Chapter Fifteen

Grabbing a piece of stationery, I wrote a letter to Mama about school and my grades.

I missed her so much.

Maybe I could persuade Amelia to let me pick up some postcards so she could see bits of London. But Sanctuary was normal in some ways. They had cake in the cafeteria on someone’s birthday. People griped about their bosses. Those allowed to date fell in love (for everyone except the Agents set up families and personal ties). There was even a retirement party for the Director’s eighty-two-year-old secretary Agnes. She was moving to a drier climate for her rheumatism. I only met her once but the administrative staff seemed sad to see her go.

B2 remained off-limits and secret from the recruits.

****

December

Sensei head-butted me.

“You cheated! You teach me forms and harnessing energy and the honor of a warrior, then you cheat.” I touched the hurt spot on my forehead and my fingers came away bloody.

He didn’t appear the least bit ashamed. “In a fight you use every advantage in order to defeat your opponent. Know the rules so you may break them. Honor is optional. If your enemy is more concerned with honor than living, use it against them. This is how a demon will fight you.” Sensei kept circling me.

“Doesn’t matter. I’m not sinking to their level.”

“Your choice. But one day you might have to choose honor, or death.”

“I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it, Master.”

We started sparring again. He was strong, and fast, but I was faster with more reach. The fight picked up speed and we ramped up the power of our blows.

It was something of a shock to me when I managed to pin him to the floor, my fist on his chest from plunging an imaginary stake or knife through his heart. “I win.”

“I’m human. If you end up here with a demon, make sure it’s dead. Not every species has their heart in the same place.”

“Then what?”

“How’s your sword arm?” He rolled us, reversing our positions, and did a dive and tuck to the weapons wall. Show-off.

We were about to go at it again, when there was a knock on the doorframe. Sixteen stood in the doorway, prepared for her lesson.

Already? The hour had gone fast.

I bowed to Sensei and went to my room.

There were only a couple days left before I went home for Christmas vacation and I wanted to get some last-minute studying in. If I passed all my tests, I only needed a couple more credits to graduate. Somehow, Amelia convinced the teachers at my school to send materials at the pace I was progressing at, and I would probably take my finals in April around my birthday.

In June, I would walk down the aisle at graduation, visit with Mama a bit, and leave on my first assignment for The Agency.

“Ah, there you are,” Amelia said. “Good news. After holiday, you’ll get to go on live exercises.”

My eyes widened. “Battle simulation?”

“Indeed. There is little more you’ll gain from a classroom, Seven. The agents usually find it fun, like a retreat.” She patted my shoulder. “Think of it as a game.”

“Sure…”

I’d tackle that thought later. Right now, all I wanted was home.

Oklahoma City first, then Guthrie.

Longest hours of my life.

“Della, let me look at you!” Mama held me out at arm’s length in Baggage Claim. “We need to put some meat on your bones. They’re obviously working you too hard.”

“I’m fine, Ma, really…” At five-foot-six and lean, I currently resembled a tall gymnast, like those girls on the college teams. They’ve grown into height and curves, but the power’s still there. I never wore make-up when I’d be sweatin’ it off, so I still had the face of a kid.

“Your hair’s shorter, too. Who cut it?” Frowning, she reached to touch the ends.

“Mama…” My braid stopped just past that knob on the spine above my shoulder blades.

You learned quick Sensei would use a ponytail or free hair against you, so most of the girls had short hair now. I wrapped mine into tight braids around my head when I sparred.

Mama always liked my hair down to my waist, though.

We had dinner and hung out, watching a Christmas movie, then she went to bed.

But when I lay down, I couldn’t fall asleep. My body was used to being exhausted at night and I’d done little more than sit the last twelve hours.

“Screw it.”

I changed into active gear and snuck out my window, a hood pulled over my auburn hair.

Hunting outside Guthrie this time was different. For one, the night was creeping below freezing. For two, I’d just thought of it as hunting.

Didn’t expect to find anything, really, but the practice made me feel alive.

Anticipation, like waiting to blow out the candles, but darker.

Deadlier.

They would fear me. If I did find a monster, I knew it would be toast tonight.

But no such luck.

When my nose lost feeling, I went home and climbed into my warm bed.

Time here was precious.

January 2006—The Agency loaded us on a small jet.

Did they own it? No clue.

Only the active Agents knew where we were going. Us recruits were in the dark…all any of us had gathered was they didn’t want to run the sim in snow.

I moved to sit next to Thirteen. “Hey.”

He smiled. “Hey.”

“Been anywhere interesting?”

The smile morphed into a knowing grin. “Seven, you can’t butter me up into spilling the deets.” He almost always managed to see through me, dang it.

“I wasn’t! I’m genuinely curious.”

“Well, then, the surfing in Australia was great.”

“You went surfing?” I’d been stuck underground for months, and he was having fun in the sun at a gorgeous beach…geesh.

He shrugged. “Nothin’ else to do during the daytime. We were watching a clan of wannabe vamp gangsters, see, so all the work was at night.”

Lookin’ for a good tale, I angled my body in the seat to face him. “What happened?”

“Set fire to the building, picked off the stragglers, and came home.”

A fire? There had to be more to the story than that. “Wasn’t that dangerous? The fire could spread to innocent properties.”

A chuckle. “Nothing was innocent in that neighborhood, believe me.”

“Did you evacuate?”

“We worked on the Other Side. Wasn’t a regular fire.”

What did he mean by that? “The other side of what?”

“It’s a parallel world to ours, the stuff we can’t see with the naked eye, and a realm of spirits. In a peaceful, innocent place, the Other Side could look really beautiful, but where demons congregate, they turn it into a nightmare. That feeling of a sudden chill up your spine—that comes from something on the Other Side passing too close to your ‘echo’, the intangible life energy of all living beings. A summoner can use your echo to bring you to the Other Side and trap you—even in Hell.”

“You mean nasty things we can’t even see have access to us all the time?”

He shook his head. “Man, what’s Thornhill teaching you?” He angled toward me. “It’s more complicated than that. It would take a lot of magic juice, and something personal from the target, like hair or blood. Most things don’t want to wander in the spirit world.”

Thank God…he’d terrified me for a second.

“Why not?”

“The good is too good and the bad is really bad. Easy to get lost. You see the true state of a person or thing. Not something you forget.”

“You’ve been there often?

The look in his eyes became a bit haunted. “A few times, when it was necessary. The Director doesn’t ask it of everybody.”

“Why you, then?”

His gaze shied away and he cleared his throat. “Anybody tell ya you ask too many questions?”

I could take a hint.

“So…fight drills. How’s that work?”

“We really play Red Rover. Don’t tell HQ.” He winked.

I elbowed his arm. “Jerk. Fine, don’t tell me.”

He grinned widely and my tummy fluttered. Crap.

I shut off the seventeen-year-old part of me that wanted to crush on him. We weren’t the kind of people that got to date, and he was my superior. The Agency discouraged “entanglements” so we remained “objective”.

In another life…well, in another life we wouldn’t even meet, with a seven-year age difference and comin’ from different states.

I went back to sitting with the recruits. Someone had brought a checker board.

The plane landed.