Chapter 11

Trae had been talking to Mike when he felt his medallion go warm.

He immediately started searching for Kat. He thought that he spied her heading out the back and worked his way towards her. Then he heard her scream in his mind. He stood rooted to the spot. Anger like he had never felt before, boiled up inside of him.

He took a deep calming breath and sent to her that he was coming. He then blinked. Unfortunately, he didn’t know the area behind the hall very well and ended up landing badly when the slope changed. Cussing, he searched for Kat as he regained his feet.

He ignored the pain in his ankle as his eyes fixed on the cart with the two men sitting in the back of it. He strode after the slow-moving vehicle. They hadn’t planned their escape very well as the driver had to negotiate around several other carts parked in the alleyway.

Trae drew his wand and formed an ice spell that he sent at the axles of the cart, so it locked up the wheels. The lanky baulked as the load became too heavy when the wheels tried to slide rather than turn. It backed up as the slope pulled the cart backwards.

The driver was cussing up a storm by the time Trae reached the cart. Trae aimed an arrow of electricity at the man, who screamed as he lurched up. He fell off the seat, landing heavily on the ground. Trae then fixed his eyes on the two men in the back of the cart trying to hold a wiggling blanket down.

Trae hit them both with immobilising spells. He blinked and landed in the cart. Since he could see where he was going, he landed lighter on his feet this time. He knelt down and ripped the blanket off Kat. “I’m here, my love,” he told the frantic, crying woman.

Kat sobbed as she looked up into Trae’s eyes. Trae looked at the strange device they had clamped around her upper body and just above her elbows. It appeared as one piece of metal. He could feel the spells on it and concentrated on them. He then realised it that in fact it had several nasty spells and stopped when Kat cried out.

He touched the man nearest him. He didn’t have a magical item. He altered the immobilisation spell on the man, “Who set the spells?” he asked in a tight voice.

The man whimpered and looked towards where the driver had been sitting. Trae saw the alarm in his eyes and erected a quick shield as he turned. The hayfork hit the shield with such force that the man was repelled with equal force and fell back onto his arse.

Trae leapt over the side of the cart to land on top of the man, with his knees in his chest. The man dropped the hayfork as Trae’s weight landed on him. Trae gripped his throat and lifted the man’s head from the ground. “Release her immediately if you wish to live?” Trae ground out.

“Fuck you,” Dewar spat at him.

Trae’s fist landed on Dewar’s left cheek with a force that smashed the man’s head sideways. Trae then smashed his head down into the pavement. He shifted his knees, so they pinned Dewar’s shoulders to the ground. He grabbed his right hand, as he looked for a ring.

Trae released the hand and placed his hand on Dewar’s sternum. “You are free,” he said to the entity in the medallion. Dewar screamed as the entity escaped the cursed medallion. The medallion now lay useless on Dewar’s chest.

He writhed and squirmed, as he screamed in agony under Trae. The entity ripping from his mind felt as though hot spikes had been slammed into his head. Trae rocked back and stood. He stepped away from Dewar who was sobbing and now curled up in the foetal position. Trae climbed back into the cart.

Kat had managed to sit up. Trae knelt before her and placed his hands on the band. He touched his head to hers and Kat found Trae in her mind. She gasped as his love wrapped around her. She also felt the spells better. With Trae’s help, they unravelled them together. She felt the band release and it fell from her.

Trae wrapped his arms around her and gently kissed her. Kat sank into him and just wallowed in his love. As frightened as she had been, she never doubted that Trae would come once he heard her call for help.

Trae was surprised when Kat pulled from him and spun on her knees. He was even more surprised when she delivered a haymaker to the jaw of one of the men and then turned and hit the other man. “Slimy, stinking slithers. If either of you had a brain you would be dangerous,” she spat at them.

Both men were whimpering. They hadn’t been able to move and by the way that their jaws were already reddening, Trae knew she had hit them hard. He picked up her hand and dropped a healing spell on it and her in general.

The screaming had attracted attention and Trae wasn’t surprised when Jim put out his arms for Kat to help her down. He encouraged her to go to her Pater. Trae was then surprised by the huge man who stood looking at him, with his hands on his hips.

Trae guessed he must have Grandteli blood in his genes, as he was at least 2m tall. The man said, “What is going on?”

“They were trying to kidnap my wife,” Trae replied.

“They just got married,” Jim offered.

“Did one of them have a prior claim on her?” The big man asked Jim.

“No, Shield Peters. However, they did have a grievance with her as she had them expelled from the University after they had attacked her once before,” Trae informed him.

“Ah,” Shield Peters said and wondered how the young man knew his name. “I had heard about that from my mother. So how did they force her this time? Isn’t she supposed to be a Mage?”

Trae handed him the band, “It was spelled. Dewar was also wearing a two gem medallion that had been coerced. I’ve not seen that style of medallion on other Mages or Novices here. I was able to free the entity. Unfortunately, I think it did something to him before it left.”

Shield Peters looked over at the man on the ground that one of his colleagues was attending. “We may have to put a cuff on him. They do help people who have misbehaved and had a magical item leave them. It will also tell us if he was at fault or not,” he warned Trae.

“Fine by me,” Trae said and released the other two men. They both slumped down and put their hands to their faces.

One of them looked at Kat with hatred, “She hit me when I couldn’t defend myself, I want her arrested.”

“Felton, if you want a fair fight with no magic, I’m more than willing,” Kat spat at the man.

Shield Peters chuckled, “You have yourself a feisty wife, Lord Quinton, I’m not sure that I’d even be game to take her on.”

Trae and Jim both chuckled. Trae replied, “They are the best kind of women to have.”

Shield Peters rumbled out his deep laugh, “Just remind me not to introduce her to my Mary.” He then looked at the two men sitting in the back of the stinking cart nursing their jaws. He slapped a cuff on both of them before they realised what he was doing.

He then touched one cuff and then the other. He looked at the men in disgust, “I think you two will be wearing them for some time to come. Go home.”

Fenton and Walter climbed down out of the cart and hastened away. Shield Peters walked over to Dewar and placed a cuff on him too. Dewar stopped whimpering and just lay on the ground. Shield Peters looked at his colleague, “I think he will need to go to the medical wing. That boy has something more wrong with him than just an entity leaving him.”

Trae said, “Touch his medallion, it felt very strange to me.”

Shield Peters looked at Trae and then touched the medallion. He whipped his hand away. “Skat!” he exclaimed angrily. He looked at Trae, “This is the second one we have found. Someone is corrupting them. Did it feel sort of slimy and twisted to you?”

Trae shrugged, “As good as a description as I can come up with. Its entity was very distressed and in great pain. I don’t think she was careful in how she left him either.”

“The other was the same. That person committed suicide even with a cuff on. Strikes, he will have to be watched carefully. I’ll have to report this to the Guild,” Shield Peters replied.

They picked up Dewar, placed him in an auto and took him away.

The party ended on a sombre note.

Those with magical items were warned to keep an eye out for corrupt items. Kat and Trae just wanted to bathe to get the stink of the cart off themselves. Kat made everyone chuckle when she groused that they could have at least found a clean cart.

When they got home, Trae took his time washing Kat. After he had given her body a good scrub, he soaped up her hair and massaged the tension from her scalp. He was amused that she was busy massaging his cock with her hand and her groans of pleasure at his ministrations were going to get her seduced long before they exited the shower.

When he turned her around to rinse off her hair, she rubbed back into him and he knew damn well she had every intention of hastening her own demise. He pushed his cock down so it slid between her legs and she bent forward in invitation.

Trae soon found he was giving her what she wanted. Not that he was complaining, as he was more than happy to have Kat sliding on his cock any damn time she pleased. She pushed back into him harder, so he sped up. She didn’t want soft and gentle, she wanted him to fuck her hard. Trae revelled in the feelings created by his Kat.

He leant forward, claimed her swaying breasts and squeezed them how he knew she liked. She wiggled and shivered, and then pushed back into him. When she started gasping and panting, he knew she was going to come quick. He had been using magic, so he had no problems coming with her. When she shuddered on him, he came too and the magic just made it grander.

After he pulled free of her, he turned her and just hugged her under the warm water as they regained their breaths. Kat made him chuckle when she hugged him back, sighed and said, “I so needed that.”

They had planned to be on the early ferry so they would be leaving just after sunrise. They decided to go down and have a cuppa with Jim and Nala before retiring properly. They had both eaten enough during the day that neither was hungry.

They talked quietly and both couples were sad that they were parting. Jim, however, felt it would be for the best that they were leaving. They needed time to learn and he knew that if they stayed, they would get pulled into the politics of Eagle Island before they were ready.

He hoped they would be safe in Trae’s valley.

Kat damn near rolled off the seat, she was laughing so hard.

She had been sitting on the seat in the line waiting to get onto the ferry and reading a letter Jim had given to her before they left. Trae had gone to make sure they were all paid up and to get something he said that he had forgotten. Kat felt the hand slide up her leg before the man spoke.

“Hi beautiful, how come you’re all alone?” the man had asked her with a leer. He had his hand cupped around her calf muscle. He opened his fingers so he could slide his hand over her knee. As he went to move it, he suddenly screamed in agony and ripped his bleeding fingers from her leg.

Sampson popped his head out between her legs and growled at the man. The man’s eyes nearly popped out of his head when he realised what had bitten him. He stumbled backwards and fell arse over tit over a stack of luggage. Righting himself in the most ungraceful manner, he scampered away.