The Cyborgs

Chapter Nine

As we square off, I take a deep breath. I create an illusion to see how well he fights, and stand a few feet to the side. After a minute of him fighting my illusion, I'm actually impressed. If I hadn't put him up against an illusion, I'd be defeated.

I keep my illusion up for another minute, looking for a weakness. I smile when I find it. Every time he strikes, he leaves himself wide open.

I let the illusion fade just as he's about to strike. He almost loses his balance, and starts looking for me. When he finally sees me, my foot has connected with his stomach.

As he stumbles back, I extend my blades and wait for him to strike. After a minute parrying, blocking, and kicking, I decide to end this.

I send a roundhouse to his chest, but he catches my foot and twists it. I cry out as I feel the bone break. When he lets go, I fly up out of his reach.

I shoot paintballs at his feet trying to distract him, and it works. Well, sort of.

I was hoping he'd move back far enough for me to land long enough to grab my bow. Instead, he kept circling under me.

I grab my ankle and mutter a healing spell, "déan cnámha mend agus déan craiceann a shocrú cad atá briste agus a dheisiú ar an damáiste."

I grimace as my ankle heals, and landed behind Travis. He spun around, swinging his katana. I was a bit slow moving out of his way, and his sword barely grazed the bone of my right wing. The wave of pain that brought me to my knees also brought unbidden memories. I started panicking, his blades were infused with moonstone. Moonstone can be extremely deadly to witches, Fae, and pixies, and there are two types of people who use them; cyborgs, and witch hunters.

I think I was starting to hallucinate, but I swear when I saw Travis's leg, it was metal. I think he might be a cyborg.

***

When he knelt down beside me, it took everything in me to not telekinetically throw him against the wall hard enough to kill him. Instead, I just telekinetically pushed him far away from me. I felt Winter and Leigh-Ann wrap their arms around me, and carry me out of the gym.

I hear two sets of feet thundering this way as both Danny and Damon ask what happened. As Winter and Leigh-Ann explained, I felt a different pair of arms pick me up. Damon's familiar scent wafted around me.

I feel Danny's hand on my head, "she's burning up, it must be moonstone." His voice deepened as he said, "codlata go síochánta chun tú féin a leigheas go nádúrtha nuair a dhúisíonn tú ar ais go mbeidh tú níos fearr."

Yeah, Danny can work magic, but his is only limited. He is a healer. How he heals is very peculiar, the person/animal he heals falls asleep and while they're asleep their body heals itself. This process usually takes a couple of days if it's severe, if it's only a minor injury then whoever he's healing just takes a short nap.

I felt myself relaxing and falling into a peaceful sleep.

***

I was stumbling, wanting to rest.

Danny was pushing me forward, "Faith, you have to run. I can't carry you anymore. We have to get away from here."

I try running further, but end up falling down. Danny tries to help me up, but soon we're surrounded by the cyborgs who burned our town.

One guy, I recognize him as the one I zapped not too long ago, stepped forward, "we meet again, although this time you won't be able to use your little spells."

Before I could blink, he pulled a dagger out, and cut my left bicep. Pain shot through me. I writhe on the ground, screaming. It felt like my body was being set on fire.

Soon, the pain was too much, and I blacked out.

***

When I woke up, I felt like I was run over by a fleet of dump trucks. I groan, and try to sit up. A pair of hands quickly pushed me back down.

I slowly open my eyes, and it takes me a moment to figure out that I'm in my room. The person who pushed me back down was Damon.

I croak, "Damon? What's going on?"

Damon asked, "do you not remember what happened in fighting class?"

That's when I remember. Travis. Moonstone. Cyborg. I lurch out of bed and stumble into the bathroom. I collapse in front of the toilet and threw up. Damon knelt behind me, holding my hair out of the way and rubbing my back.

When I stopped throwing up, Damon helped me stand up. I flushed the toilet and brushed my teeth.

When Damon helps me back to my bed, Winter and Leigh-Ann are standing there.

Winter smiles, "thank God you're awake! I was beginning to worry."

Leigh-Ann nodded, "yeah. You've been out for almost a week."

I sit on my bed, leaning against the wall, "I've been out for a week?"

Damon nodded, "yeah. I stayed here the entire time. Much to Danny's annoyance."

I frown, "were is Danny?"

Danny's voice came from the doorway, "I'm right here sissy."

I looked over, and my eyes widened at the sight of my brother. He looks like he hasn't slept or showered for a week. He probably hasn't. Needless to say, he looks terrible.

I pat the bed beside me, "come here."

Danny sat on the bed beside me, and wraps his arms around me, "oh Faith. I thought I lost you this time, and that it'd end up like last time."

I smile, "Danny, I'm alive thanks to you."

Danny looked at me, "I was afraid that it would end up like last time. You were getting worse the first couple of days. I stopped coming in here in case something really did happen. I'm really glad nothing went wrong."

Smiling I say, "Danny the last time this happened, you were like ten. You barely had any training, and you probably stumbled over your words. You know you have a bad habit of doing that when you're nervous. From what I remember, you said each word flawlessly."

Pulling my right wing in front of me, I look at the prominent scar on my wing bone. I knew no new feathers would grow there, because I have a similar one farther up my wing where it connects to my shoulder blade.

I know two things for sure. One; if this new guy is a cyborg, he's probably been sent to kill me. Two; if he tries to kill me, he'll be dead before his cursed blades will come within an inch of my skin again.