Chapter 44 44
I floated up from a place of silence and blackness. It was so peaceful there. As I began to reach the surface or rather consciousness, the sounds and scents were overwhelming. Connor seemed to be yelling and there was thudding noises that echoed. Were we under attack? How long had I been out? I struggled for a moment but finally I unglued my eyelids and promptly shut my eyes again with a groan. Bright light! Bright light! More prepared this time, I pried my lids open again. It would appear that I was lying on the chesterfield in Matthew’s office. Connor wasn’t actually yelling, he was pacing (the source of the thuds) while he was on the phone. He must have realized I was awake because he ended his call and walked over to me.
“How long was I out?”
“You don’t know?” Huh? What kind of question was that to ask someone that had been unconscious? I shook my head. “So your spirit hasn’t been floating around watching everything we are doing?”
“Yeah, that only happens when magic knocks me out. Not when I get knocked out because my magic has been drained like your bank account when you’re in a strip club in Vegas.” Thanks to my attempting to circumvent that damn night night candle, magic could no long render me unconscious. Well not completely. My body might be down for the count but, my spirt, consciousness, whatever you want to call it, gets popped out of my body and floats around it like a ghost. I can see and hear everything going on; I just can’t interact with anything. Very annoying.
“You were out over an hour. Best I can tell, the spell worked and the town is safe for now. I put the ward up on the school as a backup.” Connor filled me in while helping me sit up. He handed me a to-go cup and I took a big swig. I laid my head on his shoulder when he sat down next to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulders with his head resting on top of mine. “You scared me. Don’t do that again.”
“Scared me too.” I took a moment to enjoy my snack before turning serious eyes to my partner. “This won’t infect me with a love of musicals will it?”
“Oh if only it was so easy to get you cultured. Now shut up and drink my blood I so thoughtfully donated for you.”
“I’m not something you grow in a Petri dish.” I finished off my snack and got to my feet, pulling Connor with me as I went to the door. “We got us a vampire mobster to catch. Where’s the pup?”
We found Tristan in the square talking to Thomas and Jeremiah. The sky had a goldish hue to it and I could feel the hum of power floating in the air. Tristan smiled when he saw us approaching. “Look who’s back among the living. Sorta.”
I ignored the pup to focus on the alpha. “Everything all set around here?”
“The town seems secure. One of our human residents didn’t receive the message about crossing the border. He landed safely in the jail. A group of teens thought it would be funny to shove each other across the border, thankfully, no harm was done to them. At least not until one of their mothers, who was patrolling the area, discovered them. I’d bet by now he’s wishing he’d landed in jail instead.” He scrutinized me for a moment. “Have you recovered from the spell?”
I conjured fire balls in both hands, threw them in the air, conjured one more and started juggling them. Point made, I snuffed them out with a smile. “Now I know why they said it takes four to enact this thing.”
Connor squeezed the bridge of his nose with a sigh. “They told you it takes four? Then why did you do it yourself?”
“I figured four of them equaled one of me. And hey, I did do it.” I cut off whatever Connor was going to say when I felt a zing come from my arm band. “Wards at the house are going off. Gotta go.”
I grabbed the boys and ripped a portal to my place. I sealed the portal after we stepped out in my weapons room. I hated to rip the portal inside the wards, someone could reopen the portal from the departure site and then be inside the wards, but if we going into battle, I wanted to secure the armory. I’ll be damned if I was going to be killed with my own ax! While the boys armed themselves I went to the living to reach out to the wards, looking for any signs of a breech. The wards around the house were intact however, the additional wards I had set up around the perimeter of the yard were ringing out. I released the wards and turned to the boys when I heard their footsteps heading my way. Tristan was carrying a dagger while Connor was cocking a 9mm when they came back into the room.
“House should be secure. But, you guys go ahead and check it out. I’m going to check the yard.” I rotated my right hand to call the Sword of Aries as I went out the front door. Seeing nothing out of place around the front of the house, I swung a left to go in front of the garage to the tree line where the perimeter ward was set. Still seeing nothing out of place, I walked the tree line to my backyard. Once I cleared the garage, I could see something lying by the tree line on the backside of my yard. I dashed across the yard to what turned out to be a body lying inside the ward. After glancing around to make sure it wasn’t an ambush I rolled the body over for a closer look. She hadn’t been there long, I could still feel enough magic coming off her to know she was a wizard. I was staring at her face trying to decide if I knew her when the boys walked up beside me.