Kissing Skulls *Revised*

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

            ‘Holding down the fort,’ sounded exciting and all in theory. 

            In reality, it was boring as hell. 

            I spent the first hour of the night checking and rechecking the locks.  Then, I patrolled the main room, observing the intricate lines of Dave’s spells as they criss-crossed the ceiling like lace—as if the sight alone could somehow increase my own skill.

            Wishful thinking, that was. 

            According to Dave, magic was something that even the most mundane human possessed—they just didn’t know how to use it.  It was like a muscle, so to speak, that needed to be honed and trained. 

            He had been really into Wicca and magic stuff, even before joining the slayers, so I guess that seemed logical to him.  I had believed it, too…at first. 

            But now, I was beginning to think that the words were just something nice he said to make me feel better at the fact that I sucked at magic.  Though, to be fair, I wasn’t the only one.

            Carlos, Anna, Melissa and Sasha didn’t seem to have a knack for it either.  Neither did Misty.  They didn’t seem to mind their lack of skill, but it annoyed me.  Even Dustyn seemed to have a little bit of a way with spells.

              Dave had tried to teach me, of course. 

            But I had a feeling that I would never ever—not in a million years—be able to craft a protection spell capable of guarding the whole warehouse. 

            Dustyn hadn’t been lying.  He and Dave—especially—had left nothing to chance.  The spells were incredibly advanced.  I had no idea how Dave managed to find the time to practice in all the chaos, but his skill was unmatched by anyone else. 

            I observed the slender lines for a while, watching them twinkle in the light of the overhanging lamps—but even that got boring after a while. 

            So then I tried my hand a polishing a bit of dusty equipment.  I even organized the storeroom of supplies for a little while, but my mind was too buzzed to focus on the busy work.

Misty was still in the infirmary and hadn’t come out, but I was too nervous to check on her in case she freaked again. 

            Something told me she didn’t want me to, anyway.  Antiseptic and gauze couldn’t cure everything; some wounds just needed to be licked in peace.  

            In the end, there was nothing to do but wait.  Which somehow turned into me creeping up the ramp to Dustyn’s office and slipping inside before common sense could steal my nerve.

            So, I wasn’t butt naked…but I was bored, and snooping had always been a favorite pastime.

            Besides, Sasha had told me to find the newspaper clipping—I could always claim that I was doing very important Slayer research if I got caught.

            Yeah right.

            It was pitch-black inside the office, and I had to fumble along the wall just to find the light switch hidden beside the door.  A single light bulb illuminated Dustyn’s bare, neat desk and the stark gray walls.

            I expected to hunt for the newspaper clipping—giving me a much needed excuse to go through Mr. Perfect things. 

            Sadly, the clipped article was lying out in plain sight on a corner of the desk for anyone to see.