Insidious Winds (8 page)

“I am the last person who has the right to lecture
anyone about sacrifices. As long as you know why you are striving to attain the
key, I will help. I just hope you realized that if Astrid is what is most
important to you, you
will
lose her.”

“I will, but if giving her up is the only way to save
her, I’ll do it.”

“Then you have a lot of work to do.”

“You’re not going to make me read more books, right?
I don’t think my heart could stand the excitement.”

“Put on your ring,” he said.

“What do I use to focus my vision on?”

He frowned. “You still do not fully understand what
your ability is. What you and Vincent have is unique, but only in that it comes
naturally to you. Any wizard can learn to use magic to do what you can. All the
ring does is put you in a particular state of mind. You trained your brain, not
the ring. You will learn that is the case with any magical items you construct.
Wands, staffs, rings… they are all merely tools to control yourself.”

“What about the amulet that Gale was after?”

“That is an exception. There are many items in the
world that have real power, and most of them are better off destroyed. The
point is, this ring merely helps you get into a state of mind that is receptive
to your visions.”

I took the ring out of the pouch around my neck and
slipped it on. Immediately, I saw Felicity. We were both in a cheery, sunlit
room and she was sitting comfortably on a couch. Before I could figure out who
else was in the room, a sharp pain in my shoulder brought me out of the vision.
I looked down to see a small, metal dart buried deep in my skin. I plucked it
out. “What the hell is wrong with you wizards?”

“You must learn to protect yourself while having a
vision,” Hunt said, unconcerned.

“Maybe I should have a familiar to protect me while
I’m…” I let myself trail off, since I was no longer talking to Hunt. Instead, I
was watching from… the sky. I look down on Henry and Addison. The ocelot
shifter was ducking behind what was left of a watch tower while Henry shielded
himself in his jaguar form. Although he was invisible, I could see him, but it
wasn’t with normal vision.

I felt something try to distract me, but I pushed it
aside. I needed to make sure my friend was okay.

Henry was apparently able to bend light around him as
well as changing the shade and texture of his fur in order to seem invisible.
With my odd vision, I could see wavelengths of light.

Addison barely got out of the way of a burst of
energy that decimated the stone wall behind her. Henry ran to her just as
another man advanced on her. He was familiar, but I couldn’t place him. A
solid, black sphere formed in his hand, which emanated a malevolent red glow.
He threw it at Addison. Henry reached her just as the attack did… and the
energy hit an invisible shield. Henry waved his hand in an instinctual motion
of defense and a huge bolt of lightning shot from him into the attacking
wizard.

Henry looked at his hand like he had never seen it
before.

Henry, who was a shifter and could do no magic.

I opened my eyes to see Hunt giving me a warm look
that was something like pride and amusement. “Henry is going to use magic.”

“Then he either attains a magical device or he is
someone’s familiar.”

I had been thinking that calling my familiar would
only lead to his death. Professor Houx was right; my familiar could use my
magic and probably my instincts. I decided then that I would learn how to call
my familiar, whether it was Henry or not.

*          *          *

Learning to be “respectful” to our familiars proved
to be tedious. Aside from the call, there was a ritualistic greeting, which
fell just short of shaming ourselves before the creature. I imagined Professor
Roswell begging his bat to bond with him.

“What happens if we don’t say all that?” I asked. The
horror on my fellow classmates’ faces suggested they were equally unwilling to
verbally emasculate themselves.

The professor sighed and muttered something in
French, of which I only heard “Américains.” “If you do not show your familiar
his due respects, depending on what he is, he could decide to eat you instead
of bonding.”

“Okay, so if our familiar is a cat, we’re cool. If
it’s a dragon, we grovel,” Becky said. Everyone except the professor nodded
their agreement. By the end of class, I was pretty sure that Professor Houx was
teetering on ending the course altogether.

Over the weekend, I studied up on familiars. I didn’t
actually learn much, and I realized on Sunday that Darwin could have told me
ten times what I spent all weekend reading about. Late on Sunday night, I was
looking through an old potions book I got from one of the libraries.

Hunt and Dr. Martin both said there was no better
healing potion than the one they were giving me weekly. That didn’t mean I
wouldn’t try to find one. I stopped in my tracks as a sick thought occurred to
me.
Maybe my life is what’s most important to me. Maybe that’s why I’m not
seeing Heather anymore; it’s a subconscious defense
. I wasn’t exactly a
selfless man, but I wasn’t power-hungry either. If my own life was most
important to me, I wouldn’t want be trying to get the key. I would get the key
so I could save Astrid, defeat Krechea and possibly Langril, and destroy the
tower to keep more of Krechea’s kind from getting here.

Astrid is from Dothra.

I still pictured her as the unusual girl I met when I
had no one else I could trust. She was hesitant and secretive, but also brave
and wise. Every word out of her mouth was wisdom far beyond her years and even
then I knew she was the only one who understood me.

And she was a monster.

And I loved her.

Did that mean I was a monster? Maybe the paternity
test was wrong and I actually was John’s son. Or maybe the sickness of John’s
mind ran deeper in the bloodline. I actually wished I still believed Joseph
Sanders, the abusive, cold-hearted bastard, was the one I was related to.

“It doesn’t matter, you know.”

Startled out of my inner turmoil, I turned to see
Professor Langril. “What the hell are you doing here?” I asked. My outburst was
at least partly due to the shame of being caught doubting my own intentions.

The professor smirked. “Trying to get into my room,”
he answered with mirth.

I realized then that I was standing in front of his
bedroom. “Oh. Sorry.” It wasn’t even close to where my room was in the original
building, so I had no excuse. I just hadn’t been paying attention.

“Kein problem. Why don’t you come in for some tea?”

I wanted to argue, but couldn’t pass up the chance
that the man would help me get to Astrid.

“I won’t,” he said easily.

“Get out of my head.”

“Oh, I have never once needed to see into your brain
to know your thoughts. All humans are basically the same. There is even a type
of science devoted to learning how humans think, which I find to be quite
boring.”

It was still confusing that he called wizards from
Earth human, whereas everyone in the paranormal world considered us to be
non-human, along with shifters, vampires, and fae. Langril considered everyone
from Earth to be human. Which, come to think of it, was very racist. “People
are boring, or our thoughts are boring?”

“Both. It’s a bit like watching hamsters play in
their pens. I watch you and wonder how that wheel can be so much fun.
Sometimes, you even do something out of character that makes me laugh, but
after a while, you’re still just a little pet, running around in your little
cage, thinking your little thoughts.”

“Have I told you how much of an ass you are?” I asked
as he entered his room. The gas lantern lit itself.

He gestured to the black leather couch and I sat.
“No, but most people here have. If it’s any consolation, you are one of the
most entertaining humans I have met.”

“It isn’t.”

“You humans are all about pleasure. You want to be
happy, well-fed, and loved.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“You don’t like pain or suffering. You all try so
desperately to stop it, that you would even hurt others to avoid it yourself.”
He picked up two cups from his desk. The desk had been bare a moment before.
Instead of handing it to me, he set it next to me on a small table. I stared at
it. “Go on, I didn’t poison it.”

I took it, but I didn’t drink. I did laugh, though.
“Green tea?”

“Logan likes black tea.”

“You hate him so much that you can’t even drink the
same tea as him?”

His eyes widened in surprise. “I don’t hate him at
all. He’s actually one of my few friends in this world.” He took a sip of his
drink and nodded. “In fact, I think I’ve killed all my other friends,” he said
thoughtfully, as if it was an afterthought. “Logan is the only human I know who
can heal himself from my attacks.”

“So then, you just don’t want to be that British? And
why does Dr. Martin sound German if you’re both from Dothra?”

“It was the first human language he learned.”

“And how long did it take him to learn German?”

He smirked again. “Five days. Silly little---”

“If you insult people for not being able to learn a
language in five days, I will shoot you.” He sipped his tea. “Why did you take
Astrid to Dothra? If you only wanted me to make a deal with Heather, why not
trap me there?”

“Because Dothra is not Hell,” he said, his humor
gone. “At least not to people like me and Astrid.”

“Astrid isn’t like you. You were the one who made her
attack my family.”

“I saved her from Krechea’s hold over her. She is
more likely to survive in Dothra than Andrew because she doesn’t feel fear. At
least she didn’t until you came along. If she does die there, it will be
entirely your fault.”

“If she dies there, I will kill you.”

He shrugged. “It happens. You never listen, do you? I
feel no fear about anything. I don’t fear loss, death, or pain. Astrid never
did either, until you saved her from her loneliness. Now she fears feeling that
again, fears your death, and that makes her weak. It makes her biddable.”

“What do you care?”

“I care because if she dies before I get what I want,
you will be useless to me. And if you save her before I get what I want, then I
have wasted my time.” He glared at me. “I hate wasting my time.”

I set down my still-full cup. “Then I’ll get out of
your hair.”

“Devon,” he said right before I left. I stopped with
my hand on the doorknob. “I’m not your enemy. I do hope you survive this and I
will help you as long as you help me. Krechea would happily destroy this
world.”

“What do you care?”

“This is my world to conquer.”

“Is that why you threw Astrid in his path?”

“She asked to go after him. She knew what he did to
her and she did what our kind does. Not only did he hurt her, but he poses a
threat to what is most important to her. I honored her by---” He snapped his
mouth shut when I drew my gun and aimed at him.

“Finish that sentence. I dare you.”

He smirked again. “I can destroy Krechea if we are
both here or there. Make a deal with Heather and I will personally save Astrid
and destroy the tower.”

“I thought you couldn’t destroy the tower without all
four keys.”

“You have two options: make a deal with Heather and
let me take care of the rest, or get the last key and spend the rest of your
life trying to kill me to get the key to Dothra, knowing the entire time that
you will never save Astrid because that is what is most important to you. Right
now, saving her is what is most important to you, not having her.”

“If Heather comes to me, I’ll make a deal with her.
Until then, I’m working on plan B. If it comes down to a fight between us, I’ll
win.”

“How do you figure? I am the most powerful wizard of
both worlds.”

“I know I’ll win because I’ve just figured out what
you sacrificed to get the key.”

“Meet me here tomorrow night.”

“Why? You’re going to join in to teach me the air
element?”

“I’m going to teach you how to survive when Krechea
tries to tear your entrails out. You’re no good to me dead and he knows that.
Key or no key, he can get to you easier than he can get to Heather. He wants me
destroyed more than he wants the keys.”

“I’m not surprised.”

I returned to my room and found Henry and Amelia in
the middle of one of their therapy sessions. Darwin and Addie were gone.
“Where’s Darwin?” I asked. I didn’t care where Henry’s girlfriend was, but I
wanted Darwin to help me do some research.

“Darwin’s wolf doesn’t find Addie’s ocelot
threatening, so they went to the burn field to let out some energy. He does not
seem to be taking to the local pack.”

“No, he doesn’t, which is odd because he’s fine with
us and we’re not wolves.”

“We’re his pack and his wolf sees the others as a
competing pack,” Amy said. With a sigh, she broke eye contact with Henry. “Do
you even like Addie? Maybe your emotions are so repressed because you don’t
want to love anyone.”

Henry had said he loved Addison, but it was only after
she pushed. I had serious doubts myself about them; Addison swung from
aggressive to clingy at the drop of a hat. Alpha Flagstone did say that cat
shifters had a harder time controlling their emotions than wolf shifters
because wolf minds were closer to human minds.

Darwin entered the room just in time to overhear
Amy’s question. Addison wasn’t with him.

“I don’t know what I feel,” Henry said. “That is why
you’re here.”

“You loved Zoe, right?” Darwin asked. Henry nodded.
“Do you feel the same for Addison?”

“I don’t know her as well.”

“It’s a simple question, mate. Do you feel the same
or not? Do you feel happy when she looks at you? Do you think of her a hundred
times a day? Do you imagine touching---”