Chapter 5

I walked straight for the woods, of course in this area woods were in any direction, but I went straight out the front door and took a left at the third tree. The area was a little uneven, so it was less of a walk and definitely more of a hike. After thirty minutes, and a nice little workout, I had found myself a nice little clearing. The area was a little more than ten feet in diameter. On two 'sides' there were fallen logs, but the center was relatively flat. Not the most ideal place to do some sword work, but this is where I would be fighting if there was fighting to be done.

What the fuck.

Normally I would take this chance to throw a little kinetic energy around, then maybe a little air magic, definitely avoiding fire and lightning (my specialty.) Today would be a little boring. I set my bag carefully against a tree before taking off my shirt, leaving me in jeans and a tee shirt.

I knelt on the ground outstretching my arm and spreading my palm, placing it on the ground. It was cool and damp, and frankly kind of gross, like mud that hasn't quite dried since before there were dinosaurs. I built up a huge amount of energy, before I released it. I held it in as long as I could; It felt like a high fever burning through my entire body. My joints ached, I wanted to puke, and pass out.

I released it into the ground, before I could follow through with any of those wants; and felt better almost immediately. Normally this amount of force would be enough to destroy a wall, or at least punt a bus for a hundred feet; but focused on the Earth the only effect was a wave of relief. And a small tremor, no more than point five on the Richter Scale.

I couldn't believe how much better I felt, the weight of the dream was lifted, the gravity of the situation had receded some, and I felt at peace. I sat on a log starring at a tree until I felt the urge to move.

I jumped up and grabbed my sword out of the bag; admittedly it wasn't as smooth as I wanted it, I swear that it did not want to come out of the bag. I made a mental note to oil the blade and practice that draw in the future.

I felt the weight of the sword in my hand, or rather the lack of weight, I never thought that I would use a rapier; I figured a giant broadsword, or maybe a pair of short swords, but not a rapier. Rapiers aren't really for fighting, there for fencing, fencing isn't fighting; it's dancing, with swords.

Of course that decision wasn't up to me. All swords wardens use are made the same way. The captain brings a sword blank, the warden places his or her hands on the blank, and focuses some will on it. At that point the right sword is imprinted on the blank. Then all the captain has to do is forge the sword. Some come out as sabers, broadswords, long swords, but for some reason most come out as rapiers. But they fit the warden like a glove.

I'm decent when it comes to swordplay, mainly it's because I practice all the time. It relaxes me, what can I say. I have good speed, good strength, and one hell of a lunge; that's what happens when you're just over six two and carry a ton of muscle in your legs.

There's a rush I get when I'm using my sword, granted that I haven't been in real fights much, well none actually. The swords pretty new, newer than the last couple of battles I was in. None of that stops me from honing my technique as much as I can.

I tossed the sword from hand to hand a few times getting comfortable in my little clearing. I tried a little formal foot work. Shuffle, step, shuffle, step, rinse, repeat, shuffle, step. This translates into something similar to the duel in The Princess Bride. It was clinical and technically perfect. Of course I couldn't use any of that in a real fight. Instead I decided that learning to run with my blade in this mess was much better.

This wasn't working, swords are fun magic is much, much funner. I know funner is not exactly a word, but I think that this is an appropriate time to use it. I'm frustrated by this whole lack of magic; my world has revolved around it for almost four years now. It wouldn't be a problem if I weren't a perfectionist! Every time I cast a spell I see a flaw in it, either in concept or execution, and I would repeat it again and again until it was as close to perfect as I could get it.

I was close to saying, 'Screw it!' I thought about marching right over to the Cullen's place and grilling them on the spot, why try and hide what I am use the fear to my advantage.

Of course they could sense my coming prepare to kill me and do it as soon as I get close. Glass half full Marsdon, glass half full. This plan was probably for the best, maybe it wasn't the Cullens after all, for all I knew.

At this point I was sure of exactly three things: one, I wanted to get this over with; two, I don't like vampires; and three, I had an itch on the bottom of my foot that just wouldn't go away.

That last one is easily remedied. I sheathed my sword and put it back into its' carrying bag with my staff. I sat on the left hand log bordering the clearing and untied my tennis shoe (not the best choice of foot ware for hiking I might add.) The log was cold and covered in moss; I definitely need to remember not to sit on moss in the future. I ripped my shoe off followed closely by my sock and scratched my foot so hard I thought it might bleed. It didn't of course, but it felt like a little slice of heaven.

That's when it happened, bad shit always happens when you're inconvenienced. I had this terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach and the hair on the back of my neck stood up again. Fuck. Twice in two days. I barely had enough time to react to what was happening, let alone put my shoe on.

Before I could even think I dove off the log towards my bag. Just as I did that a great whoosh past over where I was just sitting. I landed just out of arms reach of my bag, not to mention on top of quite possibly the only exposed rock within a hundred feet. Ouch, fuck! My brain stuttered before it started working again, my would be assailant thought I was down for the count and made a fatal miscalculation.

He did the stereotypical stand over the body and gloat move. Terrible idea when you're fighting a wizard. And of course I was dealing with a vampire; all the signs were there: blood red eyes, way to pallid skin, ungodly good looks, and of course speed and strength no human could ever match. I called up a huge amount of force, much bigger than the blast I had put into the ground. I was forced to I haven't mastered the fine control of evocation yet and without my staff as a focus I had to use twice the amount of force I would normally use.

As he kneeled over his 'victim' snarling, I put my hand flat against his sternum, before looking him square in the eyes and yelling "Frozare!" The wave of kinetic energy hit him like a small bus, or at least a large SUV. He flew off of me like a stunt double in a bad Kung-Fu movie. It only bought me a precious few seconds but it was enough for me to reach my sword. I grabbed the handle of the sword with two hands. Not the proper technique I know, but desperate measures and all that.

I turned to find the vampire charging at me at full speed. Something slightly more visible than a total blur. I tried to sidestep this charge but my barefoot slipped off of something wet and slimy causing me to loose balance and fall, again. Oh good god, that rock is out to have me killed!

This is not my day.

Calling up that last blast of energy had knocked the wind out of me. I gave myself a small break and relaxed. That lasted a whole tenth of a second before I rolled and got to my feet, again. He charged me again, I'm glad this guy doesn't really know how to fight; he's going straight on instinct and not thinking anything through. I readied myself for this charge; I braced myself as best as I could in one shoe on a very slippery patch of ground. He came at me hard and fast; I could tell he wanted to end this as much as I did.

At the last second I slashed downward aiming for his knees at the same time I sidestepped, successfully, out of his reach. My sword is designed to cut straight through any magic or magical entity, and while vampires don't normally use magic they have some of it stashed somewhere. Knowing all of this I was surprised when the light cut I used to cut a tendon or two went straight through to the bone. My stroke landed just above his knee. He tumbled head over heals before falling on the same rock I had. That is a seriously mean rock. It doesn't care what it kills.

He screamed in pain as he laid there, hell I couldn't blame him he'd just received on hell of a paper cut. He didn't try to get up; he looked toward me snarling something fiercely primal. Thick, dark red blood began to flow freely from the wound much to slowly to be human. Think molasses in January.

I'm not the kind that normally kills first and asks questions later, but when I'm attacked without warning I tend to do the opposite. I walked straight over and stabbed him through the heart; or tried to at least. He'd just been playing possum. He grabbed my ankle in an inhuman vice grip, burying his nails in my leg. I screamed something that admittedly was not as heroic as I intended, that didn't last long. He pulled my leg out from under me. I hit the ground with a loud thump. It took a moment before I caught my breath again.

The bastard tried to stand again, but couldn't. The cut to his leg kept him from standing completely. He shifted all of his weight to the good leg and let the other hang there for support. He gave a deep guttural growl before jumping down me. I managed to thrust the blade up and into his heart started to run down the blade covering my hand in jellied blood. He let out one last gasp before collapsing on top of me.

I rolled him off of me, and went back to the log I had been sitting before all this had happened. I finally had the opportunity to put my shoe back on and I took it, if something else wanted to attack me it would have to deal with a fully clothed me!

The real question: what do I do with the body? Unlike in the movies most vampire corpses don't burst into flames, or turn to dust. They just stay there and rot, a lot like a human corpse. I could set it on fire, fire normally destroys most kinds of bodies, then of course I could set the entire forest on fire, that would be bad, or the smoke could attract people, if there was smoke.

I can't risk a body being found here so I had to dispose of it. I wiped my sword on the towel I keep at the bottom of the bag for just such emergencies and stowed it back in the bag wiping my hands and face off. I casually tossed the shirt and towel on the corpse. From my bag I pulled a thickly carved length of ash, the Norse runes running along the staff glowed red as I gripped it. Only occasionally do I use it for fire magic, but this is one of those times. I held the staff in a normal short hand grip pointing the tip of it towards the corpse, which began to decompose rather quickly fouling up the air around me with a stench like a rotten egg covered in limburger cheese and crammed in an old shoe. I focused on creating a small controlled column of fire; I thought it best to avoid a thirty foot arc.

I took one long deep breath focused my will and said, "Fira," with some intensity. The fire poured out the other end. Most people are spoiled with advanced CGI in films; in the real world fire magic is a lot less pretty. Real fire magic looks exactly like flame from a flamethrower, but with a tighter stream. The spell worked like I had hoped, a bright yellow column of fire spewed from the tip encompassing the head, than torso and arms, then finally the legs. A thick dark plume of purple smoked curled up form the body, but soon it was over and the remaining smoke dissipated.

Angrily, I shoved my staff back into the bag, turning on my heals.

Playtime is over, my cover is over; time to act and act quickly. It's time to get some real information from Bella, none of that mild prodding, full on smoke filled interrogation room, single light in the center on a flimsy cord. I was going to go Film Noir on her!

I grabbed my shirt and bag and ran back as fast as I could, not bothering to put the shirt on until I got within sight of her house. The earlier cloud cover had broken up some and there was a hint of sun peeking through. I was muddy, wet, dirty, and royally pissed off. This was going to come to head a lot faster than I wanted too, I haven't done any preparation, and I don't have a plan. I just know that if I was attacked once it would happen again, and again, and eventually innocent people would be hurt in their wake. I'm not about to let that happen.

I had no need for secrecy anymore if the seer wanted to know what was unleashed, so be it. They would know that I was a wizard and hopefully would know some measure of my combat prowess. I was provoked, as soon as I had any information I was going to make a call straight to Captain Luccio, and get as many wardens down here as I could to destroy the coven. Originally I wanted to resolve this matter peacefully but I was wrong. Nothing is ever easy. I shook my head.

When I arrived back at the house the police cruiser was gone. Thankfully the old Chevy was still there. I walked into the house and stopped. I heard voices coming form the second floor. One female, definitely Bella, and one male I didn't know, that much didn't surprise me. I stretched out my senses again; the cold spot was back and bigger than last night. There was definitely something supernatural up there, most likely a vampire. Show of force time. I don't think this is going to end well, I barely survived one when I was a full strength, now I may have to fight one tired and dirty. I ran back to my 'room' to get my blasting rod and my shield bracelet. My rod was like my staff, but was designed for me to use lightning based magic, most people who saw it would call it a wand, but 'wand' isn't as intimidating as 'blasting rod'. My shield bracelet was a braided silver band with a dozen tiny medieval shields dangling from it. Harry helped me design it to block kinetic energy.

I headed upstairs blasting rod in my left hand, sword in my right. I thought about listening to conversation, but I was already to go guns blazing so to speak. Without another thought I opened the door. I held my breath as I entered the room. And I held my bowels when I looked in. They weren't exactly going at it but it was pretty damn close. They didn't notice me when I entered, or for the next thirty seconds as I stared dumbfounded. Had I just wandered into bizarro world? The vampire was actually shining; they just don't put things like that into the books. I was seriously confused, was this vampire, I saw enough of him to be sure he was a vampire, a part of the coven that tried to kill me? Only one way to find out.

I cleared my throat to indicate they'd been caught. What followed was the typical shuffling of sheets and clothes as the tried to act innocent. "Relax I don't care what you've been doing." I dropped the fake British accent, Bella looked surprised by this, "No, I'm not really English, I'm a wizard." I said matter of factly; I received two perfectly perplexed stares. "You're a vampire sparkles," damn I'm clever "and you're sliding into third with a vampire, Bella, and you don't believe I'm a real live wizard!" I should have been angry, after all some just tried to kill me, but I couldn't help laughing. Those two must have thought I was out of my mind, but holy shit it was funny. "Okay," I said putting my serious face back on, "I need to talk to both of you. I'll give you five minutes to get dressed, if either of you try to leave I'll turn you both into rabbits and tour the Pacific Northwest with you in a magic act. Do we have an understanding?" The last part came out a little darker than I had intended, but hell it was ten thirty in the morning and I've already had a bad day.

The two nodded in agreement. "I'm going to be right outside this door, don't try going out the window." I walked out the door and shutting it most of the way. I figured I had thirty seconds before they tried to go out the window; that means I would go back in after I counted to fifteen. Man that was a long, long fifteen seconds. I pushed the door open and strolled in. Apparently I interrupted them climbing out the window. "I'm not going to hurt either of you but we need to talk. I'm relatively easy going, but I'm not going to take no for an answer here."

"Okay I'll be willing to answer your questions if you answer mine." Sparkles said.

"I go first. A simple one, what's your name." I responded

"Edward Cullen, same question."

"Aaron Marsdon, Warden of the White Council. My turn, I killed a vampire this morning, his eyes were red, yours aren't, why?" Bella was getting uncomfortable; to her we must have looked like two dogs deciding whether or not to fight. It wasn't to far from the truth; I did everything I could to keep up a tough appearance, if it came to a fight I would make a good show but in this confined space I could just as easily kill Bella. That in turn would get me killed.

"My kind, have red eyes if they feed on Humans, gold if they don't. My family chooses to feed on animals. What's a warden and what's the White Council?"

"The White Council, are the more powerful practioners of magic, they act as a government of sorts. The wardens are the police and the army of the White Council. How many members are there in your 'family' and have any of them been feeding on humans recently?" I was beginning to think that this was a waste of time.

"There are Seven: my father, Carlisle; my mother, Esme; my two sisters Rosalie and Alice; and my two brothers Emmet and Jasper. Not one of them has fed on human blood. Why are you here?" This confirmed my previous suspicion about the royal waste of time. Edward didn't know anything, but someone in his family might. The seer perhaps.

"I have three more questions," I began, "If you wish to ask me three more be my guest. After." I paused, waiting for a cue to continue, after a tense pause he gave a slight nod. "First if I want you to look at a sketch of the vampire that attacked me this morning just to see if you recognize him; second I would like to meet with your family, will you arrange it; third would you let me speak with Bella in private? As to your question I am the warden charged with keeping the metaphysical peace in this area."

"Yes, to all three questions. I'll go home and talk to my family about this, bring the picture and you can show it to all of us. I'll call when things are ready." I nodded. He gave Bella a quick kiss before he went out the window. Here's a guy that doesn't know what a door's for. After he left I turned to Bella who had no idea what had just happened. She looked scared and on the verge of tears; I saw all the signs when Sparkles and I were talking. I walked over to her desk and leaned my sword against it and laid my blasting rod on the desk.

I gestured for Bella to sit, I had to give her credit; she had just stared down a very tense situation and didn't blink, the least I could do was answer her questions. As she sat I followed her lead and sat in the desk chair. A mirror image of last night.

"Bella, I didn't want it to happen this way. It was luck, or chance, or fate that I showed up here last night I chose a person at random that looked like he worked long hours. I didn't want to drag anyone unnecessary into this. I apologize. Before you ask I was never going to turn you into a rabbit, it's actually against the rules." The last comment brought the slightest of smiles to her face. "If its okay with you can I ask a few questions? Before I do is there anything that you want to ask me, I'll tell you truth, you deserve it."

She nodded, "Why did you lie?" Simple, honest to the point, she was definitely growing on me.

"You know that Sparkles err umm Edward and his family are vampires?" she nodded "Well one of them is an empath, someone who can read minds; and one of them is a seer, one who can see the future. I wanted to hide from them, meet them on my terms. That didn't happen."

"What are you going to do now?" She had a hidden motive here, but I didn't press it. Her body language, said it all 'are you going to kill them?'

"I'm going to meet with them. If they really don't eat people I'm going to ask for their help. There is going to be a serious problem around here very soon. Hunting during the day is very conspicuous. Something you do when you're either stupid, or overconfident, or worse." She relaxed and slumped down on her bed. I thought I saw tear roll down her cheek. "I'll leave you alone then. When he calls please answer it." She nodded. I got up and began to leave before I had cleared the doorway I cam back in a step and said, "If you want come, I'd be happy to have you as my second." She looked at me. "It means you come to the meeting and take over if I die." I said cheerfully. "It's a formality. Besides I uh need a ride, and I know you want to be there." I said using a normal nothing special tone, I wanted her to relax.

"Okay." She looked a bit more relaxed but still too tense and nervous. "I'll come. By the way, Edward is the one who can read thoughts, and Alice is the one who can see the future."