Ritual Magic (15 page)

"Northwest corner of the castle. The
training grounds are located past the forest's edge."

"Got it." Solomon snapped. "We'll be there
in a moment."

I looked up at him as he pulled away from me
slightly; a distinct fire in his eyes as he then leaned in to take
my lips under his control again, pulling my bottom lip in between
his teeth with a tiny tug. A velvety moan escaped my lips and I
realized it was all just too much. There was no way that I was
going to be able to hold myself at bay, not with him next to me and
the desire overtaking every inch of my body as it was. Soon I would
simply combust if nothing came of all of this moaning and
exploring. What was a girl supposed to do?

Solomon groaned deeply and his hands were
instantly all over me, everywhere you could imagine, skimming my
waist, brushing up against my bra, grasping my shoulders as if he
was afraid that I was going to dash away, and then back down to my
hips where he tugged me tightly against him, making me fully aware
of how
his
body had been reacting to mine the entire time.
There was absolutely no way to disguise his lust, and I immediately
wondered if there was any way that I would be able to
handle
his distinctly abundant...attraction. But it was like being
consumed by a fire of passion as his personal desires began seeping
into my own, and my mind instantly began to cloud over from
lust.

"My god, Celeste," he whispered into my
mouth, "you're just so damned gorgeous." He returned his attention
back to my neck and kissed it affectionately from my earlobe down
to my collarbone, the touch of his feather-soft kisses causing my
eyelids to automatically flutter down to cover my cheeks with the
brush of my eyelashes.

My breathing stopped at his words and my
head began to spin, my heart jumping wildly within my chest. This
was it, wasn't it? The way that love drives you crazy and makes you
want nothing but every part of the person you are in love with? I
wanted to crawl into his arms and never leave, protected by his
sheer will for the rest of my natural life.

That's when it happened—a quick snapping
noise in my the back of my head that brought me instantly to
attention and zapped the passion that I had been overwhelmed with
just seconds ago, deflating the desire and dousing it completely. I
began to shake as a realization hit me. Dylan. He had
insisted...no, demanded that I stay away from Solomon. And just
what was I doing at that very moment? Breaking the rules, of
course.

I placed a shaky hand against Solomon's
chest as he continued to kiss my neck passionately, pulling me
closer to cause my mind to race and my pulse to scream out to him.
My heart fluttered at the thought that I was preparing to push him
away, but what could I honestly do? I had to protect him in any way
possible. Pressing my hand against his chest with a tiny bit of
pressure, I signaled that we had to stop what we were doing.

Solomon responded to my physical request,
pulling away just enough so that he could look into my eyes. He
spoke the only question to be asked in a situation like
this..."Why?"

"We have to go." I nodded towards the
window, trying desperately not to sound winded.
Were we supposed
to use the window like Leo?
I wanted to laugh hysterically at
the thought, and I realized just how extremely tired and stressed I
honestly felt. I needed a good laugh.

"To the training grounds?" Solomon's eyebrow
shot up as he tilted his head towards the window that I was eyeing
with deep question.

"Yes."

His eyes darted to the window and then back
to me, questioning me with his confused expression. He finally gave
up and shrugged his shoulders. "Okay then. Let's go."

I'm not really sure
what
I was
expecting to see when we finally rounded the corner of the medieval
castle and came upon the 'training grounds.' I guess I just
expected to see more grounds and less 24-Hour Fitness on steroids.
There was a covered pavilion of section after section of marked-off
sparring circles. Workout equipment was everywhere, including
elliptical machines and Slo-Fit equipment.

It's not as if I knew anything about
exercise equipment. I had actually accidentally walked into a
Slo-Fit building once, thinking it was the place my friend said I
could find some adorable new yoga pants. Boy, was I wrong...at
least at this location anyway.

Licking my lips impatiently, I continued to
scan the huge pavilion for anyone that I recognized. There was some
music pounding away in the background—AC/DC's
Back In
Black
—and it drew my attention to the corner of the pavilion,
where a large crowd of male bodies was gathered.

Turning to look up at Solomon, I could see
his body angling towards the crowd as well. "Let's go," He said as
he began walking in the direction of the music.

The sounds of the rockin' tune swam through
the air as the tremor of bass pounded in my chest. It was damned
loud and I doubted if I was going to be able to hear
anyone
if they wanted to ask me a question or share any information with
me.

I let my eyes finally rest on the center of
the sparring circle because it felt as if every eye was drawn there
naturally. It honestly didn't surprise me that it was Cora standing
in the middle as if nothing in the world mattered to her. She was
dressed in a pair of black capri yoga pants and a solid black
workout shirt that came down to her midriff and scooped down around
her neck. I was immediately appreciative of the fact that that she
wasn't wearing just a sports bra because I hated it when girls wore
only pants and a bra to workout.

Scanning the circle, I noticed that besides
our team of five (Solomon, Von, Gabriel, Leo and me), there was a
respectable-sized crowd gathered around the outline of the sparring
pad. Everyone was deathly quiet except for the music that was
pounding out of the speakers.

Cora was gripping two bars that looked
similar to night sticks as she paced around the circle like a caged
animal. She looked as if she was eyeing the center of the circle
with plans to begin breakdancing. A shudder shot through me as my
eyes finally settled on Cora's capable form. Everything about this
was foreign to me. Releasing a frustrated huff, I realized that I
didn't recognize the weapons she was carrying at all.

"Bahng Mahng Bars." Solomon whispered in my
ear.

"What?" I refused to look up at him.

"She is using Bahng Mahng Bars. It's the
weapon we warm up with." He whispered and I could hear him even
though the music was so loud I felt like I had to scream to hear
myself
think.

"Bah Mong Bars. Yeah, okay." Solomon
snickered at me as he tilted his eyes upward and then back over
towards Cora.

Cora was moving the bars in time to the
music as she began to sweep around the circle in broad strokes,
like she did with her blades. She flicked the bars around as if
they weighed nothing, finally tossing them over to the side as the
song ended. She nodded sharply to a demon and he tossed her a fresh
pair of what appeared to be nunchucks. I remembered seeing those in
the Bruce Lee movie I loved—
Enter the Dragon.
I loved Bruce
Lee—he was so
hot
for a skinny little guy. Nothing like
Solomon, but boy was he
cut
.

A smile snuck across my face as Cora whipped
the nunchucks behind her back, tucking one end underneath her
armpit. Her hand gripped the hard wooden handle as she spread her
other hand out in front of her from the center of the circle. All
eyes were on her.

"Ssahng Jeol Bongs. Combat quality." Solomon
nodded at Cora again. "It takes an awful lot of concentration to be
able to use those and not knock yourself silly with them." He gave
Cora an encouraging smile as she looked in his general direction
with a quick nod.

"Are you talking about the nunchucks?" I
liked thinking of them as nunchucks, really, but I did know that
the correct pronunciation would be nunchakus. I honestly didn't
care—I liked my version.

"Ssahng Jeol Bongs." He corrected.

"Nunchucks." I said firmly as he shook his
head at me with a funny smirk on his face and a look of patience in
his eyes. I stuck my chin out a little higher than usual. He knew
that he wasn't going to bend me on this, so he chuckled as he
looked back at Cora.

"What song are you going to use this time,
Cora?" A familiar voice floated from behind the crowd near the
corner of the pavilion.

"Folder 5, track 3, Jack." She squared her
shoulders as she spread her feet apart and centered herself.

Motorhead's
Ace of Spades
began to
grind out of the speakers at an incredible rate. Cora immediately
went into motion, flicking the nunchucks around the sparring circle
so quickly that she was nothing but a blur of sticks and limbs. She
stood still in the center of the circle and flicked the bars in
rhythm to the music, behind her back, around her waist, over her
shoulder and behind her neck. Her movements were so fluid and
beautiful that I wanted to cheer until she wacked one end of the
very dangerous bars into the ground with a loud WHACK! I
immediately jumped at the sound and placed my fluttering hand over
my heart.

Cora continued her exhibition as she began
to flip around the circle in smooth tumbles, jumps, and roundhouse
kicks. It struck me that her movements were as choreographed as a
graceful ballet, which made her appear to be that much more
dangerous. She was marvelous and never missed a beat. She kept up
with the incredibly fast tempo until the end, and finished with a
loud "HA!" as she stood with both bars spread between her hands,
holding them out straight in front of her like she was going to
break them in half.
Was she strong enough to break them in half?
Probably
.

Everyone nodded in approval around the
circle. Even the demons were impressed by her skill and speed,
which must have been pretty formidable if those wicked creatures
were eyeing her with complete respect.

I allowed my eyes to drift around the circle
until I noticed Von's menacing figure over in the background. He
was standing with his arms crossed, unforgiving and unbendable in
his convictions. His stubborn demeanor oozed from every pore, and I
disliked him that much more for giving me such a hard time.

I looked back towards the center of the
circle as I noticed that Cora was now holding a long staff in her
hands made out of metal, but covered in a grip material that I
couldn't place. It looked a lot like electrical tape, but I knew
that couldn't be the case.

"Yeah, yeah, it's a bo staff." I said as
Solomon had ducked down closer to me to help explain. He nodded
down at me and turned back to Cora as she centered herself and
stood with the staff held out in front of her, at the ready.

"Number 5." She called over her shoulder
before closing her eyes and releasing a deep, all-consuming
cleansing breath.

"Got it." Jack's voice came from behind the
crowd and I knew immediately that he was judging her by her music
as much as she was judging him by his actions.
As if Jack even
stands a chance of impressing her.

The music began to click out and I
recognized the tune instantly because it was one of my all-time
favorites—
Staring at the Sun
by The Offspring. Immediately,
I was called back to the center of the ring, waiting to see what
Cora had in store for the crowd.

Starting with the relatively stringy intro,
Cora began to move around the circle in smooth motions, moving the
bo staff in tight rolling movements from one side to the other as
she spun it around in rhythm with the music.

My heart skipped a beat as I thought about
how quickly the music picked up tempo through the body of the song.
It just seemed to get faster and faster as it went along—hence the
reason that I liked it so much. My eyes were glued to Cora, but I
noticed as Jack pushed his way to the edge of the circle, curious
about Cora's little display of power and skill. I eyed him
suspiciously as I recognized again that there was an undercurrent
about the way he reacted to Cora, and I was pretty sure that her
family
was not going to approve.

"As you're staring at the sun. Wo 'oh 'oh
'oh. As you're staring at the sun. Wo 'oh 'oh 'oh. As you're
staring at the sun." The music belted out as Cora continued to
glide around the circle, making "HA!" noises as she struck a pose,
slicing down with the staff at specific points to match the music,
whacking the heck out of the padded circle underneath her. "Wo 'oh
'oh 'oh. As you're staring at the sun." That's when the music was
going to pick up the pace and I knew I didn't want to miss it.

I settled my eyes back on Cora just when the
music kicked into high gear from a pounding rhythmic beat to a
head-pounding, hair thrashing speed. It didn't escape me as Jack
began to beat out the tempo on his pants like he was strumming his
bass guitar. His head bent forward slightly to the quickened pace
and it was clear that he was fighting the desire to thrash his
shaggy head forward in rhythm to the music. He couldn't help
himself—it was in his blood.

I kept my eyes trained on Cora as she
mouthed the words while she began to flip, spin, HA! and dazzle her
way around the circle. The staff was a blur of swirling metal as
the air was sliced with swift swish noises and guttural HA! HA!
HA!'s. I couldn't help but watch in awe—this was my (cough)
daughter
and she was
kickass!
Every move, every HA
came in time to the music and I loved her for that. She was
definitely mine.
All mine.

My heart stopped as she leaned backwards,
arching slightly as she spun the bar in over her body in an arch
all the way around her position in the middle of the mat. It
instantly reminded me of
The Matrix
. Her lower
body and leg strength must have been beyond normal comprehension,
because no
typical
person would have been able to bend that
far back without falling.
Yoga, it must be the yoga.
Yeah, and the vampire/demon blood coursing through her blood
couldn't have anything to do with it.