Authors Note: I hope everyone (in America) had a good Independence Day. And since I'm not in the mood to write more in this note; please enjoy.
Chapter 26
The reason I've never told anyone about my pre-battle ritual is it's incredibly boring. I take a slow shower, rarely with hot water; I dress in whatever clothes I feel are going to be lucky; then I sit in the corner and go through the battle in my head, over and over and over again, focusing only on things going right for a change. It's the one time where I manage to push out all my worries and look at everyone coming back tired, but smiling and completely whole. If I don't, I have absolutely no confidence that anyone will come back at all, much less unharmed.
After all the bull shit; I whip out my cock and just hammer it home until I can barely walk.
Just kidding.
I couldn't resist.
Really after I'm finished I try to do something to take my mind off the upcoming fight; sometimes I read, sometimes I watch a movie, other times I just sit and stare out the window. Today I did the latter, and it worked; I watched the sun streak across the sky (of course it was hidden behind a constant layer of clouds) and completely forgot about the fight that was waiting for me just outside the door.
Fifteen minutes before the sun set and we were supposed to leave I left the safe confines of my mind and rejoined everyone in the dining war room. The mood was tense, but there wasn't any internal tension. Thank God, because the last thing I wanted to see was Luccio on the ground with her staff raised threatening the Ice Queen who has one sword trained on Harry and another on Alice, who in turn has Slabs by the throat, while he's trying to open a stuck jar of pickles.
You laugh, but I've seen stranger things than that.
Everyone was doing a final check of their gear, Luccio and Harry with their staves and pistols, and the Cullens' with their shiny new swords and nothing else really. Looks like I'm late to a party. I belted my own rapier around my waist looking for conformation from everyone else. The way everyone looked back unnerved me, they were all really following my lead, all these people who have decades more experience than I do and they look to me.
It's just weird!
Like earlier this afternoon I summoned my staff to me with an effort of will. It flew across and into my hand; I didn't feel like crossing the room with everyone staring at me just to grab my staff.
I took a deep breath feeling the comforting smoothness of the wooden staff in my hands. That sounded a little sexual didn't it? What I mean is that it was nice to have the feel of familiar wood in my hand. Son of a bitch, I did it again.
Whatever, my staff made it into my hands from the other side of the room. There, that shouldn't be completely full of sexual innuendos; or maybe it is and I'm not realizing it.
In. Staff. Hand. Now. There that's the only way I think I can say that without implying something vaguely sexual.
"Everyone ready," I said slinging a band of leather around the top and bottom of my staff, making it easier to carry, "besides me."
"Um Aaron," Harry said, keeping his distance from me, "You're not wearing any pants."
What does he mean I'm not wearing any pants? Of course I'm wearing pants, unless I'm dreaming, and since Katherine's not here I must not be dreaming so that means I'm wearing pants. That's called a hypothetical syllogism… probably.
I didn't want to give his wild accusation any credence so I didn't look down right away. I looked to everyone else's attentive eyes, before giving my legs a side ways look; trying my damndest to make sure that no one would notice if I was checking the situation with my pants.
I'll be damned.
Harry was right.
I wasn't wearing pants, how embarrassing. I was standing in a room with a bunch of people who I thought were looking up at me; technically they were, but only to avoid looking at the black satin boxers with the breathable cotton crouch panel.
They are my lucky pair; I do not want to hear it!
"I'll be right back." I said trying to scrape together the shreds of my dignity, failing miserably in the process. I casually walked up the stairs attempting to ignore the shushed snickers behind me.
How the bloody hell did I forget to put pants on? Boxers, check; t-shirt, check; long-sleeved shirt, check; socks, check; old combat boots, check. How the hell did I miss the glaringly obvious detail of not having pants on?
When I got back to my pants, it took me two tries to put pants on the right way. The first time I was in such a rush that I put them on backwards; try zipping those up. The second try went better; I was able to pull them up over my boots the right way. I buckled my sword into place and ran back to the awaiting stairs.
Back down stairs Harry greeted me with a thunderous round of applause he was hoping would catch on.
It didn't, but no one stopped him.
"Are we ready now?" I asked pushing my way through the crowd to the front door, not waiting for a response.
The sun was just beginning to set when I left the seemingly safe house, sending a ripple of dull red light through the increasing cloud cover. The rain hadn't started again, but around here rain is never far off; hopefully it would hold off until after the fight.
There were two things Harry taught me on my first day as his apprentice; one spells never last past dawn, and two running water is a wizard's worst enemy. Rain is running water in its most basic form, and it has a nasty habit of ruining most spells. Evocation, combat magic, is one of the few exceptions; any wizard who earned the title of warden has learned how to work in the rain. Fire magic is still affected; after the spell it released and fire is created it behaves just like regular fire. Imagine that.
Three cars were parked out front, Emmet's jeep, Alice's Porsche, and a black Mercedes that I'd only seen in the garage; they were parked convoy style the Mercedes in the middle, led by the Jeep, and followed by the Porsche. This was probably what everyone was doing while I was up trying to get ready; this time I feel like I dropped the ball, leaving my friends, my love, the two closest things to family I had, and Rosalie to pick up the slack.
I pulled my cloak against me tighter, shuddering as the wind whipped around me. I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't hear Harry walk up behind me.
It wasn't until he grabbed my shoulder asking, "You coming?" That I realized I wasn't alone out side anymore. Everyone was either climbing in their respective cars or already waiting in them. I started following Harry to the Jeep; he climbed into the driver seat, and started it up right away.
I started to climb in the back when Luccio, who was riding shotgun, looked at me weird, "Dresden said you and the seer would be taking the rear." She said clearly too uncomfortable in saying Alice's name, though I know she knew it.
"Sorry," I said climbing back down from the back of the Jeep, passing Harry I gave him a slight guy nod. He responded with a similar gesture.
Luccio suspected something, I was sure of it, but I wasn't convinced that she knew exactly what was going on.
Not being one to look a generous gift horse in the mouth I walked over to Alice's car and climbed in the passenger seat, keeping my staff between my legs. Not the most comfortable seating arrangement, but I at least got to ride into battle with the sexiest valkyrie in the world.
Alice flashed a devilish smile, turning the key in the ignition; her smile was contagious, soon we were both smiling like idiots going to our deaths. She shifted the car into drive and followed the Mercedes out of the drive. Suddenly her wicked smile turned to a pout, a cute pout, but a pout none the less, "I don't get to go fast."
"Sorry," I said taking her hand in mine. "When were finished you can drive as fast as you want back here."
"Okay," the smile came back to her beautiful face.
It's about sixty miles from Forks to Port Angeles; on a good day this translates to just under an hour, factor in the fact that the drivers aren't quite human and suddenly the estimate drops to forty minutes. Harry may not have the super human reflexes of the other drivers, but he can manage forty-five through Chicago, at rush hour; that counts for something.
Thirty-six minutes later I started seeing several exit signs for Port Angeles, that's good time in anybody's book considering the one-oh-one is only a two lane highway all the way. It wasn't a bad drive; the rain was still safely in the clouds, giving me hope that we might have the advantage.
The black car soundlessly zipped around the Jeep, just as planned. The Cullen's were going to the warehouse district where the Red Courters were most likely to be hiding. Under normal circumstances they would be at one of the hundreds of estates they owned across the US; but these weren't normal circumstances, they would be hiding. To draw the Red Court out into the open, each of our vampires carried a unit of near expired O positive and ammonia capsules to block out the smell.
Wait a minute, Alice was a Cullen; she should be going with them. "Aren't you going with your family?"
"You're going to need my help more than they are." She responded quietly. That didn't sound good, not that I minded terribly that she would be where I could keep an eye on her.
I didn't have time to ask what she meant.
A terrible crashing sound echoed through the cramped confines of the car. Ahead of us the jeep jerked to a violent stop, Alice aptly swerved to miss it, as if it was a planned move. She swerved to a stop feet from the wrecked Jeep and the tall man wrapped inside.
"Get out!" She shouted, before throwing her door open, and rolling out onto the wet asphalt.
The words hadn't registered in my brain when the roof of the Porsche caved in; the vampire was no longer in the midst of the smoldering Jeep, he right above me. I followed Alice's lead and rolled out of the Porsche, staff in hand. The seat belt caught in the hilt of my sword keeping me from getting out of the crushed car. I grabbed for my boot and the knife I kept inside, when my hand was stomped on, crunching every bone in my left hand. Pain flashed through my vision, and I let out a blood curdling scream. He reached down, grabbing my throat, another flash crossed my vision.
Then his head disappeared in a third brilliant white flash. His body fell across me, pinning me to the ground. A small figure appeared in the corner of my eye just as I managed to free my mangled hand. Where the hell was everyone, the second figure pounced onto the corpse of the first; her red eyes looked me over hungrily. The pain in my hand was still blinding, and now suffocation could be added to my discomfort.
The bitch on top of me hesitated too long. Through the pain I managed to focus enough to gather the magic for a simple spell, gritting my teeth I shouted, "Frozare." A blade of pure kinetic energy erupted from my hand throwing the corpse and the new bitch from me; buying me enough time to cut myself free.
I tried gripping my staff in my left hand, but I couldn't force my fingers to close. I had a choice, fight without my staff, or without my sword. I didn't have time to choose, I let my staff fall to the ground as I pulled my sword free from its scabbard. I was still on the flat of my back when the new girl; a short, blonde vampire no more than thirteen, pounced at blinding speed. In mid air another blur took her down, with a crack of thunder; Alice lithely danced away from the girls counter attack; before jumping on the poor girls shoulders.
A sickening crunch later, and the girl's lifeless body collapsed on the cold street, wicked red eyes open and lifeless.
I struggled to my feet, looking at the battle for the first time. Harry and Luccio were fighting back to back against three fast and agile vampires; each let off bright bursts of fire, completely missing every time.
There were more vampires around us than I'd thought there would be, where we estimated maybe ten, we were dealing with fifteen maybe. Most were standing on top of the low storefronts around us, watching, waiting, for the right time to pounce. Panic was seriously starting to set in, my heart was racing, threatening beat out of my chest; my chest rose and fell in rapid staccato breaths. My entire left arm protested every move I made; it worked down to the elbow and then stopped entirely.
Alice was dancing around the narrow streets, fighting two or three of them simultaneously dodging their attacks like a well choreographed ballet; she was fighting for me as well as her. That wasn't right. If I didn't get my head together and fast; then I was going to end up a giant squashed insect, if I was lucky.
I picked my staff up as well as I could, resting most of it in the crook of my arm, balancing part of it in my smashed hand. I closed my fingers around it as best as I could without passing out from the pain. In the end I looked like a knight getting ready for the joust. I whirled at the sound of crunching gravel to find another vampire, squat and thick with muscle, fifteen feet away from me, squatting on the asphalt ready to pounce. I leveled my staff at him, waiting for him to make the first move.
If I could hit him with fire at the same time then I could cut his head off before he could think. I didn't have to think about it I just knew. Way too many hours playing "Virtua Fighter" for my old Sega Saturn.
The muscled vampire lunged at me with blinding speed, mouth open snarling. The only thing I could see were his hate filled red eyes. I didn't waste a millisecond, I willed as much magic as I could through my staff shouting, "Fira!" A thin column of red fire escaped from the tip of staff; connecting right with his snarling mouth, the spell lost most of its power before it ever managed to get to through the staff.
The force of the fire stopped him long enough for me to see his grotesque face, charred with burns. Another stunned second later, his head lay on the ground next to lifeless body; a scowl permanently scarred his face. A pool of thick jellied blood slowly leaked from the decapitated body, and the disembodied head.
There's never anytime to rest in a real fight, it's not like boxing where after every round you get to sit and take a breather, get some water, and get your boo-boos looked at. The one vampire had barely hit the ground when two more jumped off the roof tops landing near me.
"Today just isn't my day," I mumbled shifting my staff to get a better grip.
Neither of them gave me a moment to react, they charged at me from two different directions, the adrenaline surged in my body giving me a few precious nanoseconds to breathe. I planted my feet willing into the shield bracelet that I'd almost forgotten to bring. A bright blue shield emerged in front of me in a perfect half dome, the one to my left, a bald middle aged man slammed in to the dome shaped shield, throwing me back into the jeep and out of the attack path of the second attacker, and unremarkable man that was in his thirties.
I may have escaped from my two attackers, but I had no shielding from the jeep behind me, the open door dug straight into my back; filling my ears with the sound of cracking ribs. A sharp pain shot through my back into my chest with the speed of lightning.
Lightning.
Why hadn't I thought of it before? I braced my staff against the back of the jeep, using it and the leather soles of my boots to ground me. I willed as much energy as I could into the spell, compensating for my diminishing lack of control.
"Levitas," I shouted raggedly. A bright white bolt of lightning escaped from staff, splitting off into two separate bolts in short order; followed by the loudest crack of thunder I'd ever heard.
The result was complete and utter chaos. The primary bolt continued forward throwing all of the electrical energy behind it into the skull of the thirty something man. The secondary bolt connected with the chest of my other target, a middle aged woman with dull auburn hair streaked with grey.
The first bolt blew the skull of the vampire apart into a million fragments of skull; throwing his lifeless body into a brick façade of the storefront behind him. The second, less powerful; bolt arched out knocking the woman back fifty feet into a heap of smoldering clothes, hair, and skin. My tunnel vision broke for the first time, giving me a brief view of the battle around me.
The lightning also focused every enemy's attention directly onto me, buying everyone a few golden moments to attack. Luccio took two steps forward and gutted two of the vampires that she'd been fighting in moves I'd only seen in old samurai movies. Harry managed to cook two more in a sweeping column of fire. Alice didn't need the distraction; five bodies were lying around her feet as she continued to dance around the street like a deadly ballerina fighting another.
I crossed the distance between me and my target as quick as I could with cracked ribs and a staff cradled in a broken wrist. The mosquito was still lying on the ground completely dazed. She let out a loud death moan as I plunged my blade through her cold lifeless heart.
I looked around the street seeing where the next threat would be coming form; the rooftops were clear, the streets were clear (the others were doing the same thing I was,) we were the only ones left on the streets.
"That was fun." I said to no one as I wiped my bloody sword on my cloak. I made my way back to the twisted wreckage of the jeep, sheathing my sword. "Anyone hurt…besides me." I collapsed next to the Jeep's front tire.
"Kid, I love having you around, you take the beatings normally reserved for me." Harry said standing over me smiling from ear to ear. I wanted to punch Harry right in his nose.
Mainly because he was right. At this point I didn't care, I wanted to sleep, and I wanted some damn Vicodin.
"Lemme look at your hand," Alice said after piling her bodies into a loose heap that Luccio was now burning.
I reluctantly gave her my hand, trying not to cringe as she gently took it. Even with her cold gentle hands the pressure was too much to handle. "It's going to need surgery." Alice said with a worrisome look.
"How do you know?" Anastasia said walking over from the ashen remains of the other vampires.
"Carlisle taught me how to diagnose a broken bone," she said gingerly pulling my sleeve up, exposing my bruised arm. "He thought it a good idea considering…" She stopped talking as I glared at her. The last thing we needed right now was to let the Captain know that there was a regular human involved with a family of vampires. "Considering something like this could happen tonight."
If I'd been on the pain killers I'd wanted to be on it the bruise would probably look like Jesus; here in the world of pain it's a perfect shoe print. "I don't think it's broken, I'm pretty sure it's crushed; if we wait too long it might become infected. If that happens he'll most likely lose the arm," She said gently looking at the underside
"Bullshit, I know you put a first aid kit in the back. Splint the arm, give me something for the pain, and duct tape my staff to my arm." I growled one step away from crying. It wasn't the most sound idea, but it was the most practical; if we had to fight anymore tonight.
"That's it," Alice said gently stroking the back of my hand, "No more fighting tonight, there were only twelve."
It wasn't over, with the Black Council it was never over. They would have at least two cards up each of their collective asses; something bad was going to happen, and it was going to happen very soon; I could feel it.
"Do it!" I shouted letting the pain and rage fill my voice. A brief flash of hurt crossed Alice's countenance, but she complied. She returned a moment later with the big red first-aid kit, and an alien look on her face. My heart felt just like my arm for snapping at her.
She mechanically began splinting my arm with the crap in the bag, her face a neutral mask hiding her pain. She handed me a pair of large white pills and a small bottle of water. I took them as she started to tape the staff in my hand, twisting and pulling just enough to let me know she was pissed. The end product was something that looked like it came out of a bad science fiction movie.
A moment later, a cell phone chirped. All eyes turned to Alice; she was the only one who carried a cell phone. "Yes," she answered, "Twelve. You guys got the fifteen. Ya it was noticeable, if fire wasn't enough, there was lightning and thunder too. Tell Rose she's going to have her work cut out for her on my Porsche let alone Emmet's jeep. Totaled probably. Okay we'll see you at home. Bye." She hung up the phone slipping it neatly in her back pocket.
"Looks like taping your arm was pointless." Her voice was cold and dripping with venom.
I answered her with barely a whisper that only she would hear, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped at you." I struggled to get up when I saw it. A shadow of a man jumping from one roof to another. No one else seemed to catch it, too bad, cracked ribs or no when it comes to a foot race I have an ace. I started chasing after the clichéd man in black.
I fished out my little statuette and gave chase with my staff clumsily swinging around and banging into my leg in an irregular cadence. I began willing some magic into my cheetah idol, not much, but enough that I could close the distance with whatever was running away and still have some energy for the inevitable fight.
My legs began picking up speed of their own, and matching strength to go with it; I ran to the edge of one of the buildings on the street and jumped to the roof without thinking, my legs just reacted. The cloaked man was still ahead of me but losing ground to my enhanced speed. I poured more magic into my figurine, it started burning into my hand; if I pressed it much further it was going to melt, expelling all of the energy that I'd put into it. I didn't how many little one story stores this place had, whoever was leading me was doing a damn good job of separating me from the others, and if Alice hadn't seen him before, it was unlikely that she was going to see me if I was with him.
The dark figure jumped down into an alley at the edge of the building, jumping into the dark, I followed after him.
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