Page 6 of In the Dark

He took the time to tighten the lid on his flask a final time and return it to the desk drawer before speaking. “Why are you interested? It’s only a story. A legend. And my paper on it wasn’t exactly light reading.”

The look in her eyes told him they both knew better. “Humor me, okay?”

He knew the details of the tablet better than anyone. After all, he’d been the first documented philologist to set eyes on it. The first to translate the lines of script and copy it to paper for the first time, to translate it to Greek and then back to English.

He remembered the day he’d first sat down with the archeologists, the ancient chiseled stone exciting him and enticing him to explore it.

“There was nothing more,” he told her. “A tale about good and evil, life and death, accompanied by what seemed to be a crude location spell in ancient Cyrillic script. It’s very simple.”

“Very simple?” Karsia’s voice swelled with anger and a shadow passed over her face. “Are you blind, or stupid? There’s nothing simple about what they found.”

Morgan took it in and filed it for later. Curiouser and curioser, he mused. “You’ve read my essay. At least, I’m going to assume you’ve read my essay. My notations and thoughts are outlined there. I held nothing back.” He settled himself in and maneuvered until his arms were folded across his chest. “What I don’t understand is how someone like you can find the tale so interesting you’d break into my office to question me about it. Like I said before, you really don’t seem the type of person bent on entering private property like a burglar in the night.”

“Are you serious?”

He scratched his head. “Or have I gotten so old I’ve forgotten one of my students and you’re simply one of the herd in my classes?” Fighting the urge to check his records, Morgan asked her, “Do I have you in my student files? Did I give you a bad grade and you’re trying to intimidate me?”

Karsia clenched her fists. “I’m not one of your damn students, man. I’m here because things are never as simple as people assume. The stories about the man and woman who made a choice to become the veil are true. I need a way to reverse whatever they did, and right now, sweetheart, you’re the only one on my radar who knows what the fuck I’m talking about.”

“Reverse what? I’m afraid I’m not following you. In fact, none of this is making sense to me at all,” he said. Perhaps a bit too much of the good stuff? He would have to examine the contents of the flask later. Tampering may be involved. Morgan grimaced. One of his brothers must have found him. “Who are you, again? I don’t believe you told me your name.”

“I’m a person who needs help!” Karsia almost shouted at him. “I’m a person who needs you to tell me what you know about the story on the tablet and how to get this…this thing out of me.”

Morgan stood and placed his hands in front of him on the desk. “Please, calm down, Miss.” Maybe he’d baited her too much. Taken the idea of cute but ferocious little kitten for granted.

“I’m perfectly fucking calm!” Karsia got to her feet, with raw power flowing through her arms. She could not stop herself. Wouldn’t if she wanted to. “And don’t call me miss. Do you understand what it’s like to live with this? To have Darkness in your veins and no way to stop it? This wasn’t my choice! Not really. I-I-I…I didn’t understand. I just wanted to save my sister. I didn’t know I’d be a walking advertisement for rogue magic!”

She raised her hands and shot a bolt of pure energy at the ceiling. It was a testament to the gifts she hadn’t wanted and didn’t ask for. Plaster crumbled and cracks spread out from the point of entry. She tethered the magic to her like a lasso of rope around her wrist, ready to call it out again. Something bigger, more intimidating.

“I need help immediately,” she demanded.

Morgan watched pure energy crackle along her skin. She was something else, all right. A vision. A warrior goddess. Or perhaps the manifestation of Kali herself. A vengeful and destructive spirit.

When he scowled, Karsia’s face split open in a fearsome grin. “What? Did I do something you don’t like? What are you going to do about it?”

In spite of his sudden arousal from watching her, a flush of frustration took him at the destruction of his office. “That is quite enough.”

Morgan retaliated swiftly and without thought, his own magic quieting hers. For a moment his true form shone through, complete with a flash of horns. A wave of power assaulted her and Karsia took an involuntary step in the opposite direction.

“Kindly control yourself or I will be forced to take more drastic measures,” he bit out.

Her magic ceased and extinguished with a puff of smoke. Karsia stumbled back to her seat. “What are you, mister?”

Morgan took the time to smooth his hair, run a hand over his cardigan to brush away the bits of crumbled sheetrock and plaster. “Nothing to concern yourself about. If you’re done with the hysterics, we have not been properly introduced. I am Morgan Gauthier. At least, this form of me is Morgan Gauthier.” He held out his open hand. “And you are?”

His interest had been piqued the instant she showed up at the door, an elemental awareness connecting the separate sparks of their essences. He knew this woman, he thought with some surprise. Somehow, someway, maybe from a different life.

That aside, the rawness of whatever she held inside drew on his kinder instincts. This was, indeed, a woman who needed help. Who found herself in the middle of something she was clearly unprepared to wield. He related to the sentiment. One day in the distant past he’d engaged in those same feelings.

And the magic simmering under the surface? Whatever unnatural source it sprang from, Morgan knew it was not hers. This was a young woman in trouble.

How could he turn her away?

Scholarly interest, he told himself with his hand still floundering in the open air while it waited for a partner. As a researcher, he was fascinated by anything out of the ordinary. As a man, her eyes captured his. Her face beckoned him forward. His heart clanked against his ribcage in a single pounding thud.

She took her time before answering, still staring at the offered appendage. Almost as though she’d forgotten what to do.

At last she took it in her own for a quick shake. “Karsia Cavaldi. I need your help.”

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