Part 4 (2/2)
Just. As far as Tony could tell the word just didn't belong in any sentence spoken since Leah had walked through his door. Just thirty-five hundred years old. Just got a Demongate on the old turn. Just a Demonic Convergence. Just imps. Just needed a wizard.
Wait a minute... ”How did you know?”
”Know?”
”That I was a wizard?”
”I felt you use your power when you kept that piece of flying metal from puncturing the bag, of course. Over the years I've become attuned.”
”To power?”
”Among other things.” Her expression as she looked up from rummaging in her purse was subtly s.m.u.ttier than anything Tony could have ever managed. He felt his ears grow hot. Hotter when he realized she was doing it on purpose.
”Stop it.”
”Sorry. Bad habit. Sugarless gum?”
”No, thanks.” She seemed more amused than contrite. ”Hang on; I thought the...” He waved a hand in the general direction of her stomach. ”... the gate thing was supposed to protect you.”
Her hand slipped under her s.h.i.+rt again. ”It does.”
”Then why did you need me out there saving your a.s.s tonight?”
”What makes you think that you weren't there because I needed you to be?” Three and a half millennia of confidence in the question.
”Well, I...”
”They tried to burn me at the stake once-well, actually, they tried a number of times, but in this particular instance, it rained for eight days. The wood was too wet to light, and finally one wall of my cell washed away and I escaped.”
”I'm surprised you didn't just...”
”f.u.c.k my way free? Devout Dominicans; a little too fond of barbeque but devout. They weren't interested. So...” She stood and slowly walked over to stand beside his chair, pus.h.i.+ng a pile of laundry out of the way with the side of her foot. She wasn't exactly looming over him-she wasn't exactly tall-but she was so there that he had to fight the urge to move away from her, to give her s.p.a.ce. ”... are you going to help me out or not?”
”Help you close up imp holes made by a Demonic Convergence?” He was amazed he got that sentence out with a straight face.
”This isn't funny.”
Okay. Maybe not entirely a straight face.
”If a shallow hole isn't filled in and the convergent energies keep hitting it and making it deeper, then something a lot more demonic could get through. If that happens, people will die.”
That took care of the smiling. ”I figured.” Nikki, Alan, Charlie, Rahal, Tom, Brenda, Hartley... ”They always seem to.”
”Yeah, they do.” Her palm cupped his cheek for a second and he saw thousands of years of people dying while she lived on. He'd have jerked back, but she was gone before he could move, sitting once again on the end of the sofa bed. It had happened so fast he could almost convince himself he'd imagined it. In fact, he had every intention of convincing himself he'd imagined it.
”So...” She leaned back on her elbows, crossed her legs, and kicked one sneakered foot in the air. ”... what happened to your teacher?”
And here they were back at the beginning. And why not answer? It seemed he owed Leah a confidence or two. ”She went back to her own world.”
”Her own world. Another world?” Leah asked when he nodded. ”Not a h.e.l.l?”
There were wizards nailed to a blackboard. ”Not exactly.”
”d.a.m.n.” Apparently, after living for so long, nothing much surprised her either. Tony appreciated how much that simplified things.
”Reality's getting a little crowded.”
”Tell me about it.”
”No.” Her foot kicked out and pointed. ”Your turn.”
So he told her. About the Shadowlord because that was tied up with the whole wizard thing but mostly about Arra and how he hadn't wanted to leave and she hadn't been able to stay. ”But she left a lot of information on her laptop about how to be a wizard and I've been...” He stopped when Leah raised a hand. ”What?”
”You're learning how to manipulate cosmic energies from a home study course designed by a wizard from another world?”
”Yeah.”
”Unbelievable.” ”What is?”
”Her cosmic energies aren't your cosmic energies.”
”What?”
”She's not from this world.”
”Duh.”
Gripping the edge of the sofa bed, Leah sat up and leaned toward him. ”Okay, I'll try and make this simple. It's all about energy, right? This Arra did teach you that?”
”Yeah.” He tried not to sound defensive and had a feeling he was failing miserably at it.
”So the energy of her world has to have been different from the energy of this world because the whole...” One hand rose to sketch a circle in the air. ”... world is different. Different planet. Different stars. Her energy pattern is therefore different. Following me so far?”
”Yeah.”
”So, on this world she had to adapt everything she knew to fit a new pattern. To make a square peg-her-fit in a round hole.
What worked for her here won't necessarily work for you. You are not a square peg. You're a round peg. The hole is also round.
You need to find a teacher who knows what's going on in this world.”
Beginning to get p.i.s.sed about the distinctly patronizing tone, Tony reached out for the spray cheese and the container slapped into his hand. ”I seem to be managing.”
”What is that?”
She sounded more appalled than impressed. Not the reaction he'd expected but then, he reminded himself, she claimed to have met wizards before. ”It's a can of spray cheese.” He turned it so she could see the label. ”I was eating it on beef jerky.”
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