Raven

Part 1

There are way too many old libraries in Florence. Each one is full of dusty old books, and crawling with people. After wandering through a dozen huge buildings, all the humans start to look the same.

Lucky number thirteen, the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana. Between the elaborately decorated walls and ceilings, the massive stone staircases, and the several roped off areas, I hardly find any books. It’s almost more of a museum than a library.

I’ve been searching for days. My feet hurt, I’m exhausted and hungry. I find a set of roped off steps leading down to the basement. Danae did say something about it being below, so I step over the rope and head down. It gets dark on the lower level, and it takes a moment for my eyes to adjust.

“Hey, you’re not allowed to be down here!” A man yells in Italian, I glance behind me to see a pudgy guard jogging down the stairs. I put one hand on my hip and glare at him. He storms up, grabs my arm, and tries to drag me back to the stairs. When I don’t budge, he frowns and pulls harder.

I give him a once over, and sigh. He’ll have to do. “Sorry darlin’, we’re not going anywhere.” I grab his jaw, forcing his mouth open and kiss him hard. I draw his soul out through his lips. As his life energy washes over me, the aches in my body fade away. The growling of my stomach quiets. The guard crumples with a permanent scream painted on his pale face.

I wipe my mouth on my sleeve. Down the other end of the dark hall, I notice a crack of light, in the vague shape of a door. When I reach the light, however, it doesn’t appear to be a door at all, but just part of the wall. How interesting. Using one of my daggers, I manage to pry open the panel. Behind, is a stone staircase that I have to crouch to get down. I make sure to close the door behind me.

The flickering light leads me down a bend, into a small room. There are about ten book cases in rows, four back to back on with one against the far wall on either side. At the mouth of the room are a set of couches, a desk and chair, and a few small tables. There are a couple oil lamps lit on the tables, and several books lay around the place, clearly recently disturbed. I search around the whole room, but there’s no sign of anyone. Until there’s a flash of light, and the screech of furniture pushed suddenly. I peek out from behind the closest shelf. A young man is in a heap on the carpet, left arm holding him upright on the seat of the arm chair, legs sprawled out in front of him. He’s wearing dark leather boots that have a flap over the knees, and a leather jacket, a white fabric shirt peeking out underneath. A curtain of dark chocolate hair hanging just above his shoulders, and a rather handsome smooth-shaven face.

His clothes are dirty, and appear to be singed in a few places. The smell of dirt and hay and smoke waft off him in waves. He clutches his right arm against his chest, where a growing spot of bright red catches my attention. He spots me and inhales sharply, brown eyes growing wide.

“What the hell happened to you?” I ask without thinking.

“Who… How did you get in here?” He demands, trying to hide the panic in his voice. “I swear I locked that door…” He mutters, pushing himself up to his feet with his good hand, and hiding the other behind his back.

“I walked in. You should try it sometime.” I smirk stepping into the light, not sure if he’ll be hostile. He takes a shaky step back, “Who are you? Are you with the Order? You’d have to be, to know where this place is…” He seems to be trying to convince himself more than anything. I notice he’s one step from the seat of the chair, and by the look of it, he’s going to fall over any second.

I glance around the dim little library with a frown, “This dump? I guess it was kind of hidden. Doesn’t really look like an Order base. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s a remnant of the Templars, based on the livery on the carpet.” I point to the ground and step closer again. I watch the look on his face as his shin hits the edge and he falls into the seat with a thud.

“Ouch…” He hisses, “I’ll have you know this is a treasure trove of lost information that is of great value to both me and the Order. Perhaps even the world!” His temper flares and he seems to forget the fear he had moments ago. I struggle and fail to keep a straight face.

“The whole world, huh? What does a kid like you need with all these old books?” I prod, and watch his face start to turn red. “I thought Chosen were all about going out and fighting monsters these days.”

The boy jumps to his feet, “How do you know about that?!” He swings his arm out to hit me. As I expected, he swings the injured one. I catch his wrist and he winces. “Why are you here?” He demands, trying to break my grasp.

I roll my eyes and meet his heated gaze, “You’re the one talking about the Order with a stranger, and you clearly used magic to get in here. Not very hard to connect the dots.” I twist his arm to see where the blood is coming from, but it’s completely soaked the sleeve. “Look at this mess… Take off your jacket.”

“Ow, ow, oww! Okay, okay, just let go. Jeez!” He complains as he backs up to lean against a side table. He removes the jacket slowly, and glances up at me through his lashes. “I’m hardly a kid with magic. I know more kinds of fighting than your pretty little head can imagine. I just prefer the pen to the sword.” A sly grin spreads across his features, and he winks.

This guy’s mood shifts faster than anyone I’ve ever met. I toss the jacket over to the couch and roll up his bloody shirtsleeve. I do my best to clear the blood away with my hands to assess the damage. It’s deep, probably a stab wound. He’s lucky it missed the larger blood vessels.

“Who are you?” He asks again, though he’s calm this time. “What’s your name, and how do you know about the Order?”

I study his curious expression for a moment. He looks so young, too young for this life. I focus on the gore instead. “I’m Raven. I guess you could say I work with the Order on contract, when they need me.”

“Raven? That's an interesting name? My name's Andrei. Andrei Hanganu. Do you have any special abilities?” He perks up, “Why would they need a cute girl like yourself?”

I chuckle at first, and it quickly devolves into a fit of laughter. I haven’t been asked such an innocent question in centuries. He looks almost offended by my laughing. I try to swallow it back and smile at him. “Yes… I have certain… abilities and skills. So they keep me around.”

“I see… Is that how you got in then?” His eyes narrow and head tips to the side.

I raise my eyebrows innocently, “No, I told you already. I found a suspicious door, I thought I’d check it out.” He goes silent and watches as I examine his arm. It’s still oozing, and with all this dust it’ll definitely get infected. I doubt we’d be able to sneak him out of here to a hospital, and I’m fresh out of Ambrosia. “This is a pretty bad wound…”

He chuckles, “Yea, I was, uhh… fighting a creepy monster-warlock in Ancient Russia. He tricked me with a knife hidden in a fireball.” I blink at him, then nod. Sounds reasonable enough.

“Gotta watch out for those warlocks. Demons don’t exactly believe in a fight fair.” I smirk, and as I look up into his eyes again I notice red on his brow. I brush his loose hair aside and find another small gash on the hairline. Great, he could have a concussion too for all I know.

“Don’t worry about me. I’ve had worse.” He waves his hand as he pulls it away to step around me. He makes it another two steps before he falls to his knees. “Or this is worse than I thought…” He groans. He sits back on his rear, one leg upright and the other sprawled out. He holds the offending wound up and squints at it, like he’s searching for something.

I heave a sigh, “Look, you’ve lost a lot of blood. We need to close that wound, now. There’s no time to go to a human doctor, and I’m betting you don’t have Ambrosia on you.”

“I should have some in my pouches!” He gasps, and starts pulling at the vintage utility belt until he finds a vial around the back. It’s empty. “Nope… That’s something else. I guess I’m all out.” He curses under his breath, and looks up at me with desperate wide eyes, “Got any better ideas then?”

I kneel between his legs, leaving just inches between us. “Just one. Hold still.”

He leans back, alarmed. I slip my hand around the back of his neck to hold him steady as I press my lips against his. He tries to speak, but I cut him off and it comes out as a grunt. I focus my thoughts on life energy flowing from me into him. He relaxes as the energy flows through him, and when I pull away he looks down at his arm. His jaw drops, seeing pink flesh where there was just a hole.

“How’d you do that?” He gasps.

I shrug and scoot back, resting against the coffee table. The side effects kick in almost immediately; I feel the flesh on my right arm tear and sting. My head hurts, and I feel like a ton of bricks. “I just did.”

He smiles, “That’s quite handy... Are you okay?”

I shrug. A shrill sound blasts through the room, and I flinch. We both look over at an old school dial telephone on the desk across the room. Who knew that thing even worked?

“That’s probably for me.” He chuckles as he gets up to answer. I roll my eyes. He’s lucky he’s cute. “Hey boss. I just got back from a jump. Yes, it went well. No… No injuries.” He says hesitantly as he glances back at me. “Stonehenge? Training some brat isn’t exactly how I want to spend my time.” He stops to listen for a couple minutes. I can’t quite make out the other voice. “Fine. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” He puts the receiver down and sighs. “Looks like I’m going to Stonehenge.”

“Looks like we are going to Stonehenge.” I correct. “I came here looking for someone on the advice of a seer. Judging by the circumstances, I’m gonna say you’re it.”

“What?!” He spins around, “You can't just follow me around! Besides, why would you need me? Got something in the past you want to deal with? Or something you lost? I don't exactly do vendetta jumps you know. Strictly research.” He huffs.

I raise an eyebrow, “Vendetta?” I use the table for leverage to stand up. “I don’t know where you got that idea. I’m looking for some Chosen that went missing, and you’re my only lead. Get it?”

He scratches the back of his head, “Well, can’t see how I can help you there. Guess you can stick around if you want. We should go book some plane tickets.”

My mind flashes back to the dead guard in the hall above us and I grimace. He doesn’t notice as he turns to gather up his things off the desk. He begins to strap various weapons to himself. I lose count and I watch with mild fascination. Maybe he’s a little more experienced than I gave him credit for, though he can’t be more than twenty. I pull the orb out of my back pouch with my good hand and wait. Several minutes later, when he’s done, I hold it up.

“What’s that?”

I smile, “It’s a lot faster than a plane, that’s for sure.”

His eyes light up, “And how does this work?” He reaches out to take it.

I pull it away quickly, “Ah-ah! You don’t see me trying to play with your toys, do you? Now, do you want a teleport, or not?”

He grins and winks, “You could play with them, if you ask me nicely.”

I narrow my gaze with a devilish smile, “Don’t tempt me.”

I reach out my other hand and ignore the pain as he laces his fingers between mine. For just a few seconds we’re surrounded with dark magic, and then we’re gone.

By Krystyna and Kayla

#Raven #magic #library #Andrei #italy #Florence #time #timejump #demon #Fantasy #Magic