Page 135 of The Star's Sword

I nearly dropped my sword; this was so pathetic. I moved my boot under her sword and kicked it up to her, as I often did during training if Cayne lost his. “I won’t kill an unarmed woman. Take it.”

She went to grab it but then dodged, fearing the blade.

I rolled my eyes impatiently, waiting for her to pick it up.

“Come on, Vasara,” an elder vampire watching yelled. “Even if you don’t donate, we know your real strength! Show them the Vasara who killed a rogue slayer!”

Vasara gave them a nervous smile, then moved back in front of me, holding her sword out shakily.

“Honestly,” I said, walking around her with my sword in one hand. “I’m not even sure how to fight someone who can’t keep their sword in hand.”

“Vasara, use your illusions!” a vampire yelled. “Show that demon what for!”

“You can do illusions, right?” I asked. “I heard that’s how you do miracles. Fighting your own tricks.”

She just stared at me, hate burning in her ice-blue irises. “You’ve ruined everything.” Her eyes darted to the side. “All because Simon favors you.”

“You’ve been spending the most time with him lately,” I said.

“He just wants to learn fabrication from me.” She pouted. “Never feeds on me enough.”

“That’s why you tried that creepy injection shit on him?”

She rolled her eyes. “Cleo, grow up. It’s more fun when you can make someone do something they don’t want. What’s the fun in being this helpful do-gooder all the time? You annoy the fuck out of me, you know that?” Her voice was rising, sounding almost hysterical.

“I’m about to annoy you to death,” I retorted. “After my sword annoys you into a million little pieces.”

I lunged, and this time she raised her sword in time to catch mine. On her side, everyone cheered.

I quickly attacked again, pushing her back several feet, the sword vibrating in her hands, making her teeth knock together.

As she tried to recover, I slashed quickly at her leg, my sword cutting deep into her calf as she let out a shriek so loud my ears rang after. My sword got caught on her shin bone and made an awful grating noise as I pulled it free. Still flailing from her injury as blood spurted from her leg, which was quickly healing, she tried to swing her sword down at me, but I rolled out of the way, coming to my feet with my sword still drawn.

Extending a hand, I drew on my telekinesis and grabbed onto her, holding her in place.

I could feel her struggle as she glared at me, frozen with her sword still out, blood running from the cut on her leg.

She was durable, I had to give her that.

“Fine then,” she said, eyes glowing a more vivid blue as a blue glow began to emanate from her body. “I’ll fight you in earnest. I’ll show you what an eighth realm celestial can do.”

I moved back quickly, unsure if this was a kind of spell.

I felt my telekinesis break as she shot to the right, then split into a hundred copies of herself, all wearing blinding armor, all carrying swords.

They spun out, surrounding me, reminding me of the fight I’d had with Gabe in the mid-realm.

The copies of her filed around the arena, gliding in circles, creepily moving all around me as I held my sword out, ready to defend.

Any one of these could hurt me if I let down my guard.

But like Vasara, all of these copies seemed to be all bark and no bite, intent on scaring me with feints, waving their swords and withdrawing, hissing insults, but then moving back into formation and flowing all around the arena.

“Fuck, that’s hard to see through,” Cayne yelled. “Cleo, your telekinesis!”

“She broke through,” I yelled back.

“Iron will,” Samael yelled, from the sidelines. “Eighth realm celestials are just about high enough level to take back telekinetic control if they are strong enough. They train for it.”

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