Here you are then! Part 10, do we all know what that means? Yes! It means that I've now written 10 chapters of Powers That Be. (How clever of you if you figured that out by your 'lil old self) I know that I took a while getting this out, but I've been too busy to write recently. Also, I've got exams coming up in a couple of weeks and I really have to get some study done for them so things might be even slower over the next while. The same goes for Shining Star. But, on the Shining Star front, I've got the conclusion to the last chapter written up, even though it's not a full chapter. So if you'd like me to send that to you then e-mail me and let me know! Please e-mail me to let me know what you think / thought of my characters, storylines and writing. I really really love to hear from readers so make my day and send me e-mail! The address is - shiningstar@oceanfree.net.
Thanks to all those who've e-mailed me, especially Tim, who has effectively co-authored this story, he's got so much input into it! Thank you Tim! And to Sher, who we all know and love as the author of 'Body Switch with Nick Carter'. I wish she'd update, but as long as she e-mails me I'm happy enough.
This story is not real and is not based on anything in reality. The celebrities mentioned don't know that I'm writing this and I doubt very much that they'd approve. I don't know or claim to know the sexualities of those same celebrities's. If you're too young then you shouldn't be reading this should you?
We all jumped straight out of our seats at the sight of Drayn, one of the few people that we had reason to collectively fear. I winced at the pain of jumping straight up after the exertion outside but ignored it as I questioned myself - could we really fight him in the condition that we were in. From where I was standing I could see that Lance was frowning, then suddenly, the creases cleared away and he visibly relaxed.
"What do you want?" Asked JC, trying to keep the tremor out of his voice.
"Relax JC. It's not really him." Said Lance. Walking over to the figure in the doorway, which hadn't actually moved since it said those first words. Lance reached over and waved his hand through Drayn. "It's only a simple illusion. See?" Once Lance had stirred the air inside the illusion it disappeared in wisps of smoke.
JC sighed and sat back down in his chair. "I should have known. I wasn't thinking. This house has any number of protection and early warning spells imbedded into it. There's no way that Drayn could have gotten in here without us knowing."
"But he managed to get a spell in here." Said Joey. "What's to stop him from doing the same with different spells? Ones that could kill us?"
"I don't think that they were really thinking about illusions when they were creating the protection spells, but you can be sure that they put a shit load of thought into harmful magic so don't worry."
"But Drayn would have had to be fairly close to manage something like that so we know that he's nearby." Said Joey. "That makes me worry."
"It should. But we're staying here for another seven or eight days so I say we make the most of it and hone our fighting skills. There's a nest of vamps in Dublin that I want to wipe out before we leave Ireland."
I spent the next couple of days fighting with the others, them teaching me the skills required to make sure that I'd survive a real fight. My reflexes and my speed increased exponentially as well and I learned to use my magical senses just as much as I used my eyes so that I could 'see' what was going on all around me and not in front of my eyes, that was what had held me back in the first fight.
On the fourth day JC announced a change of pace for me and sat me down in the main sitting room and started lecturing. "Now then Tom, over the last couple of days you've learning how to use your physical attributes to compete effectively in a fight, but there's more to it then that. I wanted to wait until I thought that you were ready for this and I think that you are now. I want to teach you telekinesis, using the power of your mind to move things. It shouldn't cause too many problems and mastering this leads to the time control that we were talking about a while ago."
I nodded; thinking that some contribution on my part was necessary.
"That's another thing, I'm going to have to teach you how to shield your thoughts a bit better! I can read you like a book, even when I'm not trying to!" He said, laughing.
"Let's got on with this will we?" I suggested.
"Fair enough. Now, telekinesis isn't very hard at all. You just have to be able to see everything with your magic and I know that that's what you've been trying to do over the last couple of days so you should have any trouble at all." After saying that JC went over to a small side table and picked up a small block of wood. He came over a put in on the table in front of me. "I picked this because it hasn't had anything to do with magic, so it'll be one of the hardest things to find with your senses."
I nodded again and started listening to my senses. Straight away I could find JC and I could feel the house easily enough because of the magic impregnated into it. I closed my eyes and concentrated further, after a while I could make out the table and then finally the block of wood began to swim into focus. Once it was completely sharp I opened my eyes.
"You've got it? Good. Now that you can feel it in your mind it's like holding it, isn't it? You can make out the texture on it; you can even turn it over in your mind. Do like you would with your hand and try to pick it up. Just reach out with your mind and pick it up. Don't think about how you are doing it; just concentrate on doing it. Does that make sense to you?"
I nodded again gently, afraid that if I moved my head too much then I would lose the block and would have to find it again. I thought hard about what JC said and suddenly what he said and it clicked. I grinned and mentally reached out an arm to the block to pick it up, and saw it rise slowly into the air.
"That's it." Said JC encouragingly. "Now try turning it around."
I did so.
"Good. Now, forget about the normal constraints on movement. They don't exist. Spin it around. That's it." He said, seeing that I was doing it. "Faster! Make it a blur."
I really concentrated on the block and pushed it. Suddenly someone came into the room slamming a door on their way in. It broke my concentration and I dropped the wood. JC must have caught it because it stayed in the air, and started slowing down. I turned to see who was to blame - it was Justin.
"Hey there." He said and sat down on my lap. "What are you doing?"
"Oh." I said with a glimmer in my eye. "JC was just trying to show me how to use telekinesis."
"Any luck?" He asked.
I looked over at JC, who could see what I was planning so JC covered for me. "Well, we've only just started..." Leaving Justin to draw his own conclusions from that.
I concentrated, and because Justin was so magical I got him in my grip easily and vaulted him towards the ceiling.
"Shit! JC! Bring me down!" Yelped Justin. You'd think that he'd be used to heights considering that he could fly, but I guess it depends on if you're under your own control or not.
"I can't." Said JC.
"Why the fuck not? Just get me down!"
"You're going to have to ask the person whose got you up there."
Justin looked at me incredulously. "You?"
I smiled. "Yup."
"I thought you said that you'd only just started learning." Said Justin in an accusatory tone.
"I have."
"Whatever. Just get me down. Please!" He begged.
I dropped him slowly back down into my lap and put my arms around him. "Was that really so bad?" I asked.
"Just you wait." He growled, not happy with me.
"I'm waiting." I said as I thought some very dirty thoughts.
JC blushed. "Justin get off him! I'm gonna teach him to guard that mind before I have to listen to anymore of that!"
Begrudgingly Justin got up. "I will get you Tom." He threatened.
"I look forward to it." I said back to him as he left the room.
"Let's do this before you go to bed tonight shall we? I don't want to have to hear your thoughts then." Said JC.
"You know you love it really."
"I do not! It's sick."
"Whatever." I said dismissively. "How do I do this?"
"Close your eyes and go to your power centre."
I closed my eyes and almost instantly I could see the black star.
"Now go into it." Directed JC.
I moved towards it getting closer and closer. "How close do I go?" I asked.
"You have to go into it. Keep on going until you get to the core. It should be white." He said.
I kept going as JC said until I finally got to what he was talking about. It was beautiful, pure white radiating all around me. It wasn't a harsh bright light but soft.
"What you can see there is your mind. What Lance called your essence, it's where the white light that you can see on the outside of your power centre comes from. Now, use your magic to build a shield around it, blocking it off from outside. Make it as strong as you can."
I concentrated on the task that JC had set me and soon a barrier formed around my 'essence' and it soon grew incredibly strong. I moved outside it again and then opened my eyes. "How is that?" I asked.
JC focused on me and then grinned. "Perfect, it's strong enough so that I can't hear you normally, and not strong enough to keep me out if I really want to get in!"
"Can I go now?" I asked, eager to join Justin outside where I could see him lying on the grass.
"Sure, but work on the telekinesis. The idea is to be able to move almost anything without thinking about it for too long." Said JC.
"I'll keep it in mind." I said, before leaving Josh and walking out the doors to the garden where the sun was blazing down without a cloud in the sky to threaten its dominance. I stood over Justin, casting a shadow over him.
He opened his eyes. "Get out of the way will you?" He asked.
"Is that how you talk to all your lovers?" I said, pouting.
"Just the ones who throw me ten feet into the air and don't let me down." He responded.
"I did let you down. If I hadn't would you be out here?" I said, while moving out of Justin's way and lying down beside him.
"You know what I mean."
"You know something Justin?" I asked.
"What?"
"It's odd. I was watching TV earlier and the weatherman predicted nothing but rain for this part of the country and yet I come out here and find you sunbathing. Can you explain that?"
"The weatherman can be wrong."
"Don't you think that you're just drawing attention to us doing this?"
"Nah." He said, turning on his side to face me. "Weather control is fairly innocuous magic. Besides, all I've done is kept the clouds from covering the area, you can't even see the spell from here."
"But all you're doing is creating Florida, in Ireland!" I exclaimed.
"I didn't ask to come here. I wanted to be in Florida, remember?"
"Fair enough." I said, closing my eyes to concentrate on basking in the warm glow of the sun. "But if you keep this up people might get suspicious."
"I know." He sighed. "From tomorrow we're going to have to go back to rain. So let's enjoy this while we can."
"Justin." I said in response to a twitch from my magical senses.
"Yes?"
"If that cloud of rain comes anywhere near me then I am going to kill you." Despite my threat the cloud came closer. I was too lazy to get up so I simply cast shields around me. Just in time too before the cloud dumped on me.
"Justin." I said. "I do not renege on my threats." I stood up and looking skywards, I built up my own cloud front and sent it his way. Unfortunately he was expecting it and so he had his own shielding up and was ready to play. In one sweeping and graceful movement he jumped to his feet.
"You think you can beat me?" He said. "You're welcome to try."
I tried lifting him by telekinesis again but it didn't work this time.
He grinned, knowing what I'd tried. "Here's a lesson for you Tom - when someone's expecting what you just tried they can protect themselves against it surprisingly well."
"How?" I asked.
"I don't really know how to explain it. I guess it's just by steeling yourself against it."
"Fair enough." I said, trying to think what else I could throw at him. I had learned a lot recently but I didn't want to do anything to hurt my boyfriend. Oh what the hell, I thought, he could be fixed up again. I jumped, using the wind to help me, and landed away from Justin and behind him.
He turned towards me and, putting his hand out with the palm facing downwards he used his control over the elements to cause an earthquake beneath my feet.
"Oh no you don't." I shouted, jumping away from him again. Mid-leap I threw fireballs at him, which he easily dodged. I looked up and saw that the clouds that I'd originally meant to us to soak him were still there. I changed them quickly into the thunderclouds and sent them to harass Justin while I concentrated on creating lightening from my own hands. Once I had done so I threw a couple of bolts at him, but thanks to his own adeptness with weather magic he deflected them and they earthed harmlessly in the ground. I was really struggling to think up what I could do to him. Suddenly, a very nasty idea crossed my mind and I gave a low chuckle. I threw another fireball at him, only this time kept a telekinetic grip on it. I fed more power into it and it grew larger. He tried to jump out of its way, but wherever he moved to I sent it after him. Pushing with my mind I split it up into smaller balls and they surrounded him, spinning and diving around him so that he couldn't move.
Make sure to let me know what you think of it! shiningstar@oceanfree.net is the e-mail address that you are going to send mail to right now!
'Til next time,
Tim.