CHAPTER 10
Pressure was building between the two boys, and it did not take those of magical inclination to feel the power and hatred coursing from them.
Both pushed their spheres of energy forward in front of them. The two powers collided with a great explosion, throwing both boys back. Only one of them landed unharmed.
Chase had used his legs as leverage, balancing himself then dusting off. Caleb had not been so lucky. He hit a tree, splintering the oak into hundreds of pieces.
The others looked on in horror as Caleb fell to the floor; tiny splinters of wood fell upon his still form. Looking at the other boy, his pitch black eyes staring triumphantly, Chase walked slowly to the fallen boy. Twigs and leaves crunched beneath his boots.
Jenny and the guys, frozen a moment before, moved to aide their fallen comrade. Chase held a hand out, halting them.
"One more step and he dies." Caleb coughed suddenly, painfully struggling to get onto his hands and knees. Panting from the effort, he slowly raised his head, glaring coal black eyes at Chase.
"Oh, don't look so mad. You had to know that you could not beat me," The fallen boy straightened up, his power ebbing rapidly.
Chase walked closer still, a sphere of energy in his left hand.
"You die either way, say goodnight." Chase began to swing his left arm forward like a pitcher.
Sharp teeth tore into his arm a half a second later. Looking down in pain and anger, the boy roared in outrage. He shook his arm wildly, but to no avail.
The silver wolf kept a firm grip on the arm, her electric eyes blazing up at him. The sphere sizzled away as she held onto his left arm, using her front paws to hold onto him.
With his right hand, the furious boy swung at the wolf, hitting her back. She held on regardless of his assault. Tyler, Pogue and Reid jumped forward before he could swing again, tackling him to the ground. Pinning him, Caleb stepped forward, knowing that Chase was far from beaten.
Jenny kept a firm hold, her teeth shimmering with crimson blood. Tyler, who restrained Chases' left arm, looked at the wolf.
"Let go, it's ok, you can let him go now." The blue eyed boy was confused when the wolf kept a steady grip, rivets of blood flowing from her muzzle.
"Jenny, you can let go now, we can handle it from here." Caleb said, Pogue, then Reid, released Chase cautiously. Tyler let go as well, confused as to why the captured boy did not fight back.
As a matter of fact, the boy looked to be quite drained, white of face and shaking.
Perhaps it was a fear of the wolf?
No.
Not entirely.
'I think that should be enough,' Jenny said telepathically. She opened her jaw, releasing the boys' arm so that it fell to the floor lifelessly. The boys looked at her in confusion, then at the pale boy on the floor.
"Jenny? What's going on?" Reid asked, crouching to examine their enemy.
The wolf began to stretch on its' hind legs. She transformed back into human form.
"Thank goodness I could keep a hold on him for so long," Jenny said, wiping at her brow.
"What was that? Why is he like this?" Caleb asked, kicking at the other boys' side. Pogue and Reid looked or wearily.
"A spell, a powerful one at that, you see, my teeth held a sort of draining magic. The longer I held onto his arm, the more power he lost. That is why I could not let go, I wanted to be sure he would be quite weak before releasing him."
"That's brilliant Jenny! Who knew my cousin had it in her?" Everyone turned to see Rose hopping out of the cave entrance. It would have been a humorous sight, had the situation been different.
"ROSE!" Everyone ran to meet her, Caleb getting there first, even with his injuries. He threw his arms around her. He hugged her, not letting go even as the others rushed to her to free her. Once free, the emerald eyed girl hugged him back, tears falling from her weary eyes.
"Don't make us pull a hose on you two," Pogue joked now that they had their friend back. Rose let the leader go, but he held her still. Jenny smiled at her cousin.
"He was always thinking of only you, and of rescuing you. He really wanted to get you back Rose." The others nodded at Jenny's statement, including Caleb, who had his face buried in her shoulder.
Rose smiled softly at the young man.
"Thank you for caring about me that much Caleb, having friends like you makes me feel so much happier." Caleb pulled away from the young girl, smiling.
"I have to admit that I was a bit mean to Jen…" Rose scowled at him, and he continued. "No need to get mad, Tyler told me off good already."
Rose smiled sweetly at Tyler, who laughed shyly.
"Wait, what about Chase?" Reid asked, everyone turned to look at the boy. Their jaws dropped, however, when the spot where they left him was empty.
"Where the hell did he go?" Caleb bit out, furious.
Once again, he slipped through the cracks…
"We will just have to wait and see his next move Caleb," Rose said, sitting next to her cousin on her own bed in their dorm room.
"He got away again! How? We let him escape again, next time he may just kill Rose and cut out the middle man!"
Rose rolled her eyes skyward. Jenny and the boys sat in various places in the dorm, all staring intently at Caleb.
"Look, I think now we are much stronger. Our collective powers have grown as we bond. We are tied through friendship and magic, if he shows up again, he will be weaker. We will be able to beat him." After Rose finished, Pogue stood up.
"That is yet to be seen. For now, tell us about what happened. How did you get Chase to leave the cave?"
"Well, to sum it all up, he tried to take me somewhere to bare his child, I ran, he looked and I used some magic to throw my power so it seemed I left the cave."
Everyone blinked.
"Whoa, whoa, slow down there Rose… What was that about baring his kid?" Jenny asked, voicing everyone's unspoken question.
"He told me he wants me to have a baby with him. The baby would be really powerful, containing both of our powers."
Everyone stared at her for a minute.
"Who would want to have a kid? Dirty little rug rats wiping their runny noses on you…" Pogue said, breaking the silence.
Everyone turned, scowling at him.
"Eh, and with Chase, that makes it much worse… yea… worse…"
Sighing, Rose nodded in agreement. Caleb stared at the floor, practically burning a hole in it.
"That's another reason why we have to get that guy. If he does manage to get her pregnant, their baby will be twice as strong as him." Caleb frowned, not looking up once as he spoke. One would pay a million dollars to know what was going through his head at that moment; the look on his almost completely hidden face spoke volumes.
"Locating spells will only work if we had something of his, hair or even a shoelace." Jenny said, running out of ideas on how to catch the jerk that kidnapped her cousin. Now that she thought of it, she did not know much about this guy.
It was best to know your enemy just as well as they know you.
"Who is this guy anyway? How do you know him?" the silver eyed girl asked.
"To make a very long story short, he is like one of us. One of magical descent, he is the fifth son of Ipswich. We did not know he existed until a few months ago, and even then, we did not know he was magical. He started spouting off at the mouth about wanting my powers, I kicked the crap out of him, and then he disappeared. You know the rest."
Rose and Jenny nodded in understanding. They figured they would learn more about this young man, whether they wanted to or not.
"So, we are just going to wait around for him to get a hold of the girls?" Reid said, looking at the younger girl in concern. Caleb looked at Rose the exact same way. Tyler, who sat beside Jenny, leaned a bit closer to her, subconsciously.
"No, we train, get stronger, and get ready for when he does show up. We won't take chances with the girls," the leader said, standing up.
"I like the sound of that, when do we start?" Rose asked, looking up on admiration at the serious boy.
"How about right now," Caleb said seriously. Everyone stood, nodding.
In unison, their eyes blazed, the guys' orbs becoming coal black, Jenny's illuminated silver, Rose's emerald.
"Let's go," Tyler said, they started for the door.
"What if someone sees us?" Rose asked, everyone froze in their spots, all feeling dumb for overlooking that detail.
"Window?" Jenny asked, everyone looked at her, nodding sheepishly.
"Then here we go… again..." Jenny laughed, running to the window, jumping out. The group gasped softly. A huge flame erupted, then a blast of wind. Jenny, in her dragon form peeked in.
'Coast is clear, come on,' she said telepathically. Not needing to be told twice, the gang sighed in relief and jumped out and onto her back.