1.5 True of Blood: Kallen's Tale (18 page)

I do not know why I thought I was making progress towards making her like me, because I am pretty sure that she is trying to kill me.  After only ten minutes, she has shredded my insides, turning
them
into mush. 
I am turning into a tall bowl of soup. 
The pain has also increased.  I do not believe it hurt this much when she shoved magic inside of me because she was angry.  Is she still angry with me? 
Rising to my feet yet again, I brush the snow off from my clothes. 
“I believe you are getting stronger with even less ability to control your magic.  It should not be happening like this.  You should have to grow into your powers for years, not days.” 

She looks thoughtful for a moment. 
“Maybe I have been.” 

I stop
brushing at the snow and look at
her
.  “What do you mean?”

“You said earlier that it takes two powerful Fairies to bind another Fairy’s magic.  Well, I’m pretty sure that my mom didn’t know any Fairies when she bound my Witch magic after I was born
,
so maybe my Fairy magic has been growing all these years.  I just haven’t used it until now because I didn’t know how.”

Why did I not think of that?  She has to be right.  Her Fairy magic has been dormant all these years, growing more and more powerful.  She has missed about fourteen years of training and is starting with adult magic, completely skipping the years and years of mastering control that most Fairies have.

I shake my head in amazement. 
“
Which would explain why you are having so much trouble controlling it.
  Fairy children begin their training when they are very young
,
and their control grows with their magic as they reach adulthood.  But you have a grown Fairy’s magical abilities and a young child’s ability to control it.  That makes a lot of sense.”

She
frown
s
.  “Somewhere in there
,
did you imply that I’m infantile?”

I laugh
. 
“Only your control over your magic.”
  Nothing else about her is childish, at all.

“Okay, what do we do now that we’ve figured this out?”

I rack my brain, but I have to shrug and say,
“I honestly do not know.”

She shakes her head and sighs
.  “Of all the times to not have all the answers
,
you choose this time?”

I am sure she is kidding, but she is right.  I do need to think of something
. 
I come up with the idea of ‘tiring’ her magic out.  Eventually, even someone as powerful as her will buckle under the physical strain of performing magic on a grand scale.  It takes a while, and several fine trees fall in the process,
the first almost making us pin cushions as it splintered into millions of tiny pieces,
but eventually, she seems to tire. 
I then have her
focus on shaking snow off from the trees.  Finally, I think she is ready to focus on just one tree.

She settles on a particular tree and closes her eyes.  Much to my surprise, my great surprise, snow falls
only
from that one tree.  I cannot resist pulling her up into the air and swinging her around.  With a grin, I say,
“You did!  You finally did it
.
”

Planting a quick kiss on her lips,
which she does not seem to mind,
I let her down. 
“Okay, do it again
.
”

She does this several more times.  I would love to pick her up and kiss her after each attempt, but I keep my distance after the first time. 
I do not want to push my luck.
 
Finally, she turns to me and says, “
I don’t think I can do another one.”

If pushed, she probably could.  But, I am not in the mood to push. 
“It is probably best to rest for a bit.”

She looks out at the bare trees and I can see the pride in her eyes.  This is the first major milestone in her ability to control her magic, so she should be proud.  I am a little confused, though, when she starts walking away. 
“Xandra, where are you going?”

“I think there’s something down there.” 
Okay.  I guess I will follow her.

After a moment, she turns around with excitement dancing in her eyes.  I wish I could have been what put that excitement there. 
“It’s a ranger station!”

What the hell is a ranger?  My confusion must show because she explains. 
“During the summer months when there’s the risk of forest fires, the forest rangers will come up and stay in these small cabins and keep watch.”

Watch what? 
“To watch the forest burn?”

She rolls her eyes at my ignorance. 
“No, of course not.
  To be able to locate a fire quickly so it can be put out before it spreads too far.”

“Do Witches come and put the fire out?”

She laughs.  I believe she is seriously enjoying
my
ignorance. 
“No, they use airplanes to drop water and chemicals on the fire.  Do you know what an airplane is?”

Now, I am insulted. 
“I familiarized myself with the different modes of transportation when I entered this realm.”

“Well, good for you,”
she says
dryly and
she starts walking towards the structure.

Chapter 1
9

When I catch up with her, she is peering into the windows of the small structure.  I try the handle on the door, but it is locked.  That is easily remedied.  I use my magic to unlock it. 

It is fun to watch her excitement as she hurries inside.  She finds a lantern and lights it with a small stick.  Does she know she could do that with magic? 
Considering I have not told her that, she probably does not. 
S
he s
wing
s
the lantern around
in the
small place.  Turning to me, she is
grinning from ear to ear
, as she says,
“Isn’t this great?”

Watching her face flush in happiness and seeing the first
genuine
smile
of pleasure
on her face?  I would say this is great, yes. 
“Indeed.”

She rolls her eyes at me. 
“You’re more than welcome to sleep outside still.  In fact, maybe that’s a good idea so you can keep watch for
Maurelle
and
Olwyn
,”
she
say
s
sweetly.

I chuckle. 
“I could sense them just as easily from in here.”

She narrows her eyes at me. 
“Okay, but I get the cot
. 
By myself.”

That was subtle.  Raising my eyebrows in question, I ask,
“Are you implying that I would want to sleep in a small cot with you?  You are a half-breed after all.”

She can
tell
I am teasing.  She sticks her tongue out at me again, making me
laugh
, and she continues her search of the cabin.  Opening a cupboard, she finds more of that canned food.   Is this the only type of food they have here – plastic wrapped or in tin cans?  I see a very skinny future for myself.

Deciding to make myself useful, I begin to make a fire.  Conveniently, there is already wood chopped and waiting. 
Too bad.
  Maybe seeing me
do
some
manual labor
would appeal to her. 
I shake my head at that thought.  It is embarrassing how desperate I have become within just a few days
in
her company.  I have never had to work to impress a female before. 
Again, p
erhaps Kegan was right.  Maybe it is simply my full-blooded status that women found appealing. 

While I am getting th
e
fire going, Xandra starts one of the burners on the stove.  Opening a can of something, she puts it in one of the pans hanging on a peg in the wall.  To my surprise, it smells almost palatable. 

Once the fire in the fireplace is roaring, I sit and wait for Xandra to finish cooking.  Dishing the interesting soup into two bowls, I try a spoonful.  It does taste better than the other soup we ate.  We sit quietly, enjoying the feeling of being both warm and fed.

Breaking the silence, I ask,
“How did it feel when you could control the magic?”

“Well,”
she begins, but then stops.  After a moment, she continues
.  “It felt like the magic was as tired as I was.  Kind of like it gave up the fight for control and decided to let me win that round.”

My brow furrows as I ponder that. 
“You speak as if the magic is a sentient entity.”

She shrugs. 
“It kind of feels like one to me.
  Like when we caused the avalanche, the magic felt like a bad child that refused to listen to its mother.  It was almost as if it was sticking its tongue out at me and saying
na-na
, I’m going to do what I want.” 

I have only heard one other Fairy talk about magic like this. 
“My grandmother speaks of magic like that, as if she can talk to it and reason with it.”

“Is your grandmother crazy?”

I glare at her.  I might not be happy with my grandmother at the moment, but I do not want to hear her being disparaged.  Xandra hurries to say,
“I wasn’t trying to insult your grandmother; I was asking a serious question because if she’s crazy for thinking that
,
then I must be, too.”

“No,”
I
say dryly, “my grandmother is not crazy.  She is the most powerful Fairy alive.”

“Maybe she should have come to teach me,”
she mutters
under
her
breath which
irritates me even more
.

My mood is becoming dark, now. 
“I can guarantee you that she would have been a harsher instructor than I.” 
Xandra does not corner the market on anger.  It is bubbling up inside of me, now. 
As much as I am attracted to her,
I am tired of her insulting
me
,
and Fairies in general
. 
This dark mood I find myself in so quickly may have something to do with her rejection earlier, but I do not want to think too much about that.

“I apologize if my education has not met your
expectations,
perhaps I should have stayed in the realm
to which
I can no longer return. 
Ever
.
”

Looking up at me, she says without inflection,
“I’m sorry you had to make that choice and I’m grateful that you did.” 

How sincere.  Beauty and a little bit of humor only gives her so much leeway.  Fearing the words that might come out of my mouth if I stay, I push back my chair and stand up
, amazed that it is me behaving like this
. 
Perhaps her dramatic mood swings are contagious, because I have gone from wanting to do whatever it takes to woo her, to I could not care less
if she likes me,
in
the last ten minutes. 
Picking up my bowl and spoon, I bring them outside to clean them.  Leaving the dishes by the door, I shift.  Flying always helps me burn off steam
, and I have a lot to burn off at the moment
. 

I do not understand how I can be so attracted to someone, yet be this irritated by her.  She has this way of getting under my skin both positively and negatively
. 
Mostly,
I cannot believe how I am behaving.  I would never look twice at a Fairy who behaves this way in my realm.  What is it about her that makes me act like such a
fool?
  She runs so hot and cold towards me, most of the time cold, yet, I still keep trying to please her. 
Well, no more.

After about half an hour, I feel it is safe to be in her presence again without wanting to throttle her.  When I walk back into the cabin, she is sitting in front of the warm fire I
started before lunch.  Pulling up a chair, I sit down in front of the flames, not saying a word to her.  We sit in silence for quite some time.

Unfortunately,
though,
we are wasting daylight.  And the sooner I get her trained, the sooner we can go our separate ways.  I decided during my flight that that is the only reasonable course of action.  I do not intend to continue to chase after someone who is so clearly not interested. 
She only seems to find me attractive when she is upset, or overwhelmed.  I am not interested in continuing to be her crutch in time of need, and her punching bag the rest of the time. 
“Do you feel rested yet?”
I ask without bothering to look in her direction
.

She groans.  “
Do you really want me to go back outside in the cold to practice?”

More whining.
  Does she never tire of it? 
“That is why we’re here.” 

“Fine,”
she
grumble
s as if I am the cause of all of her troubles. Not wanting to be her scapegoat anymore, I walk out the door as I
magic my coat again

It takes her a good five minutes to finally make it out the door.  No sense of urgency
whatsoever in her
.  When she is finally standing next to me, she asks,
“Should I try to shake the snow off a
tree again?”

Sure, why not.  Seems to be the only thing she can accomplish at this point.  I keep my sarcasm to myself and simply nod.  She focuses on a tree and closes her eyes.  She pulls too much magic and ends up shaking the show off from three trees.  This is not that difficult, a child could do this in my realm. 
“Again, but this time try harder to control it
.
”

Instead of looking at the forest, she is glaring up at me before she closes her eyes.  I am about to ask her what she is waiting for, when all of the snow from the roof of the cabin is dumped over my head.  “What the hell?”  Oh, she is going to pay for this. 

“Is that enough control?”
she asks with a voice full of honey as she looks up at me again.  Something in my eyes must clue her in, or maybe it is the large amount of magic I am pulling, and she turns around and starts running.  She is not fast enough.  Using my magic, I create a wall of snow and
douse her with it.  She goes down face first in the snow. 

By the time she rolls over and brushes the snow off her face, I am standing above her
.  “Not as good as that,”
I
say
.

She starts pulling magic again. 
“I don’t think so,”
I say, kneeling next to her.  I pick up a couple of hands full of snow and break her concentration by dropping them on her face.  She scrambles to grab her own hands full, but I grab her wrists in one hand, smiling wickedly.  She may have more magic, but I am definitely the stronger physically. 

Her arms suddenly going limp
and
she pouts up at me. 
“Okay, I give up
.
”
she
say
s.

Good.  Standing up, I turn to walk back towards the cabin
.  Which apparently was a bad idea, because Xandra sweeps her legs into mine, causing me to fall in the snow.  In a flash, she is kneeling over me, dropping snow on my face.

Now, I am truly mad.  She scoots backwards, trying to get up, but I am faster than she is.  I have her on her back with her wrists caught in one hand above her head.
“Just do
not know when to quit, do you?”
I ask, finding my anger slipping away
as my body enjoys the feel of hers
.

She tries to look solemn, as she says,
“I give up. 
For real this time
.
”

Not likely. 
“And what guarantee do I have that you won’t simply attack me again when my back is turned?”

Xandra thinks for a moment, and then says,
“I’ll make all our meals if I go back on my word
,
and I hate to cook.”

That sounds fairly believable.  Letting go of her hands, I stand up. 
“It’s a deal
.
”
Oh, god, I am starting to speak like she does.

I offer her my hand, but she waves it off. 
Fine with me.
  I turn away and start walking back to the cabin. 
Within a millisecond of it registering in my mind that she is pulling magic, a solid wall of snow hits me in the back.
  I go down face first. 
So much for my anger dissipating.
 

“That was so worth it,”
she
say
s.  I assume she is
referring to the cooking. 
Pushing myself out of the mound of snow, I am determined to make her pay for this
, now
.  Xandra has already started running, but my longer legs give me greater speed.  It is only a moment before I have the back of her jacket in my hand.  Enough with the magic, this situation I believe calls for
a
physical reaction.

Pulling her back towards me, I cause us both to fall backwards, with her on top of me. 
Rolling us over, I have her pinned to the ground as I straddle her legs and hold her
wrists above her head again. 
“You are the most obnoxious and aggravating female I have ever met
.
”

“Don’t hold back,”
she says
dryly, “tell me how you really feel.”

It is honest she wants? 
Fine.
 
“Do you want to know how I really feel
?
”

She looks uncertain, but she still says,
“Yes.”

“I feel like kissing you until you can’t think about anything other than my lips on yours.”