Spirit Sorceress: Spirit Sorceress: Book 1 (2 page)

Two years ago…

“Is that too tight Miku?” she asked as she pulled the
blindfold tight.

I laughed and rolled my eyes, although she couldn’t see the
latter I was sure she’d sense it just fine.

“Mom, your about to attack your blindfolded daughter with a
steel sword and your worried about my blindfold being too tight?”

She sighed, “It’s necessary.  You must learn not to
depend on your sight in a fight.  With your spirit magic you can sense
everything around you.”

“Not the sword, that’s not alive,” I said smugly.

She whapped the back of my head lightly, “No, but my hand
is.  How am I holding my fingers, where is my arm, the bend in my wrists
and elbow, how tight are my fingers holding the weapon, how is my body moving,
my head, shoulders, feet, and hips.  You must learn to read a body to know
where the sword is at all times.  Even a thrown weapon can be known in
this way from arm movements.  For those weaker than yourself, you will also
be able to read their intentions and moves directly from their spirit.”

I sighed, fat chance of that happening here.  My mother
was immeasurably powerful in spirit, and hers was guarded well.  She
attacked me without warning from behind, but I managed to slide to the left and
spin out of the way as I tried a counter attack.  Her sword whipped back
easily in time to parry mine.

I sunk into my magic to take in the surroundings, and any
intentions my mother may let leak, and I had to admit I was having fun. 
This was the end of my training, or close to it, and my mother was confident in
my ability, though I was still just at the beginning of growth for my spirit
power.  My sword training might be finished, but my power would continue
to blossom over the centuries.

I was so caught up in our dance and my hubris, that I’d lost
the connection to the rest of the spirit around me, and suffered a blow in the
back of my head.

A deep voice said from behind me, “That was sloppy.”

I winced, “Hi dad.”

My father wasn’t a spirit sorcerer.  He was just
human.  Not that there was anything was wrong with that, and as my
mother’s mate living constantly by her side, he reaped the benefits of a much
longer lifetime.

I felt him now as he stepped around me and pulled off the
blindfold.  He tried to look stern but failed.  He was terrible at
stern.

“My beautiful daughter, you need to pay attention, you’ll be
out among humans in a few days, learning their ways and doing…” he trailed off,
and he’d sounded more doting than corrective.

I sighed as he kissed my forehead, he really did spoil me at
times.  I knew my mother would make the rest of this training session even
more grueling as my father replaced the blindfold.  But I also knew it was
only to keep me safe when we left the peace of our forest.

My father said, “Enjoy yourselves, I’m going to catch some
fish,” and then he whistled cheerily as he walked out of our cabin, drawing a
laugh out of me and my mother.

My heart cried in that bittersweet moment from the past, it
was the last time I’d seen him alive…

I had tears in my eyes as I stood up and drew my sword in
one smooth motion, and turned to face the vampires that had tracked Terry
down.  There were three of them.  Two males and a female.  They
were looking at me with confused expressions.  I took the time to push
down the past, and all my feelings, I needed to be centered right now and in
connection with my element, the spirit all around me.

Vampires were in a word, unnatural.  I could see the
twists and brands in their spirit, a spirit spell, or curse, designed to lock
them in this life and draw the elemental power of air to continually heal their
body and prevent aging. 

It wasn’t permanent, one day when these vampires had their
bodies killed, their spirits would once again be free to take their place in
the wheel of life and death.  Still, it was disconcerting, and unnatural,
even if they were alive and extremely healthy, it was a deep violation of
nature.

Sadly, it was a spirit sorcerer with the help of a dark
witch who made the first vampire.  Not all of my kind followed the tenets
of Inari, who was one of the most powerful elementals, an elemental lady of
spirit.  Without morals, one of my kind could feed on the souls of others
for power, even bind or destroy souls.  Those were where the stories of
succubae, and incubi came from.  Or in the case of Kitsune legends, the Nogitsune.

They aren’t all necessarily evil however, some don’t destroy
souls, they just interfere where they shouldn’t.  For all I knew, the one
that created the first vampire was just trying to give someone the gift of
eternal life.  Unnatural, wrong, but evil?

The male in the middle smiled at me and chuckled, “So…
where’s the Cosplay convention, you look adorable.  Almost exactly like…
what was that movie?”

I blushed, not sure what they were talking about.  But
I did wish I could have changed out of my gi, I suppose I did look a little odd
outside of a dojo.

The woman rolled her eyes and asked, “Seriously?”

The other man laughed, “She does, but she’s cuter. 
Kinda hot actually.  Umm, crap, what was it…” he snapped his fingers and
grinned as it came to him, “Blood, the last vampire.”

The first man snorted and looked me in the eyes, “Yup,
that’s it.  Great movie.  Now why don’t you run along sweet thing and
play somewhere else, we’re here to pick up our friend Terry there.  We’ll
take good care of him.”

I shook my head, “He’s under my protection, I’m taking him
home.  Go find someone else to eat vampire.”

He looked shocked for a moment, since his mesmerizing
compulsion failed to affect me.  Of course, I was shielded by my spirit
magic.  It wouldn’t protect me from anything physical, but magic and
spirit couldn’t harm me, unless of course, it was stronger.  He also might
have been surprised I knew what he was.  Outside of the sunglasses, they
just looked like three people out on a hike.

The second male shook his head as his eyes roved up and down
my body, “I think I’d like it if you came a long too.  You can protect our
friend here and come with us.”

I felt a little sick at that idea, and then the guy
charged.  Vampires were fast, but only because of air magic, which was fed
through his spirit. 

I controlled spirit.

Though it took some effort, and only if I was stronger than
the being attacking me.  These three vampires were very young, under
fifty.  I’d been around longer than that, and was inherently stronger.

I reached out to cut him off, and he slowed to human speed
with his arms set to capture me, his teeth dropped ready to rip into my throat
right there.  I rolled to the side, and easily evaded his swipe, and
stabbed behind me into his kidney as he passed.  He screamed and fell to
the ground.

The other male said something very unflattering and charged
me, less than a second later the female followed.  It was harder to reach
out and control their souls, squeezing off their power felt like bending a hose
in half to make them weaker while at the same time keeping track of all of my
surroundings.

I swallowed a lump in my throat, my mother had trained me
well.

I reached down, drew, and threw the short dagger from my
boot, hitting the woman in the stomach.

She screamed in pain as she pulled it out.

By then I pulled back to dodge the last man’s swipe, and
then lunged forward before he could recover, and cut his inner thigh
badly.  He too fell to the floor, and tried to hold the blood in while the
vein started to heal slowly.

The woman glared at me and stepped forward through her pain,
wielding my own knife against me.

I frowned, “That’s the only mercy I will show today. 
Put down the knife, pick up your friends, and get the hell out of here. 
This man is under my protection, don’t make me kill you all.”

She growled a curse and dropped the knife, though her eyes
promised me death as she managed to get her friends to their feet, and they
staggered off into the woods.

I just hoped I wasn’t making a mistake, allowing them to
live.  I felt hopelessly naïve.  In a way I was wise and intelligent,
but I knew I lacked…  The humans called it street smarts.  I was
meant to be clear headed, with my mother at my side to council me as I entered
the next phase of my life.

Instead of the emotion mess that I was, unsure about so many
things.

“What happened?  Who are you?”

I sighed, I guess the fight woke Terry up, shame on me for
not noticing.

I cleaned my weapons and put them away as I gathered my
thoughts.  I took a seat about five feet away from Terry.  Close
enough to talk comfortably, but not so close that I’d spook him anymore than he
already was.

“I heard your call for help and I found you knocked
unconscious with a broken ankle.  Luckily, you stayed under while I set
it.  I don’t think you should try walking, even with that walking stick,
until tomorrow.  I assume you saw me drive off those three?  It’s just
over ten miles to the nearest forest ranger station, it will probably take us
two days to get there.”

Terry nodded slowly trying to make sense of it, all that
happened.  I knew he would fail of course, I’d left out too much, but then
I wasn’t about to tell this human what I was.  Most likely he didn’t even
know those idiots were vampires, and just believed it was some weird group that
had kidnapped him and his wife.  No doubt mesmerizing had worked on them
just fine and his memories of the last two weeks were Swiss cheese.

I wasn’t positive of that though, since his spirit had the
true account when I read it.  I didn’t have a clue what was actually
inside his mind.

He moved his leg and hissed, after a moment he said, “Thank
you for what you did, even if I don’t quite understand how you drove off those
three so easily.  Something isn’t quite… right.  Will you go on ahead
and get help please?  Just leave me, my wife is still being held and she’s
been getting weaker every day.”

I reached out and felt his soul.  He already knew his
wife was dead, he could feel it.  But humans tended to ignore that kind of
thing, they didn’t believe it, or didn’t want to believe it.  Some refused
to even notice what their spirits tried to communicate.  I don’t know why
I cared, I shouldn’t, but I sent comfort to his soul which mourned, while his
physical mind sat in confusion.

I sighed and stood, and decided on the band aid approach,
“I’m sorry Terry, but Sharon is gone.  They killed her,” my voice wasn’t
unkind.

I stalked away to the stream to clean up and get the blood
off of me while Terry cried.  I also didn’t want to be there to answer
questions, like how could I possibly know that?  It was going to be a long
day.  I wasn’t heartless, but I didn’t want to deal with my own grief,
much less his.

I’m not particularly proud of it, but I ignored him the best
I could for the rest of the day, outside of making sure he had enough food,
water, and to help move him for his other physical needs, I stayed close by in the
forest.  It was so much easier to lose myself in the flow and ebb of the
life and spirit of the forest around me, and avoid the pain and loss that
dwelled in both of us.

“Are you sure I broke my ankle?  It feels like a bad
sprain maybe,” Terry muttered the next morning as we started walking.  His
arm was around my shoulders and it was a little awkward because of my short
height, but it worked.  I had my arm around his back and supported him the
best I could.  I was strong enough, but it was difficult.

I really didn’t like to lie, and felt uncomfortable with the
idea.  Spirit sorcerers generally didn’t get involved in the world to the
extent of others.  We were close to our families and mate, and protected
them fiercely, otherwise we took the long view of lifetimes.  Ying and
yang.  Evil existed, but it was part of the road of life, we didn’t get
involved unless as Terry did, someone asked for help.

We were observers, and helped a spirit along if it got
caught, or again, we helped or hindered those foolish enough to cede their free
will.  I may have been over a hundred years old, but in a lot of ways I
was just a teenager with no experience dealing with others, much less lying to
mortals to keep magic a secret.  I felt awkward and out of my depth, not
really sure how to respond to his question.

So my reply was quite wooden, “I suppose it’s possible.”

He chuckled, “I hope so, there are no ERs anywhere around
here.”

I laughed, and the sound shocked me, maybe I had been alone
too long. 

“Nope.  But help isn’t that far.”

It was slow going.  At first, there were a lot of
missteps as he lost balance, and he seemed reluctant to lean on me very hard
which just made it more difficult.  But eventually, we started to move
together.  I was a little surprised he had no questions about why I’d been
out here, or about my state of dress, maybe he was just on the edge of shock,
or a breakdown. 

I asked, “Any children?”

Terry answered with worry in his voice, “Yes, I hope he’s
okay.  I have an eleven-year-old son John.  He should be fine, he was
at his aunt’s house, a sleepover with his cousin on the night we were taken.”

“What is he like?”

I couldn’t see it, but I felt Terry’s grin.

“Stubborn, he’s a little hellion.”

I smiled at that.  I kept the questions up, trying to
keep him moving, and keep him talking.  It was incredibly slow going but
we managed to make half the distance before we stopped for the evening.  I
was still worried about the vampires catching us, I was sure that now that
there was a threat out here for them, they wouldn’t just send three out next
time. 

I set up camp again, this time much faster since I didn’t
need to find wood to carve out anything.  There wasn’t much to do besides
gather fire wood, and hunt.  I’d taken down a couple of animals for
dinner, and then shifted back to human form.  When I walked back to camp I
realized my mistake when his eyes widened a bit.

I’d not given it any thought, but when I shifted to and from
my fox form, the dirt and sweat didn’t follow me.  Not only that, but I
was sure my lustrous long black hair looked freshly brushed without one knot or
tangle.  Even my clothes were dust, sweat, and wrinkle free after a
change.  I could have mussed myself up a bit, but it was too late for
that.

I sighed, “Relax Terry, I’m…” I kind of trailed off without
a clue of what to say.  I really wasn’t any good at prevarication. 
It was also kind of ironic, that me being clean would be what made him panic,
and not any of the other obvious issues with reality as humans understood it,
which had occurred over the last day.

He shook his head in denial, “What… what are you?” the panic
in his face and voice was clear.

I reached out and tried to sooth his soul, and fed him more
energy to keep up the increased healing.  I suppose I panicked a bit myself,
because I overdid it and he passed out.

I sighed, what a mess.  Maybe he’d think it was a
dream?

I got the fire started and cleaned our dinner before putting
it over the flames.  It was probably stupid, and desperate, but I mussed
my hair the best I could, and made sure I got plenty of smoke and dust on
me.  I snorted, I must look a total mess.  I waited though, and
didn’t wake him until the food was ready.

He looked a little suspicious when I gently shook his
shoulder and handed him food, but he didn’t freak out again, so I relaxed a bit
while we ate. 

I could only guess he was in deep denial.  I couldn’t
really blame him either, he’d been kidnapped, used as a blood bag and punching
bag for two weeks, broken his ankle, lost his wife, and met a strange young
girl dressed in a gi with a katana miles from civilization.  I supposed it
was a miracle he wasn’t gibbering in fear.  If denial kept him going, I
wasn’t going to argue.

It could also have something to do with all the extra power
I’d been nourishing his soul with.  Probably both.  Neither of us
said a word as the sun reached the horizon, and we finished our meal. 
Freaked or not, he fell asleep quickly.  I knew he’d need all the sleep he
could get for the last leg of our walk tomorrow, so I closed my eyes and let my
thoughts wander.  I was connected with the forest and would feel if the
vampires found us.

I really hoped they didn’t, if only because I wouldn’t be
able to afford to simply wound them next time.  They would come in a
greater number.

I wasn’t sure what I’d do once I got Terry to safety, but I
knew going back to a life of living like a wild fox wouldn’t work.  I
needed to work through the rest of my memories, make peace with them, only then
could I decide how to move forward.  That’s why when the memories of that
day came again, I didn’t push them back…