Samantha had her arms crossed, standing on the ledge of the roof. It was a parking deck overlooking a pocket of the business district of the city. The air was still warm even at this time of night but she felt the chill from her geist. It kept her focused. Tapping one metal finger against her gauntlet she just kept staring ahead.
Things were quiet tonight which felt unusual despite everything. There would at least be one wraith cooking in all the time that had passed. Then again one week may not have been enough. Rey was out there and the Legion was searching for him. No one had found anything and it just meant that they were all split up and tired.
And then there was Dick. His words in the facility still stung. Behind her mask she grit her teeth hard. After everything they’d been through, he had the gall to say he didn’t trust her. Even with the circumstances. That hurt.
Crouching low to the ground ice formed beneath her feet. Looking to the left she launched herself forward. Soaring through the sky almost like she was flying. The air whipped through her clothing and scattered her thoughts to empty her mind. Spreading her arms to coast on the she brought her legs up and landed comfortably.
Sprinting to the next corner she launched herself again and flipped over to another rooftop. Slowing down as she landed she wanted to shout into the sky. “This is who I am. I’m a geist warrior. I fight for the legion. I protect people. I kill wraiths. That simple”
Walking the edge of the building she slid down and finally sat on the corner. Hitting the stone, she crafted a thin pillar of ice. Testing it she broke it in half and dropped it, watching the ice melt into water. Making a few more pillars she clanked them together breaking them in half and dropping them.
Tapping her fingers together she created a thinner chunk of ice and broke a piece off in her teeth. Crunching through the ice was nice but it still wasn’t enough. She had to break something. Hit something. She was way too restless.
Samantha felt it before she really heard it. The whining that let her know a wraith was active. Just what she needed to hear. Pushing herself to her feet she punched her fists together and leaned forward. “Finally.”
She took a step off the side and sank like a rock. Reaching back, she touched the wall with hand and boot creating an ice slide. Plummeting to the ground she popped off halfway down spiraling through the air she gasped as a shape flew at her. Raising her arms, she clapped them together making a shield.
Just in time as the wraith slammed into her. Talons scratched at her shield and kicked her backwards. Flipping around she fought for control and stared above her head. A pair of wings spread in the moon’s shadow before folding and darting back down at her. Dragging her hand across the gauntlet she created another shield.
The wraith came foot first crashing it into her shield. The talons dug a deep gash into the ice and kicked her arm aside. It dove at her and grabbed her by the shoulder with its other talon and suddenly they were sinking to the ground.
Falling this fast it was hard to focus or to breathe but she wasn’t new to this. Bringing her arm back she punched its leg and ice coated it immediately. She readied another punch but the wraith turned and slammed her into a nearby wall.
She was dazed for a second and watched it lunge fangs first. Tapping her chest she fell out of the wraiths grip leaving a clone of ice in its talons. The wraith looked down startled then crushed it in its talons. Crossing her arms, she fell as fast as she could avoiding the wraiths attempts to catch her. The ground came up quick and she tapped her heels together.
Ice formed at her heels and she caught herself crashing into the block as it hit the ground. Stumbling forward she rolled and looked toward the sky as the wraith swooped down to hit again. Clapping her hands together she formed a spear and took steady aim. The wraith screeched almost on her and she tossed the spear.
It swerved and the spear whiffed clipping its wing. The wraith spiraled before crashing into the ground tearing up the grass as it hit before bouncing and splashing into a fountain. Getting to her feet she cracked her neck. “Come on you dumb bird.”
It clambered out of the fountain and it looked surprisingly human. Wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirt. Except the arms of the shirt had been torn asunder by the wings it was sporting now. Same for its shoes torn by talons. Its face was still human but its eyes were glowing.
Sneering she dusted her hands off then clanged the gauntlets against one another. “Bring it on!”
It screeched and flew right at her flapping its wings and sending a barrage of feathers like missiles. Raising her arms, she created a shield on both her arms running straight through the barrage. She caught the brunt of it there and leaped forward punching the geist in the face. Stepping off its chest she jumped backwards and crafted a spear.
Turning she chucked it straight into the chest of the wraith pinning it to the fountain. The ice expanded in the water and shot in every direction skewering the wraiths limbs as well. Falling from the sky she came elbow first and drove it straight through its head.
Water splashed and ice shattered as she dug her way out of the dust of the wraith. Sloshing through the water she hissed and shook her head. Her blood was pumping and chest beating a mile a minute but she didn’t feel better. If anything, she felt worse. She needed more. Needed to do more.
Shaking off some of the water of she scowled even harder and created another spear of ice. Swinging it at the air she hit nothing before slamming it into the ground over and over until it shattered. But she kept going until even the shaft was broken into pieces.
“Dammit. Why am I so angry? Why’s this got me so damn wound up? I’m a warrior. A captain. I’m better than this. So why can’t I get past this?”
She stomped down and launched herself back into the sky landing atop another parking deck. But she launched herself forward to a set of scaffolding near a construction site. Walking along the planks she sighed. Feeling this bloodthirsty and ready to kill wraiths she felt like Sirius and she felt disgusted.
“Samantha.”
She looked over her shoulder and watched Lily float up to her level. One hand was underneath her feet and the other against her back. When she was on the level she stepped forward onto the scaffolding and the arms rested at either side of her head. Raising her mask off her head she tried to smile.
Samantha waved at her and then leaned against one of the support beams. She stared at the ground letting her mouthpiece slip away. “Sorry I’ve been a ghost since we all got back.”
“It’s been a weird week. I get it.”
“Weird. If only it really was that simple.”
“If only.”
Lily moved to stand beside her and Samantha tried to smile but it just came out as a grimace. “You and Dick aren’t on speaking terms still.”
“After what happened at the facility, I need my space from him for a little while.”
“I don’t blame you.”
She raised her eyebrow, “Not going to lie. That’s a little surprising.”
“He may be my best friend but even I know when he’s being a dick.”
They shared a laugh for a second and Samantha looked at the ground. “I get why he was mad but that doesn’t make it hurt less.”
“I know. I chewed him out pretty hard when he told me,” she tilted her head and frowned. “But he’s not the only one taking this kinda hard right?”
“What do you mean?”
“Come on Samantha. I’m not Dick. I can read a person. This whole thing has you stressed.”
She laughed without humor, “Am I that obvious?”
“Only a little,” she held her hand out, thumb and finger barely apart.
Sighing she stared at the ground and let her geist fall away entirely, pressing her hands together. “This situation with Dick’s brother is getting to me. I just want to hurry up and kill him so things can go back to normal. But I feel like I’m losing myself.”
“Losing yourself?”
“Yeah. Ever since we got back I’ve been on patrol. Hunting for wraiths to kill. To blow off steam. Distract myself. But it hasn’t been good enough to distract me. Likewise there just aren’t enough wraiths for that.”
“The chat room has been dry so you haven’t been telling me or Dick,” Lily frowned staring at her and motioned to let her geist fade away as well. “You know wraith hunting, especially alone, is a quick way to get yourself killed.”
“I know. But I just can’t stand this. I feel so restless. Powerless even. I couldn’t see through Rey last year. I couldn’t stop Rey at the facility. So many of our people got hurt.”
“You’re really going to blame yourself over all of this?”
“I know I shouldn’t. I did my best. But I can’t get past the anger. The frustration,” she paused staring at the ground. “You know not everyone at that facility was a warrior? A lot of them were just regular people. They could have died because of my mistake.”
“Samantha please,” she said grabbing her hand. “Don’t do this to yourself. Not you too.”
She looked at Lily, feeling the weight of her worry and disapproval. “Did I ever tell you about the mission that made me a warrior?”
That caught her off guard and she shook her head at first then asked, “What do you mean?”
“The process to becoming a warrior isn’t as crash course as I put you guys through. Lots of training and books to read and situational understanding. All before setting foot in the field and usually with a captain to watch over things in case it goes bad. But considering the urgency here I kinda had to teach Dick and you on the fly. Thankfully you were a fast learner so it wasn’t so bad.”
That made her smile. “Betty gave us a proper course in that while you were gone getting your captain training. Dick wasn’t quick to learn then.”
“I bet.” She looked toward the building beyond them and her smile evaporating with a sigh. “When I was first starting out all I cared about was killing the wraiths. Making them pay for what they had done to my parents. I was reckless and aggressive. I got in trouble a lot for not caring about things like bystanders or collateral damage.”
She smiled to herself as if she were a different person. And she was back then. Frowning she said, “I can remember the mission. There was a wraith attack near a school. We came the within a few hours and there hadn’t been a victim yet so we were trying to keep it that way. So, we were on full patrol.
“That night there was a big event. As sports thing. It concluded and people were leaving but some small group of kids from the home school were hanging around at the stadium. Probably trying to drink beer or something dumb. The wraith made itself known and attacked them.
“We went to work that night. Someone made sure the kids got out safely while me and the other warrior got to work fighting the wraith. Captain Betty was watching over us ready in case something went wrong. We managed to fight it off pretty easily, it wasn’t that old and it seemed hungry so it was behaving sloppily but we weren’t clean either.
“The other trainee I was fighting with got knocked out so it was just me and it. I could have defeated it on my own but there was something wrong. There had been another kid trapped under the bleachers. She probably slipped under there when the wraith first attacked and got caught in its attacks.
“I would have definitely ignored her before and just kept fighting the wraith. Made sure it was good and dead. But then I heard her crying and scared. Just like I had been. I forgot about the wraith and dove my way into the bleachers. Using my ice, I managed to protect us both from the wraith and while it was distracted the other two trainees took it down.
“There were no casualties that night. The girl that I saved wouldn’t leave my side the entire time. She kept thanking me and I had to assure her that the wraith was gone for good. She wasn’t going to remember it after that night but it didn’t make her less scared in that moment. I took care of ger and made sure sge got home safe.
“That changed things in me. I realized I could be more than the angry girl trying to kill all the wraiths. I could be the person that could protect the scared little girls from the wraiths. And that’s who I’ve tried to be since that day. But because of all of this I can feel myself back sliding. Full of anger. Only caring about killing the wraith that caused all of this. And every wraith in between.”
“Then don’t be that woman anymore,” Lily glared at her. “You don’t have to be that girl. You have Betty and I. Gav and Lisa too. Heck even though you two aren’t talking you still have Dick on your side!”
Samantha was taken aback by this and took a step back. But Lily’s glare didn’t falter and she jabbed a hand at her chest. “I’m sorry.”
“You better be,” She jabbed her again and finally sighed. “I’ve been dealing with Dick and his crap my entire life. I love him to death but he’s a pain in my butt. I know what it’s like dealing with another one of you. So I’m not gonna let you get away with your crap.”
Lily brushed her fingers through her hair and smiled. “I guess you’re right. Getting too wrapped up in my own head. I have a team, right?”
“Exactly. More than that we’re you friends. We care about you.”
She sighed and smiled at her. “You and Dick are something special. I wouldn’t have found people like you in the legion.”
Lily laughed and turned toward the edge of the construction zone. “You know I haven’t even told Dick this but I don’t think I’ll join the legion once this is done.”
“You won’t?”
She shook her head, “Saving people is nice. I would use my geist in a heartbeat if I had to but it’s not a life I want to live forever. I’ve always wanted to be something like a scholar. Maybe be a counselor. And I can’t do that if I continue to be a warrior.”
“Well if you can help someone the same way you’ve helped me and Dick I think you’d be great at it.”
“Thanks for the endorsement,” she smiled looking down. “It’s one of the programs that I’ve entered at my school.”
“That explains why you’re going to be so busy so soon.”
“Mmhm. Now we’re still on patrol, aren’t we? We’re going to patrol like proper warriors and once the night is over I know a 24-hour coffee shop. You can buy me a drink.”
Samantha shook her head. “Fine I’ll get you a drink for listening to me and giving me good advice. Glad I got a friend like you.”
“Wonderful,” she tapped her fingers together and grinned. “You know Gav and Lisa are getting anxious.”
“Anxious?”
“About meeting up. They want to get together like we talked about. I have some free time coming up that lines up with everyone else.”
“Well with everything that has come up recently our schedule isn’t as flexible as I wish it were,” she frowned and Lily nodded.
“We’re essentially on call for in case Rey shows up right?”
“Yeah. It’s part of being a warrior sadly.”
“Being a warrior really is unforgiving,” Lily said sighing.
“Unfortunately,” Samantha sighed softly and touched a hand to her chest and then rubbed her forehead slowly, “I guess I can talk to Dick tomorrow. Despite how much he hurt me and how much he gets on my nerves I miss him.”
Lily giggled shaking her head, “Don’t thaw him out just yet. He can deal with being on ice a little longer.”
“Are you making an ice puns at your best friend’s expense?” she raised her eyebrow.
She held her fingers out and smirked, “Tiny ones.”
The girls laughed together and Samantha called her geist. Tapping the edge of the scaffold she created an ice slide and jumped, going straight down. Lily floated down beside her and the pair of them walked through the city together, caring less about fighting more wraiths and more so just about being in each other’s company.
The Harlequin Library 