Braving the Elements Read online

  Boom!

  The couch shot airborne in the blast, two chairs went sideways. The three men got swept up in a breeze like Mary Poppins. Above them, the ceiling made ominous creaking noises, dirt starting to drizzle.

  Another blast rocked the room, only this time, it came from above, where Stefan was. He was trying to get down to us.

  “Hurry Stefan,” I pleaded, dodging a jet of pure white.

  “Get her!” the White Mage screamed again. “We’ve got to get out of here before this place caves!”

  Butt tingle.

  I turned to my right just as a monster with bear claws burst through the only exit I could see. It narrowly missed me, and now I had to sprint back into the room, the putrid smell of rot following me. That warning butt pucker had me trying to turn left, but there were more people that way. Huge men with glowing swords had me surrounded, trying to corner the human.

  My insides screamed to run just as a glowing white box surrounded me. I swore, tears in my eyes. I didn’t know how to get out.

  Andris strode toward me as white bands wrapped around my middle.

  “She’s strong, but she doesn’t know her craft!” Trek said, running toward the door. “Keep her confined and bring her with me.”

  Another explosion sounded above. A massive groan splintered the ceiling. Dirt and debris rained down. Popping and cracks sounded off before a giant chunk of ceiling fell, landing right in front of Trek, making him dive out of the way.

  Andris stopped right next to me, staring wide-eyed at the crumbling ceiling.

  A man jumped through, narrowly dodging falling objects. He hit the ground and rolled to the side. Blood spilling down his muscle toned arms, strength and brawn tempered with a fluid grace of a swordsmen rose, his eyes like liquid magma as his gaze swept the area. My spine tingled, recognizing that rage and the wrath that would soon follow. Stefan had arrived.

  He stepped forward, away from tumbling debris and jumping or falling bodies, meeting two men head on, his tattoos a whitish gold, his sword moving so fast, it looked like a flashlight in a horror movie.

  “Bring the girl!” Trek screamed, on his feet and running, Dulcha pouring into the room.

  Stefan cleaved someone in half, his sword making short work of the second, desperately trying to get to me. Andris squared his body, anticipating the fight with Stefan and unable to turn away from it.

  “Don’t fight—grab her!” the coward in the white cape screamed as he stood within the doorway, power gathering to him, rolling and boiling.

  “Sasha, you have to fight his advance,” Stefan said a calm voice crusted with ice. “Suck the power in the room to you. Suck it all in. Close your eyes and draw. I’ll balance you through our blood link.”

  I closed my eyes and did as instructed. My chest got warm immediately, so much magic raging around me.

  “It’ll kill me to take that much, Stefan!” I cried, fear eating away at me as the building around us started to groan again. The holes from the plants weakened the foundation and the blasts from within and above shaking the place down. Compared to Trek, I was an amateur.

  “I’ll temper it, love. I’ll help.” Stefan flung a man out of his way, rending and tearing, meeting a monster with a whirling blade, his eyes now on Andris, the only thing standing in his way.

  Besides Trek’s magic.

  My gaze swept to the caped moron, his face a scary grimace of lethal concentration. His hands braced to the side of him like claws, the magic around his body building. I swung my gaze back to Stefan as he fought his way to me, unconcerned about the magic headed his way, and just trying to get me within his protective embrace.

  “Here goes,” I whispered.

  I closed my eyes again, feeling the elements, feeling the current as it sucked toward Trek like undertow. The feeling slipped through my fingers like water in a stream, tickling my skin. My chest burned now, then my limbs, my power calling to that sweet essence.

  I felt the box around me, visibly seeing, in my mind’s eye, the weaves and knots that created it. I picked it apart like a sewing stitch, watching it unravel and fall away. I drew in more power, now feeling like insects crawling on my skin. Pure black power level, now, darker than night, sucking in light and turning it into energy. Still the power gathered near Trek.

  “Reach for him now,” I heard. Stefan’s voice seemed so far away. Floating on a distant breeze of magic, eddies and torrents separating the distance between the two of us. Except, I felt him within—loving support, bracing me to the here-and-now. Keeping me firmly rooted.

  I did as Stefan said, reaching, feeling the lesser power levels around me, and shooing them away like fruit flies. I found that boiling collection of magic an instant before it released, and put up a shield.

  His power blasted into mine, two solid things colliding like rams in a mating dance. The sound thundered, shaking the building, knocking everyone off their feet. Except for me and Trek.

  His eyes burned into mine, not working the elements, just sucking them in and throwing them at me. Dumb move, because that was about all I could do, too. I dug in my feet magically and pushed, as hard as I could, the swirling magic of his attack spell inching back toward him.

  “Suck it in, Sasha! Consume it. This place is collapsing.”

  I heard distant metal clanging. The building roaring. Voices shouting and screaming. Still, I stared at those pale blue eyes, the sky seen through an overexposed picture. I could win this war of might, but it would take too long. Plus, if he grew some brains and stopped thinking with his testosterone, he’d realize all he had to do was switch it up a bit and I’d be lost.

  Closing my eyes, hoping this wasn’t the end, I did as Stefan said. I opened myself up, let go of the corporal world around me, and sucked with one painful, scorching draw.

  Chapter 10

  Why the hell was I always coming to out of a deep sleep? Was that my default in dangerous situations—passing out?

  “What was that, love?”

  Stefan sat at the edge of my bed, holding my hand. Bruises and gashes marred his handsome face, and cuts and scrapes gouged his body; but he was alive. I was alive.

  “I am alive, right?” I clarified.

  He smiled. “Yes, you saved the day.”

  I chuckled then winced. My whole body felt unnaturally sensitive. “What happened after I took in the magic?”

  “You passed out.” Charles sat in the corner, knitting needles thrashing out the finishing touches of the hideous scarf he was making me.

  “What happened to you?” I asked in a voice tinged with fear.

  Half of Charles’s body had splatters of burn marks, like he’d dropped something heavy in liquid magma and it splashed out onto his skin. “I had to cut through that fucking—“

  “Language,” Stefan warned.

  Charles sighed, but continued. “I had to cut through that freaking spell that Darla never taught us about. Andris has the same power level as me. It hurt. A lot.”

  “He exacted his own penance for your capture,” Stefan said mildly.

  “Thanks, Boss,” Charles muttered.

  Something passed between them, but since I wouldn’t be able to decipher it anyway, and Charles wouldn’t fill me in until Stefan left, I skipped ahead. “How am I alive after sucking in that much magic? I feel like Charles looks, only on the inside.”

  Charles snorted.

  Stefan brushed hair off of my face, and then laid his palm flat to my cheek. “I balanced it. Tempered it, you might say. Everyone has a unique strength with magic. Mine has always been orchestrating the flow, whether in myself or others. With enemies, it allows me to direct it in hard to work places in the body, lessening their ability. In you, I was able to fill up every square inch of your beautiful body, balancing the abundance. It was close, I’m not going to lie to you—I took a great risk that I’m not proud of—but I could see no other way.”

  I couldn’t help but stare. “I did not know any of that was even possible.”


  “There is a lot you don’t know. Which is why I have requested a master trainer. With your power level, they cannot say no.”

  I groaned, letting my head fall back. “I need a break from magic. My body hurts. Again.”

  Stefan smiled, a sight that had my heart pattering and my groin tightening. “Of course.”

  “So, aside from your heroics with magic usage, how did we get out of that building?” I pushed.

  Stefan bent to my lips and carefully kissed me. He backed off and stood. “I’ll let Charles explain. I need to see to the wounded. I’ll check in later.” He winked, and then was off.

  When it was just Charles and me, I said, “Well?”

  “I hope you don’t plan to be grouchy. I’ve had a bad couple of days and I’m not in the mood for your sass.”

  “My days haven’t been any better.”

  “Yes, but I am the man, and men suffer more thoroughly than women. Everyone knows this.”

  “So, I just ask you if that’s true, right?”

  “Exactly. We know better, and we suffer more. Facts.”

  “That scarf is ugly.”

  “We also have better taste.”

  I couldn’t help a laugh. “Please tell me?”

  Click, click, click.

  He sighed, loving to make me wait. “Well, first you stole everyone’s magic in the whole room. That idiot in the cape stared at you like a spoiled little brat who had his candy stolen. He ran, of course. Cowardly little bitch. You collapsed, as you do; so, the Boss lost his mind, as he does. He sliced and gouged Andris, nearly had him beat, before the building started to collapse. You almost got smooshed, which stopped the Boss’s fight right quick. Andris let the Boss have you as he ran after the man in the costume.”

  “The man in the costume?”

  “The caped moron—keep up. Right, so now the Boss has his prize. His men—us—have a victory nearly at hand, and the danged ceiling comes tumbling down. It turned out to be a narrow miss. With just a trickle of magic, and whatever he must have siphoned off you in your link, the boss had to blast his way out of a wall, hand you off to me, and get all his people out of there. He very nearly went down with the ship.”

  “Stefan almost died?” I whispered, fear and sorrow at the possibility choking me.

  “That’s his duty—make sure his people are safe. He wouldn’t be a leader so young if he couldn’t see to it.”

  I closed my eyes, my body shaking.

  Click, click, click.

  “Good news is, we destroyed their hideout. The building had a tunnel leading from their territory to ours. We couldn’t detect them crossing through because our spells are all above ground, and they were below it. Obviously. Hence the word ‘tunnel.’ So, we should be back to right where that’s concerned. Plus, you shook up Trek—he thought he held the most power in this corner of the world. Now there’s you. If we can get you trained, we can have some real battles! Let you deal with him so the rest of us can beat the piss out of the Eastern Territory!”

  The glee in Charles’ voice was unmistakable.

  “You nearly died, you’re burnt to hell, but you’re excited about more battles to come. What the hell is wrong with you?”

  “In a nutshell? I still have to be your bodyguard. Although, you are entertaining, I’ll say that much. If your moods weren’t so bad, it might be a fun gig.”

  “If my moods weren’t so bad? You have way worse PMS than I do!”

  Charles raised his chin with an important air about him. “I am a man—I am not moody, I am stressed because I am important.”

  I shook my head with a smile. “Idiot.”

  *****

  It took me two days to get on my feet. Stefan told me he wouldn’t have sex with me because he worried about my wellbeing; but when I took blood from him, then climbed in his lap, the fight went out of him.

  We ate breakfast and dinner together, and slept in the same bed—a practice he wanted to continue forever. I wasn’t so sure. What would happen when he had to take a mate? Three people in a bed were too many for my taste. Plus, I wouldn’t be able to share him. I didn’t want another woman so much as looking at him for too long. It made our future extremely uncertain.

  Add to that a bigwig coming to this clan specifically to evaluate my strange and usually not working brand of magic and…I needed a fast ride. I hadn’t made Charles scream yet, but I wanted to give it another try.

  “Hurry up!” Charles yelled. He’d been waylaid with me, not admitting he needed time to heal. Thankfully, he didn’t have to. He was still my bodyguard, so he got to rest while I did. So, now that we took the opportunity to go for a drive, in which I would absolutely speed, he was antsy.

  “Jesus, slow your roll. I had to put on my shoe—“ I cut off.

  Sitting in the driver’s seat of my car, wearing a black and gold bowtie, was a ‘me’ sized teddy bear.

  “What the hell is that?” Charles asked, staring.

  I smiled, my heart filling with love. I felt an answering warmth through our shared link. “Stefan is fulfilling his duty.”

  The drive was fantastic, flying over hills and speeding around turns. I felt as light as air. Charles swore three times. And all the while, the teddy bear was in the back, bouncing around like it was in a jumpy-house, grinning happily—a symbol of the love Stefan and I shared.

  THE END