Kissed by Darkness(60)

“OK, hmm … yes. This is it.” He poked his finger at a page in the book brightly rimmed with beautifully painted orange and gold flames. In the center of the page was a picture of a cloaked figure standing in the middle of a ring of fire. The fine brush strokes made the fire almost leap off the page, they looked so real. The figure’s hands were cupped in front, a small flame dancing between them. The rest of the page was filled with bold, black writing in what appeared to be Latin.

Eddie quickly scanned the writing. “Yes, I thought so. These were the Elemental Mages.”

“Say what?” Was it my imagination, or were the flames on the page actually dancing?

“Elemental Mages. There aren’t very many of them left anymore and their powers are pretty much, well, they don’t really have any.” His finger traced the flame glowing between the Mage’s hands. “But a thousand years ago or so Elemental Mages had the most incredible powers. They were more powerful than any other magic practitioner ever recorded.”

“I take it they were into the elements.” My voice was probably a tad drier than necessary. Honestly, sometimes I wished my life would stop with all the magical mysteriousness.

“As the name would imply, yes, they worshipped the four elements as living beings, as gods. Each Mage chose an Element to worship: earth, air, fire or water. That element also became his, or her, element to call. They could quite literally channel that element through their bodies. They believed it was the gods giving them strength and power.”

“What did they do with the element when they’d channeled it?”

“Oh all sorts of things.” He was on a roll now, becoming more and more animated, hands waving about to emphasize his story.

“Water Mages could channel water to create rain for crops or into troughs for livestock during drought. They could even hold back rivers during flood season. Fire Mages could keep fires burning for days without fuel so their people wouldn’t freeze during winter. Air Mages could speed boats on their course or lighten the impact of hurricanes, and Earth Mages could carve out roads or even encourage plants to grow. Amazing.”

“But?” I knew there was a ‘but.’ People were people, after all, and there was something to the old saying that power corrupts.

There was a hint of sadness and anger in his voice. “But there was a use for their powers which was very dark indeed. Much like your Darkness, they could also channel their elements while in battle and use them as a weapon. It made them stronger, faster, more deadly, and nearly impossible to kill.”

There was more. I could tell from the hard look in his eyes that there was more and it scared me just a little. “Isn’t it good? Being hard to kill? Especially in my case, since I’m fighting vampires.”

“It would be,” he agreed. “Except that the Elemental Mages became addicted to the power and it was a power not meant for humans to wield, even those with magic in their veins. Eventually, it drove them insane as the craving for power overtook everything else. They nearly destroyed themselves, not to mention the people they were supposed to protect. They eventually had to be hunted down and killed.”

So, I was teetering on the edge of crazy. Fabulous. That explained a lot. “So my Darkness thing, it’s the same as what the Elementals could do?”

Eddie pulled at his lower lip again before readjusting his glasses. “I’m not entirely sure. You see the Elemental Mages worked and studied for years before they were able to channel even a small amount of their element. Only the most powerful of them could channel power the way I described, perhaps one in every thousand. Even then, it took many more years of practice to control the power to the point where it could be used as a weapon.”

“But this just happened to me. I didn’t try or practice or anything. One minute everything was fine and then … ” I shrugged.

“And you say that now you can control it?” He peered at me over the rim of his glasses.

“Well, sort of. I seem to be able to call it up now, at least when I’m fighting. I’ve done it a couple of times. The first time I actually called it on purpose it was just kind of, I don’t know, mild. It was there, but it didn’t really help much. Then again I only sort of half tried.”

I pulled out a stool from behind the counter and plopped my butt on it. “Last night, though, that was something else.” I frowned a little, trying to remember what exactly had happened. “To tell you the truth, I don’t think I really thought about it either time. It was just … there. At Pittock Mansion, I didn’t really need it. There were only two of them. Last night I definitely did.”