.

“I won't kneel,” she said, coolly.

His face stayed impassive, but Tracy imagined a twitch to the side of his mouth, as if he wanted to smile.  His eyes seemed more amused than the rest of his face.  Lord Brin stared at her for a few seconds more.  “Newbie?” he asked simply.

Jacob didn't look up as he answered.  “Yes, m'lord.  As of last night.  I was going to bring her to sign up this afternoon.”

“You weren't going to tell me?” Lord Brin asked, a mild reproach to his voice, still staring at Tracy.  She kept her back straight, though his metallic gaze seemed more bemused than penetrating.

She saw Jacob out of the corner of her eye as he lifted his head and glared at Lord Brin.  “I'm not your hunter anymore.  I served my year,” he said.

Lord Brin nodded, finally turning from Tracy and back towards Jacob.  Tracy let out her breath and sagged, feeling released from that steady metallic stare.  “And you didn't want her to have to spend a year as well, hrm?”

Jacob paused, obviously thinking about his response.  “I thought it might be nice if her life wasn't completely disrupted,” he finally said.

Lord Brin looked down at Jacob with an appraising look in his eye, waiting for a few seconds more.  “Oh, get up,” he finally said, a note of exasperation in his voice.  “You're not someone I need to impose order upon.”

Brushing off his knee as he got up, Jacob replied, “I never know with you, m'lord.”

A bark of laughter was his response, Lord Brin's amusement finally reaching past his eyes.  “Well, I suppose that's one of the reasons I trust you.  You're careful.  So, what do we have here?” Lord Brin finally looked at Craig's limp body, who was starting to groan and stir.

Jacob quickly related the order of events, staying fairly factual about the whole affair.  Lord Brin stopped the story a few times, asking after some background detail or another - mostly details about Tracy.  He seemed very interested about the fight between Craig and Tracy, but Jacob hadn't had a good view for most of that fight, so Tracy ended up filling the details there.

It was strange, talking about catching and deflecting thrown flames.  This was superhero stuff, cartoon stuff, not something that happened in real life.  That little normal part of her that still wanted to deny this was happening made a token little protest in her brain as she shared the events of the battle.

His gentle questions led one to the next, and Tracy found herself telling about her Tai Chi, her Aikido classes, and the story of what had happened the previous night.

Lord Brin laughed heartily as he heard about her defeating Jacob by accident.  “Sir Nightfox!” he teased, “Perhaps I've been overestimating you! Defeated with a single attack?”

Jacob gave a slight smile, the first softening of his face that Tracy had seen since Lord Brin had arrived.  She wasn't sure why Jacob was so nervous around him – Lord Brin was obviously powerful, but he seemed all right.

Then Lord Brin's face changed sharply, growing hard.  His metallic skin - which Tracy had begun to forget about - suddenly seemed very appropriate, as he looked coldly down at Craig once more.  His hand lifted, and water poured out of the air to touch at Craig's side, to cover Craig's face.  Tracy watched as the blood disappeared – not washed away, but flowing back into the wounds.  The water glowed faintly as the cut along Craig's side closed up swiftly.  When the water receded, Craig was as healthy as before - save that his nose had healed crooked.  Lord Brin obviously hadn't bothered to set it properly.

Craig groaned and stirred, sitting up as the water receded and disappeared.  He looked a bit confused for a moment, then his gaze wandered up along Lord Brin's body to his face.  He let out a strangled noise and scrambled up to his knees, moving to try to match Jacob's respectful pose of earlier.  “M'lord, I-”

Lord Brin didn't wait for him to finish, his foot moving almost faster than Tracy could see to lift up and kick Craig in the chest, hard enough to lift him into the air and drop him onto his back several feet away.  Lord Brin stepped forward and planted his foot on Craig's chest, pinning him to the ground, leaning over to stare down coldly into his face.  Tracy felt a chill run up her spine at his casual show of violence and dominance.

“You call me lord, after what you did?” Lord Brin stated more than asked.  “You violated one of the prime laws.  You spit in my face.”

Craig shook his head.  “No, m'lord! No! I'm inno-”

Lord Brin leaned one forearm on the knee of his lifted leg, leaning over further to place his fingertips on Craig's forehead.  Craig's eyes widened in sudden fear.  “Wait, I'll-” he started to say, then his back tried to arch and his eyes rolled back in his head until Tracy could only see the whites.  She should have been able to hear that scream clearly, but it seemed muffled and distant, as if it were heard through a thick wall.  The foot planted on his chest kept Craig firmly in place, Lord Brin unmoved by the thrashing or the fists beating against leg and arm.