Spirit Sorceress: Spirit Sorceress: Book 1 (11 page)

I was conflicted.  I felt guilty like there was
something else I should have done.  But that was ridiculous of course, I
was a spirit sorcerer.  This was natural, and right.  Their souls
would live on, their deaths just a part of the wheel of life.

But I was also a vampire, and they were in my coven. 
It was a dichotomy I didn’t know how to handle.  I waited with them until
they went.  They both thanked me before they faded away to rejoin the
elemental plane of spirit.  That did make me feel better.

I took one more look around, and then returned to my body.

“It’s bad Lisa, a waitress and bartender died, and the place
needs a lot of work done.  The main room is damaged, and the bathrooms and
back hall are a total loss from the fire.  The team there must have struck
first, or at least at the same time they tried at Pulse.”

Lisa frowned, “What about security?”

“They’re dealing with the firemen and cops.  I’m sure
they’ll check in when they get a moment.”

Lisa sighed, “This is not how I expected my night to
go.  Didn’t you say something about coffee?”

I grinned, “Yup, let’s go.  You can get me drunk and
steal my virtue another time.”

Lisa pouted…

We were only about halfway through with our coffee when
Ceara joined us.  One second, nothing, next second she was sitting next to
Lisa, across from me.

Ceara’s face was a hard mask, “It was a trap.  His room
was wired with C-four, he might have gotten me too, if he hadn’t set the
trigger on the outer door.  Regardless, we are going with plan A.”

Lisa asked, “Kill the bastard?”

Ceara nodded, “That’s the one.  His plans mostly failed
tonight thanks to you two, and he will greatly regret killing two of my people
before the end.  Do you know where they were supposed to meet up after the
job?”

I shook my head, “They were to disappear and wait for cell
phone contact before regrouping.  I’d have said something otherwise. 
Mark really did expect someone to get caught so made sure he couldn’t be
betrayed.”

I looked at Ceara and remembered she almost got blown up, “I
guess he was counting on it actually.”

Ceara grunted, “This is frustrating.  I know someone
who could find them in a second, but… that bridge is burned.  We have no
choice but to tighten our security on the other three locations, and wait for
him to try again, and hope he makes a mistake this time.”

I asked, “What about Tina?  Could she track Mark
through the maker bond?”

Ceara’s eyes narrowed.

“Umm, did I forget to mention that?  Two of the three
we bagged are Mark’s direct turns.”

She waved that away, “I don’t know, I was actually
considering it.  We don’t usually advertise every detail about us, so
that’s never been tried before.  She’d need a way to find that bond
first.  Will you and Lisa go find out in the morning?  In the
meantime, Lisa, you need to tighten that security and let everyone know visiting
vampires not a part of our coven should be watched.  Especially while in
one of our businesses.”

I nodded, “I’ll also call the alpha, have him get us
estimates on Legends and Pulse.”

Ceara asked, “I thought Pulse was okay?”

I shrugged, “Mostly?  The bathroom probably just needs
a new paint job and a garbage can, but there’s a hole in the sheetrock in the
back hallway.  The rogue uh… well, he broke it with his head.”

Ceara chuckled, “I assumed he had help?”

I nodded sheepishly, “Just a little.”

Ceara nodded, “Fine, and thanks.  The witch takes
precedence though.”

Lisa and I agreed and then left.  Lisa thanked me and
headed for security.  I figured it would be a busy day tomorrow, so I
headed up to my condo to get some sleep.  I was about to put my thumb on
the door when I felt it again.  Spirit magic.  My piece of crap uncle
was back…

I’m ashamed to say I didn’t think at all.  I just
ran.  I was thinking of course, about my dead parents, and dead
grandparents that I’d never met.  That I followed Inari and spirit
sorcerer rogues needed to be stopped.

It wasn’t until I caught up with him in an alley, and
gathered my full power and let it rip, bathing my uncle Jiro in spiritual
lightning that the truth really occurred to me.  He was over five hundred
years old, and way more powerful.

He didn’t even attack me back.

He just laughed, which pissed me off more.

“Cut it out Miku, we need to talk,” he sounded calm, and
almost pleasant.

His calm words made it worse, and my anger raged more. 
He had taken so very much from me.

Anyone that watched from nearby would think I was the
nutcase here.  But I didn’t stop, I couldn’t.  It was useless, I
channeled all my power and his shields just stopped it cold, he wasn’t even
trying.  It was like trying to knock over a boulder with a squirt gun.

He sighed, “Enough,” and raised his hand.  A bolt of
fiery lightning leaped out of his hand, went through my shield like it wasn’t
there, and knocked me on my butt.  As I passed out, tendrils of his magic
slowly wrapped around me, my last thought was that I’d really messed up this
time…

I woke up and my head ached, but it was clearing
quickly.  I looked around and… I was in my bedroom.  What the
hell?  I felt my uncle in my living room.  Huh, still not dead. 
I got up and walked out into the living room and scowled at him. 
Apparently I was kind of helpless, so I might as well hear him out.  Not
that I really had a choice.

He smiled, “You have attitude.  You remind me of myself
when I was your age.”

I shook my head, “I’m nothing like you, and I never will
be.”

He sighed, “No, I was nothing like me either, when I was
younger.  And I hope you believe me when I say I hope you never will be
either.”

I sat, really confused now, “What do you want?”

He said softly, “Peace, and to tell you my side of the
story.”

“You want to justify yourself?”

He frowned, “Not exactly.  I don’t want your
forgiveness; I don’t deserve it.  But perhaps, I can just gain your
understanding, and an agreement.”

“Explain then,” I said daringly as I crossed my arms. 
I felt absurd ordering him like that, when he dwarfed my power.  But I was
too angry to do anything else.

“When I was your age, I met Callie.  My mate and a
werewolf.  We spent years together, happy, with your grandparents, and my
sister who was still just a fox cub.  I was like you, I respected Inari
and held the tenets close to my heart.  It was years later when it
started.  A water sorcerer, a young one, had taken offense with the local
pack for some reason.  It’s funny, but I never found out why, even to this
day.

“First, he killed the omega.  Omega’s are the weakest
in the pack, but also the heart of the pack.  It hurt me, and even more so
because my mate was devastated.  Yet, according to the tenets, family is
blood, and marriage only.  I was friends with the pack, close friends,
they felt more like brothers and sisters to me, but they weren’t my family in
truth.  Still, I wished to go out and stop the fire sorcerer.  I knew
even a young one could take on a whole pack with ease.

“My mate’s pack.”

He paused for a moment.  I really didn’t want to feel
sorry for him, but it was hard.  It was especially hitting me because my
own mate was a wolf, even if I couldn’t have him.

Then I remembered the asshole in front of me was responsible
for that, he derailed my life and it led here, instead of to my mate.  Of
course, that thought made me feel guilty, the coven had really welcomed me and
had given me a place, and I wasn’t ungrateful for it.

He continued, “Your grandparents talked me out of it, and to
be fair to them, I still believed in the tenets at that time.  It wasn’t
very hard to convince me.  But as the pack was picked off one by one it
became much harder to bear.  My wife left one night, in a fit of anger and
disgust, that I’d let her family die when I could stop it.  That same day,
the pack mystic was killed, mate to the beta.  To a werewolf, pack is
family, closer than family.  Mystics are important to the packs, they not
only have magic, they can also manipulate it.  Like a witch, but not as
powerful.

“Our tenets must have seemed like such a cruelty to them.”

He paused there, as if working himself up to the next part,
“The next night the fire sorcerer attacked again, and my mate died, while
protecting the alpha.  I wasn’t there because she’d pushed me away,
refused to let me even come so I could guard her.  She was angry with me,
perhaps she might have come back and forgiven me, I don’t know, and I never
will.”

“Do you know what happened then?” he asked, looking at me
with pain filled eyes.

I shook my head, “What happened?”

He looked past me, or through me as he said, “I spirit
walked, found him, and used spirit lightning to kill him.”

His eyes refocused on me, his tone of voice wasn’t filled
with shame, but neither did he sound proud, “Then I wrapped his spirit up with
my power, and tore it apart, and scattered it to the four winds.  I
completely destroyed it.”

My eyes widened, destroying a soul was against the
tenets.  A twisted use of the power we are entrusted with.  Seeking
revenge for his mate wasn’t, if he’d stopped after the sorcerer died he
wouldn’t be rogue.

He sighed, “It was a moment of rage, and weakness, and pain
from my mate’s death.  The worst thing to me is I did it in five
seconds.  Five seconds, to stop a monster, yet I could not save my mate or
her pack.”

I frowned, “What happened then?” I asked, knowing the story
wasn’t finished.  He’d yet to explain the other deaths.

He shrugged, “I decided the tenets were flawed.  I no
longer follow them.  I haven’t destroyed a soul since, but I’ve protected
those I care about.  My parents, they came after me.  It took them
years, but they finally decided their son wasn’t going to return to the fold,
and seek redemption.  So I killed them, and fled.

“I know you don’t want to hear this, but I found your mother
a little over two years ago.  I approached her, hoping to reconnect. 
I didn’t expect her approval for how I lived my life, but I hoped that the
world was big enough for both of us, and she’d speak to me on occasion.”

I frowned, “What happened?”

He sighed, “You.  I didn’t know about you when I
approached her in Seattle.  She was very protective of you, and when she
saw me, she panicked and drove me off.  She hunted me for about a month,
and I couldn’t get through to her.  I should’ve just stayed away, but I
knew she had decided I needed to be put down as a rogue.  I… couldn’t
allow that.

“One day, you will see her again, she’ll be reborn. 
Scant comfort I know.”

I was back to rage, why couldn’t he have just fled, hid
somewhere else?

“So what is it you want from me?”

He shrugged, “Nothing.  I want nothing.  I want
you to simply live and let live.  When you grow in power, do not come
after me.  Let it go, because I’m really tired of killing family…”

I had no idea how to respond to that at all.  I saw a
flash of elemental spirit power and he was gone.  Huh, spirit
shifting.  It was like teleporting, and incredibly dangerous, and it would
be years before I could do it.  I understood how it worked, but I wasn’t
strong enough to enter the elemental plane of spirit for the second it would
take to get to my destination, it would kill me.

I shook my head in disgust, because he’d almost had
me.  I understood his dilemma, and felt sorry for him.  At least up
until the point he killed my mother and father, and then threatened to do the
same to me if I didn’t leave him alone.  If I was lucky he’d leave the
city now and not come back for a very long time.

I sighed.  As for me, I had no choice but to leave him
alone, at least, for a long time to come…

I groaned as I heard the banging on my door.  I grabbed
my phone, I had missed two calls from Lisa, and it was around seven
thirty.  I’d tossed and turned most of the night, I hadn’t been able to
get to sleep after my uncle’s visit.  The more I’d thought about his story
the more holes I found in it.  He could have found a way, a better way.

I wasn’t sure what, but the rules didn’t cover
self-defense.  Much like I’d simply stood in the hallway last night. 
The rogue had assumed I was there to capture him.  That he could have
simply waltzed by me probably never occurred to him.  I’d also realized
he’d had his wife living with him and his parents, which meant he’d made a wolf
live apart from their pack.  That wasn’t right.

He was too eager to blame it all on others, and be the
tortured figure that was abused and had no choice.  Yes, I felt sorry for
him, I even pitied him, but it was also his fault.

The door knocked again, “
Be out in a minute,
” I sent
with mind speech.  I’d never tried that with anyone but my mother and
father, it appeared she heard me though.  I didn’t really have time for a
shower apparently, so I cheated.  I shifted to a fox, ran to my closet,
and shifted back.  Instantly clean with my hair all straightened out, I
pulled on a pair of black stretchy shorts, and a red tee.

I grabbed my phone and purse, then went to the door and
pulled it open, most likely I also wore a scowling face.

Lisa handed me a coffee, and I smiled gratefully, “You are a
goddess.”

She flipped her blonde hair haughtily, “I’m glad to see you
finally recognized that fact.”

I chuckled, but it came out weak.  I was still half out
of it and started to sip my coffee.

“Sorry, I didn’t sleep well.  What’s the plan?”

Lisa said, “Breakfast now, witch at eight.”

I groaned, “Alright.”

Lisa asked as we walked down the stairs, “What happened, why
didn’t you sleep?”

I ticked it off, “Evil uncle back in town, tried to kill
evil uncle, evil uncle kicked my butt.  Then we had story time and he
left.”

Lisa asked curiously, “Story time?”

I nodded, “All about how the patricide, matricide, and
fratricide was not his fault, and he’s just a misunderstood victim of
circumstance.”

“So… what are you going to do about it?” she asked.

I shrugged helplessly in frustration, “Nothing, for about
five hundred years.  He’s too powerful, I have to live with it.”

I really wasn’t that blasé about it inside, but there really
was nothing I could do about it.  I was trying not to lose my mind, and I
knew if I let the hate and anger build up over the years it would destroy
me.  I needed to forgive him for what he did, and when the time came that
I had the power, chase him down and end him for the crime of being a
rogue.  Not that it would be easy to do that.  Forgive him for my
parents’ death I mean.

Melody could probably kill him, but I wouldn’t ask her too,
and she probably wouldn’t do it anyway.

Lisa asked disbelievingly, “Really?”

“Well, I have about as much chance of killing him as you
would against Ceara.  Does that put it in perspective?”

Lisa nodded soberly, “Yes, I see your point.”

I thought she would, I hoped she didn’t ask any more
questions about it, I really didn’t want to dwell on it any longer.  I was
also getting a bit thirsty, and it’d only been thirty-six hours.  What’s
with that anyway?  I figured it would be tonight when I started to feel it
at the earliest.

We grabbed some breakfast, I chose some scrambled eggs,
sausage, and some bacon.  We made our way through the tables, and sat near
Eustice and the two guards that were at Legends last night.

“Morning,” I said in a distinctly uncheerful voice.  I
really needed to wake up.

Eustice grinned, “You forgot the good part.”

I faux scoffed, “Who said it was good?”

Eustice said, “Fine.  This is Jerry and Matt. 
They’re part of the guard, and were at Legends last night.”

I nodded, choosing not to explain I’d seen them while I was
impersonating a ghost.

“Nice to meet you,” I even managed to sound sincere.

They both did that man grunt thing, apparently they needed
coffee too.  Or, maybe they were upset because they’d lost two vampires
under their watch last night.  Geez, I was truly stupid sometimes.

“Umm, I planned on calling for an estimate from the wolves,
for Pulse and Legends, later this morning.”

Eustice said, “That’s fine, better you than me.  No
need to rush either, it will be a while until we can reopen Legends, and Pulse
just has minor damage, we can open anyway.”

I was kind of both filled with dread, and excited about
seeing Jared again.  I also knew it was all in my mind at this point, I
hardly knew him at all and certainly had no real feelings for him.  But… I
knew we were compatible, the ultimate in compatibility.  If I hadn’t
become a bloodsucker that is.

Lisa and I shoveled the food down as quickly as we
could.  For some reason we needed to be there as soon as the store opened,
but I didn’t ask why.  Maybe she was just trying to get it done fast to
impress the boss.  Vampire speed was awesome sometimes, but apparently my
stomach didn’t agree with that assessment when it came to eating as we got up a
few minutes later.

Eustice said offhand, “Before I forget, stop by the third
floor and pick up your license and other paperwork from Ethel.”

I held back the groan, “When we get back, we’re running late
as it is.”

He nodded, “Be at Pulse before seven, wear comfortable pants
or shorts and shoes, we’ll take care of the shirt.”

“Will do,” I said over my shoulder as I followed Lisa out
the door.