49

"By the gods," Matt screamed out his frustration. "How many times do I have to deal with you fucking bitches?"

Jess was coming out of her drug induced stupor by now, and the sights around her had her moaning in fear while she struggled to free herself. Matt, for his part, was trying to break through this new protective spell he had encountered and I sent out a quiet thanks to the woman at the fair for protecting Jess. Then I moved back inside myself to try and fully free my power, because we were nearly out of time.

Looking at the orbs again I realized that the one that held my anger, and several other things, I already had some access to. It was the other orb that felt like it was the key to everything, and it avoided me like the plague. As I watched it for a few moments I realized that it was trying to get free. Apparently it was trying to get somewhere and only I could free it. So I stared at it, trying to think of where it needed to go, of where in me it needed to be to effect its purpose, and that was when I realized a profound truth. This was not my power. It was Kelli's.

In fact, when I made that final connection, my mind felt like the most brilliant sunlight had exploded into a darkened room, bringing with it a clarity beyond words. This power was the gift Kelli would receive if we bonded, and because it was needed now it was trying to get to her so that she could help. And so I knelt and took the glowing ball into my hands. I could touch it now because I was no longer trying to possess what wasn't mine, and I brought it up to my face and looked into its luminescent depths.

"Go to her," I whispered to the orb as I released it from its bonds. "Go and save us all."

I waited for something to happen, but the orb still remained, and I felt its increased need to get to Kelli as well as its increased frustration that it couldn't. Realization crashed in on me like a landslide and I knew what I had to do. This dark area that was part of my mind, that was an imagined visualization of a part of my psyche, was the part of me protected by the ward that had been cast. It was not only keeping things out of my head, but in this instance, it was keeping things in. I needed to open the door to let our power out, but that little nagging voice in my mind reminded me that an open door lets things out and in. I didn't see we had much choice though.

I concentrated on my instincts and let them guide me to where I needed to be, and let them instruct me on what I needed to do. I was afraid. Afraid of the consequences if it failed. A remembrance was brought to my mind in that moment, and I almost heard Kelli's dad reminding me in his firm but kind voice that sometimes you need to take a risk if you want to get the reward. My power had shown me the keystone that held the ward in place in my mind and I only hesitated for a second before I removed it, and then allowed myself to return from my mental sojourn.

Matt was still trying to get at a struggling Jess when I felt the ward in my mind dissolve, and the greedy lust filled desire for power that filled his eyes as he turned to me let me know that he was aware of the change as well.

"Finally," he crowed in exultation. "Now we've gotten somewhere. Don't worry my little Neko bitch. This will only take a moment, and then I'll have you kill your friends for me."

I panicked at that point, second guessing my own actions as I felt Matt's spell begin to burrow into my mind and heard the collar around my neck start to clink with a life of its own. I had put us all in the shit with no way out. The pulse of energy that followed my thought, however, knocked Matt onto his face and caused the ring of stones to glow with both sickly green and brilliant orange symbols. I looked over at Kelli and she stood tall, free of her bonds with her hair blowing gently in the cold Scottish breeze, and her eyes were glowing with a white orange fire that threatened to burn everything in sight.

"Oh, gods," Matt groaned as he struggled to rise from the ground once more. "This is getting terribly annoying. Just accept the inevitable and life will be better. Well, better for me at least."

The shocked look on Matt's face as he turned to face me, but stopped at the sight of Kelli, was nothing short of amazing. He clearly did not know what to do and his momentary flat footedness cost him everything he had worked for.

Kelli just stared at Matt, holding his gaze on her, as she began to speak in that same rhythmic language that he had uttered to invoke his spells. The difference was in the level of power flowing from and through her words. Where Matt had freed a flowing river of power with his harsh chants and his spell crafting, Kelli's words flowed like music and it felt like she had set free the raging torrent of a collapsed dam. Matt simply could not compete with her sheer power.

As she spoke circles appeared on the ground and on the stones, and the symbols on the various rocks that had been glowing green swiftly changed to the bright orange of the power blazing in her eyes. The wind was as a hurricane, the earth shook and groaned with terrible wonderful purpose, and the gates of heaven opened to rain down power upon us. And as suddenly as these manifestations appeared, they vanished.

Matt was probably as unsure as I was as to what had just happened, but his shock, anger, and hatred flared anew when he tried and failed to cast a spell at Kelli. His magic didn't fizzle, it just wasn't there, and the resulting effect caused more cracks in his already broken mind. He lunged at Kelli, attempting to stab her with the knife he still held, but she simply waved her hand in his direction and he was tossed back to the outer ring of the stone circle where he landed in a heap. I was expecting him to try again, but when he got up from this fall he decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and I watched him run into the encroaching darkness.

Kelli walked over to me immediately after he was gone, and with a touch and a word the collar around my neck and the shackles on my limbs simply fell apart. I leaped up to pull her into a much needed embrace, and I was surprised that I had to hold her up when she collapsed. I looked at her face, and I noticed that besides the absence of the glowing eyes there was a fatigue that had settled on her. She briefly clung to me like she did not want to let go, but after a short moment she pushed me back.

"There's no time for that, sweetie," she whispered to me in a very tired voice.

"He's gone now," I replied and indicated the Neko and Jessica across the ring from us. "We have to help them."

"I will do what I can here," she answered me, but pointed out into the forest. "But you have to stop Matt. I was able to bind the stone ring here against him so he could not use it, but it drained me. There is a secondary ring that I felt while I was chanting. He can still use that one to escape, and we need to stop that. Go, fast, and stop him so he can't hurt anyone else."

I nodded and left her leaning on the table where I had been bound, and I ran into the forest where she had indicated. I could now feel that anger that had been deep inside me, partially locked away by the ward that protected me, flow up and infuse itself into my body. I ran like the wind, ignoring the minor hurts and inconveniences that the forest branches and pebbles caused me, and I chased after Matt so that I could leave him with a body so broken that it would match his mind.

Within minutes I had come to a smaller clearing with its own tiny ring of stones, and Matt was kneeling in the center with another silver knife, drawing a new circle so that he could cast one more spell. The rustling of the leaves as I walked out of the forested area into the ring caught his attention and he looked up at me with a hate filled sneer on his face.

"So, you've just traded slavery to me for slavery to her," he said to me in a mocking attempt to irritate me, not knowing I was about to explode with my anger. "And the selfish bitches of the Circle get one more fucking witch to train up to be yet another mindless drone."

"And killing an angry young woman when she served no further purpose was any better," I spat back at him, crouching down into the basic fighting stance that I had learned. "Taking by force something that was someone else's to give because you think it's your right? That's better?"

"Don't play all noble goody-goody with me, you little shit. You get to practically live forever, never get sick, have the world at your fingertips, and your bitch of a new master has access now to more power than she could ever dream of! Unless you choose not to bond with her."

"If that is my choice, then that is my choice. But it's mine to make!"

"You just don't get it, you fucking cunt," and Matt held the knife forward, ready to strike at me if the opportunity arose. "You don't have the right to make that choice, to take away her power. To take away my power! She didn't have the right! It was mine!"

All reason had fled from Matt's now soulless eyes, and my anger had reached a tipping point as we both teetered on the edge of sanity. I felt an enraged sense of calm fill my body from head to toe, and it came with a strength I was not aware that I had. Matt's demeanor had also changed, and he was coiled like a cobra, ready to lash out at his prey. We were just waiting for the starting bell to be rung.

"You know Matt," I sneered, and I forced all of the anger and hurt that he had caused me into my words to mock him. "I'm pretty sure that, Anya was it? Sure that Anya chose to give up being a Neko because she wised up and saw what you really are. I know I would have."

That last taunt was the proverbial straw, and Matt's agonized scream of vengeance as he charged me with his knife just spurred my anger to new heights. Very quickly, though, I realized that I might be slightly in over my head. I had no idea how old Matt was, but clearly he had been around the block a few times. Unlike Jasmine he knew how to fight. His knife moved with blinding speed, and shifted from hand to hand quicker than a normal eye could follow. During that first few seconds of his attack I could do nothing but defend, and I still received a shallow cut or two in the process.

He was a demon with that blade, and he had ceased to care about anything other than hurting me, which made him both dangerous and inept. Any normal person would have been gutted by his reckless assault by now, but I was not a normal person anymore. I was a Neko, and this bastard of a human had threatened my friends with death, and me with enslavement. He had killed, cajoled, and manipulated events in order to get his own way, and now I would make this human pay dearly.

After I sidestepped his next lunging attack I struck the back of his hand with a stinging punch that made him lose his grip on the knife, and the surprise of the move caused a slight hesitation in his actions. That was more than enough. I hadn't had much training, but I used everything that I had learned. Snap punch, sword hand, snap kick, followed by a head butt to his nose. Matt had skill enough to block most of what I was doing, but not enough to block everything, and my superhuman speed and reflexes were taking their toll on him.

I broke some ribs, I dislocated a finger, and my nails clawed stinging gouges down the side of his face. His screams of frustration at no longer having the upper hand just made me that much happier and I continued to wear him down strike by strike. I maneuvered into position to deliver a crippling side kick to his knee, and my bare foot pushed through his fragile joint with the force of a truck causing Matt collapse to the ground screaming in pain. I had won, but this damn human needed to be punished.

"You hurt my friends, human," I hissed at him as I straddled his fallen body and pulled him up by the collar. "And now you pay the price for that."

And so I punched him across the face, over and over. When he reached up with one arm to try and stop me I locked it between my hand and my thigh. The wet tearing sound of tendons and ligaments letting go of their attachments was music to my ears as I hyperextended his elbow. His increased screams just added sauce to the meal. Over and over I pummeled his ruined body, and I noticed that at some point one of my strikes had pushed an eye out of its socket, and this only made me grin. He had threatened my love, my life, my family and the love I felt for them demanded I defend them in every way possible, no matter the cost.