Wilder Mage (21 page)

“Using the wild streams of magic, yep, that would be my designation to one belonging to the Imperium. But I define it as a person with magic skills who won’t succumb to the guild of wizards. A wilder is free.”

Sable seemed lost in thought. Absently, she said, “This Tiarra, she’s a tall slender woman, like in her thirties or so? And beautiful, right?”

“Yes, that would be Tiarra,” he said. He felt his jaw muscles flex.

“She touched my neck when I was a kid. Worst day of my life,” she said quietly. “That was the day my parents proudly gave me to her.” Sable shook her head, and her brown hair fell in waves around her downturned face.

“So, you are bonded to her,” he said softly. As he had in the clearing, Justus wanted to slide his fingers under the soft fall of hair, let his touch trail over her cheek and curl around the back of her head.

Justus steeled his will, throttled his desire back. He couldn’t allow the magical effect of the
tener unus
to break through his control.

Not here, not in these rooms with her so close
.

Young one; just the words of the translation caressed his mind, spurring his thoughts into places he could not travel.

He made no sound during his inner struggle.

She didn’t look up. “Whenever I checked on you, it was like your mind was on autopilot, not conscious, not awake, but functioning.”

“Yeah, well. That is the nature of the device of the Imperium, a combination of worked magic in all four of the elements, except Fire. Spirit is the biggest portion. Zombie is a good description—functional, but not really alive.”

“Bert told me something of it, of the device and how it works.”

He shook his head and looked away. “I doubt if Tiarra was looking for me,” he said softly.

“You have come into your full potential,” she said suddenly, as if expecting his next question.

He hesitated and then nodded.

She shook her head and looked away again. “Well, I haven’t, so don’t even ask. It’s the last thing I want, to be put under her control.”

She clenched her teeth, fisted her hands on her lap. “And I won’t be. Ever,” she said harshly. Sable stood abruptly and started to pace.

His stomach made a snarling sound, saving him from asking any questions. He stood, avoided her path, and wobbled to the small refrigerator. A small carton of juice was a welcome sight, and he blessed whoever put it there, possibly the whirling dervish ignoring him as he searched the foodstuffs. He saw a plate of sandwiches on the top shelf and pulled those out too.

Ah, one bite and all was right with the world. He sucked a long swallow from the carton and sighed. Life was good. Looking at Sable, he was willing to forgive her for creating such havoc in his uncomplicated life. Her march had stopped in the middle of the room. She was staring at him with narrowed eyes, and he began to feel uncomfortable.

“Hungry?” he asked around a mouthful of sandwich, offering her a nearly empty plate. She didn’t reply and, if anything, seemed to grit her teeth.

Justus swallowed and cleared his throat. “You set them off, you know. Brought the Imperium back to the shop.”

“What?”

“I had you shielded so the hunters couldn’t feel your signature, and I guess they weren’t going by a photo or description since they left after a few days. But they must have been watching for you, waiting for you to light up.” He put the now-empty plate into the sink and dropped the carton into the trash by the stove, wiped his mouth, and sighed. Yep, he was almost human now. Or as much as he ever was.

Sable’s patience seemed to give out waiting for him to continue his analysis. She crossed her arms over her waist and glared.

“They were watching for you, waiting for some big emotion,” Justus said. “Then, that night we fed the horses after dark—”

“You kissed me,” she growled. “You. Kissed. Me. Not the other way around.”

“And whose fault was that?”

Sable sputtered and turned bright red. “What? I led you on, threw myself at you?”

Justus looked at her, his mouth turned up sourly. “You might as well have, what with your
tener unus
effect. It ought to be bottled, used instead of that little blue pill.”

She looked at him, sputtering, eyes angry. For a moment, he thought he saw a glimmer of tears, then decided he must have been mistaken. She faced him, her back to the disheveled bed, and her eyes snapped with rage.

“
Tener unus
,” she repeated, her voice low and dangerous.

“Yes, Latin for ‘young one’ or ‘tender,’ it means—”

“I
know
what it means,” she yelled. A shimmer gathered around her.

“Yeah, your fault, your damn
tener unus.”

“Oh, I get it. So I can’t attract anyone unless it’s the
tener unus
talking, right? That I’m exuding allure, siren-like. It can’t just be me; it has to be something else. Not just me, right?”

With every word, she shook her fist at him, furious. And the shimmering cloud became a corporeal beast, coiling its tentacles and writhing as if alive. Now, Justus saw it and gasped, thoroughly alarmed.

“Sable.” His voice was low, soothing. He held the panic out of his voice and slowed his movements, as if he might frighten her. “Sable, take it easy.”

“Easy? Easy? You just insult me, and then I’m the one out of control?” She slashed one hand through the air in her wrath, and the energies around her swirled into comet trails of Fire.

He stepped to her and her eyes widened. His intention was to touch her shoulder or arms and try to soothe her, take away the gathering of magical elements around her. But she backed away from him, caught her feet in the tangled bedspread on the floor, and fell back onto the bed. Justus grasped one of her flailing arms to keep her from falling, but gravity took over and pulled him forward. He twisted his shoulders and took the brunt of their combined weight on his arm when they hit the mattress together. Instantly, she began struggling against his body, and he felt the
snap, snap, snap
of Fire popping on his arm again. The first pop of magic hurt bad enough that he almost released her, but after each successive pop, it weakened until it was less than static electricity.

“Stop it,
stop it
,” he growled into her angry face. “You’re starting to erupt, your magic, and you’ll send up a signature.”

He held her against the wall with the weight of his body as she struggled for a while longer until the words sunk in. He saw her aura dissipate, the shimmer growing less and less as he watched her take a deep breath and visibly calm down. Her eyes closed and she trembled against the skin of his bare chest and arms.

He became aware of her scent, of strawberries or lilacs, the smell of summer and a fresh breeze, and he caught himself before he rubbed his chin in her hair. His breath stirred the strands, and the scent swirled around him again. He felt his respiration increase again, and it had nothing to do with his physical exertions. Her face was close, her chest heaving in time to his. Her eyes opened and slid to his mouth. She parted her lips, leaned forward, and his breath caught in his throat as he started to turn his head to meet hers.

In his face, she snarled. “I took care of the effect caused by
tener unus
a long time ago, as soon as I realized what it meant for me and what it was. Fixed magic; I used fixed magic. It took a long time, but I did it, saved what little I had in the talent and fixed it bit by bit onto this bracelet, a kind of warding, like your stone. To avoid stupid men. I didn’t want stupid men chasing me all my life. You stupid,
stupid
man.”

The word sounded like a curse.

They were so close, his breath blew strands of her hair away from her face. He watched the play of emotions cross her face, from anger to something like weariness. For a moment, he nearly gave in to his need to taste her mouth again, just to see if it was like before. But the snap of Fire on his arms distracted him.

Her Fire element was little more than a prickle now.

“Now, let me go before I
really
hurt you,” Sable said.

“Yeah, let me know how that’s working out for you,” he said.

“How about I give you another matched set of tattoos on your chest?” She pulled her lips back from her clenched teeth, and he hurriedly released her.

“Okay, but calm down. Please,” he added when her eyes narrowed again. “You were about to erupt.” She started to sputter, and he said quickly, “No, your emotions pulled energies from around you, gathering the magic and causing it to fire up.”

He stood back and then immediately reached for her when she stumbled. She held onto his forearm until she steadied from the physical drain caused by the use of magic.

“It must have taken a long time to pull energy from all around to make the warding,” Justus said. “Fixing a warding onto the bracelet, killing the aura of
tener unus
must have been exhausting.”

And taken a lot of strong-minded purpose
, he thought.

“How long did it take you?” he asked softly.

Her eyes were down and her shoulders slumped. “Six weeks,” she said.

He was stunned. It took the fixing of all five elements to make her shield, gathering and braiding them into an intricate pattern, a task that wasn’t easy for a full adept. For a warding-type amulet that protected her night and day through the years, the skill and power involved was enormous. That it had taken only six weeks to mold the elements was stunning.

No wonder the Imperium wanted her. After she came into her potential and acquired her full talents as a wizard, the one who controlled her would control the world.

Her power might even surpass his, and Justus felt his stomach clench at that thought. She was a weapon of great magnitude for the Imperium to use, and she didn’t even know it.

He swallowed his concern. “And that has protected you from the attentions of guys answering your siren’s call,” he said lightly.

Sable looked up and gave him a wry grin, her mouth twisting into a half-smile. “Yes, all true. So, when you kissed me, it was all you.”

“Well,
some
of it was you.”

She shrugged. “Still, it had nothing to do with the
tener unus
crap, so don’t use that as an excuse for kissing me. You got my emotions hot, and it was enough to call the Imperium,” she said.

He swallowed noisily, the thought of that heated kiss a memory he tried to stop, especially on the nights he couldn’t sleep. He didn’t reply.

“So. It affected you also. Didn’t it?” she asked.

“Well, Sable, it isn’t something I do every day, kiss my employees, so yeah, I guess you could say that,” Justus said with a wry smile.

He watched her warily. She had a slight grin that had less to do with humor and more to do with a cat ready to pounce on a mouse.

“I can’t believe it,” she said, satisfied with something he didn’t see. “You don’t have much experience either. Do you?”

He twitched, cleared his throat, and decided to take the offensive.

“Kissing, though... I am hell at kissing.” His leer tapered off when her eyes narrowed.

Defense might have been a better choice, he decided.

“Anyhow,” he said looking anywhere but at her. “It doesn’t matter. I have my full talents, and you are potential only. When your magic busts out, it won’t take a rodeo in the sack. It will free itself, like a caged panther. It will find a way to escape. Don’t make it any easier for it by letting your emotions get away from you. Any strong emotion will do it; anger, joy, fear—any of those emotions, if they are strong enough, will give your innate talent the advantage it needs to break out. So use care. And you have a lot of magic, more than some who are full wizards.”

“But I don’t want it.” She pitched her voice so low, it was barely audible. “It was never something I wanted, this magic thing.”

“Me either,” he said slowly, “but we can’t do anything about that, just use it in the best ways possible. Morally and physically.”

She looked up, her eyes shadowed. He smiled when she sighed.

“Acceptance is the key,” she said.

“Yep.”

Her smile gathered magic all on its own. Her personality pulled it into her eyes and face, and he stopped breathing, fascinated as he watched it change her features into something that tightened his stomach into knots.

He didn’t try to resist. His qualms against touching her were gone, and he lightly traced the outline of her mouth with one finger. Her smile vanished and her lips parted as he covered her cheek with his hand and counted her breaths. In slow motion, he bent his head and lightly brushed her lips.

The silver bracelets jangled as she lifted her hand, to touch him or to hold him, he didn’t know, but the sound of the chimes made him break away and glance at her wrist. The multiple hoops and bracelets had worked down her arm, exposing her wrist. Justus frowned. She started to step away, but stopped when he gently took her hand. Old scars marred the skin around her wrist. The silver coils had concealed the marks.

“My parents,” Sable said softly, “did not want me to leave.”

He stared down at her; his blood chilled as she took her arm back and carefully arranged the bracelets to hide the marks. Her head bowed as she fingered the charms. “As soon as I found out the truth, I ran away. They found me and brought me back. I got away again.”

She looked at him with a smile, but it didn’t go to her eyes. “When they caught me the second time, they wanted to make sure I didn’t escape again. So they used handcuffs, held me in a room in the basement until I ‘got some sense,’ my father said.”

She brushed the back of her shoulder with one hand. It chilled him, the look on her face. Justus touched her neck; she nodded and pulled her blouse away. He looked down her neckline to her back. Several raised streaks were across her shoulders, scars from a stick or whip. He stepped away, his face neutral.

“Anyway, I escaped again. This time for good.” She rubbed the marks under her bracelets. “Saved up my talent for that too,” she said, her tone grim.