Sorry for the long time to update, but I’ve had to take a break from my fanfics to focus on an Original Fiction series that I’m hoping to get published.

There is a bit of Latin in here and it might be off somewhat as I had to work from an online Latin dictionary.

Chapter Six

Not You Again

A handful of nights had passed since Chase had stormed in on Jack and Freya and he still could not fathom his reaction to what had ultimately been proved a completely innocent situation. Worse yet seemed that he couldn’t shake her voice from his head, moaning ever so softly; the way she threw her head back, begging in a breathless whisper for him to stop. But then, it had been what she had needed, had it not? One would think the girl had never received a foot rub before.

He let out an aggravated breath, turning on his side beneath his quilt. Not that it had been an actual foot rub- Chase Young would never lower himself to do that for anyone- merely the pad of his gloved thumb working that nerve just beneath the ball of her foot. He had known perfectly well how her body would respond to such a simple ministration, but then there was only one way he could think of to make her every muscle relax and it was only in the aftermath of something that would have every muscle tensing at the same moment.

Oh, OH gods, Chase, pl- please stop . . . . His lips curved into a sneer as he growled at himself, her trembling, pleading voice skittering through his head once more. And yes, he had stopped the moment her body had gone taut, before she could . . . gain satisfaction. She had clearly been more worn out than he had realized, falling into slumber the instant her body had relaxed, yet now things were even more oddly strained between them than before.

Squeezing his eyes shut, he commanded his body to sleep only to be jarred, bolting straight up in bed as a pained shriek cut through the darkness. Freya? Instantly he was on his feet, moving out of his room and down the corridor, determined that he would give her a stern reprimand for disturbing his slumber. He could hear distantly the sounds of Wuya and Jack heading for the same destination.

With a wave of his hand, he sent her bedroom door flying open and strode with a quick, controlled gait to the bed. Freya had thrown off her covers and was struggling blindly in her sleep, as though she was fighting with someone- or something- and shrieking hysterically in . . . Latin? Chase frowned deeply as he only watched her for a long moment- he was relatively certain that the girl didn’t know Latin from gibberish, so how then-

“Chase,” Jack shouted in a whisper, trying to catch his breath as he stumbled into the room just ahead of Wuya, “what are you doing to her?”

Freya forced out a loud, choking cough before another volley of screams tore from her throat and Chase spared the boy only the briefest glance, his gaze returning to the girl as he quirked an eyebrow. “I am doing nothing, she is having a nightmare.”

Jack’s white face paled even further at the sound of her bloodcurdling screeches. “About what? What the hell is she saying?”

Wuya sidled up between the males, looking down upon with spectacle as she said calmly, “A fire, Jack. She’s trapped in a fire and can’t find a way out.”

“Ego indigeo facio! COMMODO!” The words left her lips and Freya broke instantly into frightened sobbing and more wracking coughs.

Suddenly Jack was tugging on Wuya’s sleeve like a scared toddler, “What was that, what’d she say?”

Wuya frowned, quietly brushing Jack’s fingers away. “She was begging for help.”

“Are you really just gonna stand there,” the young man demanded, “do something, Chase!”

“What do you suggest?”

Jack thought he was losing his mind, here Freya was imagining burning to death- he didn’t even want to think what that might be like- and Chase and Wuya seemed perfectly willing to stand around watching. “Wake her up or something!”

Chase let out a sigh, shrugging casually, “I was waiting for something that might tell us more, but so be it.”

In one smooth, quick motion, Chase snatched both of Freya’s wrists in one hand, forcing another horrible shriek from her as she fought against him. Frowning, he sat down on the bed and pulled her arms over her head his body nearly pinning hers to the mattress.

“Facio,” she screamed out again, trying vainly to push him away.

“Quisnam es tu?” Chase asked quietly, Wuya quickly providing the whispered translation to Jack of who are you?

“Soli, ego es Soli, facio commodo,” Freya nearly whimpered, coughing again.

Chase turned his head slowly, meeting Wuya’s shocked gaze. “Soli . . . .”

“Okay, wait, who’s Soli?” Jack asked, falling easily, as well, into the there-is-no-shrieking-girl-in-the-room conversation.

Turning his attention back to Freya, Chase replied, “According to my research, Soli was one of the Heylin Witches who had met an untimely end because she was not taught to control her powers.”

Going wide-eyed, Jack meeped out, “So is that Freya’s like, past life or some shit?”

Chase could only frown, “It would seem so; a minor misunderstanding of the facts on my part.”

Brow furrowing, Wuya ventured, “I’m not sure I understand what you mean.”

“If you would bother to think on it a moment, you will. Take Jack out of here and explain it to him when the answer finally breaks through that thick skull of yours.” He jerked Freya’s arms tighter against her struggles and she screamed again. “She is the one who needs to understand what is happening, now leave.”

Giving an exasperated sigh, Wuya ushered Jack out of the room. It was not until he heard their footsteps reach the end of the hall that he released his hold on Freya’s wrists, grabbing her by the shoulders instead and shaking her roughly.

“Freya,” he ordered sternly, weaving a subtle hint of his power into the words “awaken NOW!”

She clutched feebly at his hands, trying to push them away before her eyes finally snapped open. Her breath still coming out in shuddering sobs, her gaze darted frantically about the room before focusing on Chase. In a move neither of them would be terribly happy about afterward, Freya threw her arms around Chase’s neck, clinging to him.

He froze, his narrowed eyes on the side of the trembling girl’s face so close to his. “You will remove yourself from-”

“I know,” she muttered in a shivering whisper, her own eyes squeezed tightly shut, “I know- get the hell off you, just . . . just gimme a minute.”

Freya couldn’t make sense of what had just happened; that dream had just been so real! She had been in some strange, primitive-seeming cell and her clothes . . . it might have been a potato sack with neck and arm holes cut into it for all it looked like. Smoke was pouring in from everywhere and the flames had begun to chew up the thick wooden walls. A spark had hit the edge of her whatever it was she’d been wearing and the thing was going up like a lit match, beginning to char her skin. If Chase hadn’t woke her up just then . . . .

She heaved in a grateful sigh of clean air, the action drawing her shoulders in, forcing her a little more tightly against him and she stopped instantly. Why . . . oh sweet gods why- with her shoulders bare due to her tank-top pajama shirt- had she just felt her skin brush against his? Freya snatched her arms back against her body, pulling away from him and all but jumping across the bed.

Against her own better judgment- and willpower, apparently- she could only stare at him for a long moment. Chase . . . Young . . . was . . . shirtless! And dammit to every level of hell if he didn’t look just as good as Wuya said he did. Okay, no, Freya- NO- this is the guy who beats the crap out of you and bullies you every day and has a hell of a good time doing it, too!

“Okay, okay,” she finally uttered in a near-panicked whisper, “what the hell happened?”

Frowning again, he braced a hand on his knee as he quirked an eyebrow at her. “You had a nightmare.”

This time she couldn’t stop herself from blinking rapidly at him for a long moment- did he really think she was that stupid? Oh, wait, he probably did. “Yeah, that part I’m caught up on. I was more referring to you being in my bedroom in the middle of the night half-naked!”

Instantly Chase’s expression went from condescending to irritated, “You were shrieking loudly enough to wake an entire legion of the dead and I was forced to come in here and see what nonsense you were disturbing my slumber for. This is how I sleep- I am entitled to be comfortable during such an occasion, am I not?”

Letting a little, rattling breath slip out through pursed lips, Freya snatched up her covers and pulled them defensively between herself and Chase. “That was so not what I meant. And- seriously- if you think about it for a second, were our roles reversed, wouldn’t you be asking the same damned question?”

His eyebrows lifted fractionally, “Hardly, because you clearly do not sleep half naked.”

For a long, silent moment, she could only stare at him as her face tried to decide what expression to make before she burst out laughing. Chase Young had just cracked a joke . . . wow, hope he didn’t hurt himself.

After she sobered up, he sat up perfectly straight in his usual, imperious demeanor and folded his arms across his chest. “Now that you are feeling better, shall we discuss what happened?”

Biting her lip, Freya pulled the blanket over her legs and brought her knees up to her chest, clasping her hands around her ankles. “I’m not sure. I mean . . . I know I had a nightmare, but . . . okay- I usually have dreams that are just these weird bits and pieces of nonsense. Yeah, I mean, I know human dreams usually are nonsense, but people at least know what’s going on in them enough to say, ‘yeah, I was canoeing down a river of chocolate pudding with this badger and he was asking me about the Knicks game’. I also haven’t had a nightmare since I was about six years old.”

Chase could only quirk an eyebrow again, was she serious? “Do humans really dream such ridiculous things?”

“Weren’t you human, too, like forever ago?”

After a moment of thought he smirked as though he had honestly forgotten. “Oh, yes,” instantly his smirk melted into a serious frown, “but that was not a nightmare.”

What the hell does that mean? Tipping her head to one side as she stared steadily at him, she asked in a strangely appropriate-seeming whisper, “Then what was it?”

“It was a memory of a previous incarnation.”

She felt her eyebrows disappear into her hairline. “You mean . . . a past life?”

Chase nodded. “It would seem I made a miscalculation about the past Heylin Witches.”

Biting her lip again, Freya tried not to let herself wonder how bad that might be. “And that is?”

His expression was almost solemn as he replied, “That it was not three or four souls born over these centuries to become Heylin Witches, but one soul incarnating over and over.”

Freya suddenly felt as though the wind had been knocked out of her, the memory of the fire leaping fresh into the front of her mind again as her eyes welled up just a hint. “So . . . you- you’re serious? That fire was real and . . . and if what you told me about their deaths was true then . . . then I was the cause of that fire?”

Chase only nodded again. “That girl, Soli, was imprisoned by her people because they believed her possessed by some sort of demon. She was awaiting an exorcism when the fire broke out. She destroyed half of her village that night and all because she was insane with fear over what they would do to her,” with an appraising look on his face, he finished, “rather an impressive feat, despite it being her last.”

Going wide-eyed, Freya brought her hands to the sides of her head, pulling on her hair. “You are just so sick, Chase. Ya know, every now and again you really and truly remind me of why I dislike you so much. And you want me to become like you- and not just you, but some bizarre Chase-Wuya amalgam. I mean that is just . . . .” Her words trailed off as she sat up a bit straighter, her hands dropping to the bed and her eyes flicking about the room.

Watching the girl’s uncharacteristic behavior with an expression akin to watching an animal in a cage, Chase arched an eyebrow. “Freya . . . ?”

Something was calling to her . . . in the very pit of her stomach she could feel that odd, tickling pull again. Pushing her covers away, Freya stood up from the bed and took a step, trying to put the sensation into words . . . and at the moment oddly uncaring that her pajama shorts were perhaps a little too short after her huggy moment with Chase just a few minutes ago.

“It’s like . . . like that first day when I met all of you in the park. Chase, it’s a-”

“C’mon kiddies, enough pillow-talk,” Wuya announced from the doorway suddenly, a triumphant glint in her acid green eyes, “we have a Wu to claim.”

Chase was on his feet instantly, breezing past the Witches, “Then we are off.”

Freya blanched, “What, I can’t even get dressed?”

He paused in the doorway just long enough to turn his head, meeting her eyes as he said, “Do you think the Xiaolin will wait?”

“It’s true,” Jack piped up from somewhere in the hall, “sometimes they even sleep in their monks robes . . . it’s weird.”

Groaning, Freya shoved her feet into the worn black tennis shoes she used as slippers and trudged after them. Something was bothering her about the hurried departure, but it wasn’t until they were at the lair’s entrance that it hit her.

“Okay, Chase- I am so not flying with you if you’re half-naked and I’m in my pajamas!”

“Hmph,” with a snap of his fingers, Chase was suddenly in his armor, “problem solved.”

Rolling her eyes as that enormous, grating door crashed open she muttered- hating that it was almost natural to fall into place at Chase’s side and fit her fingers into the edging of his breastplate as he locked an arm around her waist- “That’s just perfect. You get to be in full battle regalia and I don’t even have time to put on a bra?”

Chase didn’t seem to notice the comment, but Wuya and Jack exchanged a look. “Freya’s right Chase, we really shouldn’t let her run around with those things un-holstered.”

“Shut UP Jack,” Chase and Freya snapped in unison as Chase jetted them upward at break-neck speed.

“There they are, Chase,” Freya shouted over the wind billowing in their ears.

Not far from them Rai was inching his way up a dangerously narrow looking mountain cliff toward a gleaming golden object resting on its peak. “Oh, I hate that guy,” she said with a scowl.

“In that you are not alone. Not to worry, we are here in time to stop him.”

“Can you just fly by and snatch it?”

He shook his head. “At our current speed there is the risk of missing and knocking it into the valley below, if we slow down he may reach it first.”

Freya nodded, not liking what she was thinking, but it might be the only way to beat Rai to the Wu- odd how the beating Rai part seemed more important to her than the getting the Wu part. “Drop me.”

Chase actually went wide eyed at that. “I know you detest this form of travel, but-”

“No, no,” stupid, “when we get over the top of that mountain, drop me.”

His expression calmed immediately. “You are certain?”

She could only nod grimly, not that she’d ever been the bravest soul, but she had to start getting into this whole Wu-Hunting thing they were all so adamant about sometime. “Yeah, I’ll probably earn some bumps and bruises, but what’s new?”

“So be it,” he replied, feeling only a scant proud that his apprentice was willing to put herself in harm’s way to ensure their victory.

Unfortunately for Freya, they were much closer to the mountain than she’d thought and she didn’t have the time to brace herself when Chase finally did release her unannounced. The twenty foot drop was enough to tear a startled yelp from her throat and she threw her arms up, covering her face before impacting the mountainside on her forearms and the balls of her thinly-soled feet. Her body skittered down a few inches, the rough rock scraping the flesh from her elbows before coming to a complete stop, her fingers grasping blindly for a handhold.

After a moment, she crumbled on her knees and forearms. “. . . Ouch.”

“Freya,” Chase shouted sternly as he landed near the other Xiaolin Dragons, “get moving!”

Nodding slowly to herself, she pushed up and began inching her way toward the summit. Craning her neck, she could see Rai several feet below and gaining. Was there anyone in these groups that couldn’t kick her ass blindfolded at about ten different things? Well . . . other than Jack?

Rai glanced up from his hands clinging into the craggy mountainside for a moment, meeting her eyes. “Ah, Chase Young’s new prize pupil. Say, did they ever tell you just how many new apprentices that guy’s gone through in the last few years?”

Frowning, Freya returned her attention determinedly back to her climbing. “Trust me, pal- anyone down there could tell you I ain’t no prize anything. And for the record, yeah, two- Omi and that Jermaine kid . . . that crazy Katnappe chick was just a red herring to corrupt your little monk.”

“Yeah,” he shouted up, focusing his concentration on climbing faster, “for bad guys they can be oddly lenient. I mean, why the hell do they still keep Jack around?”

She shrugged, glancing upward, just a few more feet. “Mostly for errands- ya know, carrying bags, grooming those freaky huge house cats and occasional tech support.”

Rai . . . actually . . . laughed. “Tech support?”

Freya nodded, hastily pushing some wayward locks of her long hair behind her ear- what a time to be without a hair-tie. “Yep, did you know he managed to get us an internet connection out there?”

“Don’t tell Kim that- she might want to visit and see if you’ve got access to the stuff that’s blocked in the temple.”

Why was his voice closer now? Freya glanced down and groaned. Rai was right at her feet.

“I can see they’ve got their work cut out for them with you,” he said with a haughty smirk.

“Give me a break surfer-boy, I’ve never done this kinda crap before, unlike you guys who . . .” her voice trailed off as a little tremor rumbled beneath them. “Oh my gods, what was that?”

“Feels like an earthquake, maybe it’ll pass.” His gaze locked on hers as he inched closer, “Calm down and focus or you’ll fall!”

“Calm down?” She squeaked, scrambling up still toward the peak, “Are you kidding? I’m from New York, we don’t do earthquakes!”

Another tremor rumbled and Rai latched a hand around her ankle. “Okay, new plan- we need to get down from here, like now!”

“NO- I’ve almost got it, how do I know you’re not trying to trick me? Isn’t that Clay dude the Dragon of Earth?”

Rai clenched his teeth, releasing her ankle to continue edging his way up as well. “I know what you think of the Xiaolin, but we wouldn’t do something like that. That rumbling could mean a bigger quake is coming!”

“But I’ve almost got it!” Freya could see the bright, gleaming gold edge of the object.

“Fuck the Wu!”

Frowning, she forced herself to lunge upward a few more inches, clinging to the peak as she snatched the Wu in her hand. “Got it,” she looked at them for a moment, goggles; weren’t the Wu supposed to be ancient? What the he-

The entire mountain shook suddenly and she lost her hold, slipping down the rough rock face. Before she could even scream Rai snaked out a hand, catching her by the wrist.

He tried to pull her up, but she was dead weight, her entire frame nearly going limp out of fear. “You gotta help me, here! Look, there’s a hold right there- drop the damned Wu and grab it!”

“N- no,” she sputtered, it was stupid, but it was what she’d come for and she couldn’t help feeling that if she let it go the whole mess would be in vain.

Tucking the goggles into the waistband of her shorts, she reached for the tiny lip with trembling fingers. As she grasped it, another small tremor shook them.

“When is this going to stop,” she grated out the question through clenched teeth, squeezing her eyes closed as she forced limbs to work just enough to cling to the mountainside.

Rai hadn’t released his hold on her wrist, instead shifting himself and inching down the rock until he was behind her. “I don’t know, but the sooner we get down from here, the better.”

“What the hell are you doing?” She so did not want to be this close to this guy.

“Cut the shit- you can barely hold yourself up right now, so we climb down together, okay?”

“Okay, fine,” Freya muttered, inching downwards in pace with his movements. “Two flying people, a guy with a heli-bot and a dragon down there- why aren’t any of them shooting up here to help us?”

Rai spared a glance at the ground, a worried frown gracing his lips at the sight of the other Dragons pulling themselves up from the valley below. Chase and his stupid, honor-bound ass was actually helping them and apparently ordering the rest of the Heylin to do so as well. Why couldn’t that bastard just be a typical bad guy and let them fall? No, he wanted to defeat them all and have them swear loyalty to him . . . bastard.

“They’ve got their own problems. We can do this, okay, but you really need to calm down and focus.” The lip beneath the fingers of his upper hand broke and he slipped, scrapping his hand against the jagged rock. “FUCK!”

“That was my ear,” Freya grumbled, leaning into the mountain as another tremor rumbled.

“Sorry,” he muttered, finding another hold and resuming their descent.

Despite the discomfort of the situation and some more minor tremors, they made it to a wide ledge half way down the mountain. With her feet planted firmly on some sort of ground, she felt rather reluctant to move again just yet. The tremors had yet to stop and as she peered over the edge, she almost found it amusing to watch the ever-so-skilled martial artists below tap dancing just to keep their footing . . . not almost, it was amusing considering how very much catching up to them she had to do in the ass-whooping department.

Frowning, she sat down and bent her arms, examining the scrapes on her elbows. Now that she could see the marred skin, the stinging pain of torn flesh began to kick in. I look like I got smacked with a cheese grater; if this scars I’m gonna be so pissed. A hissing sound caught her attention as she rocked side-to-side with the motion of another tremor.

Turning toward the sound, Freya saw Rai on his knees, leaning on his injured hand as he peered around the side of the mountain. “I knew I’d spotted something!”

Sighing, she stood and painfully dusted herself off before venturing over to him, “What kinda something?”

Glancing briefly at her, he then pointed toward a large hole a bit below and to one side of them, “That, probably a tunnel that leads into a cave. It might be safer trying to get back to the ground that way.”

Staring at the back of his head for a long moment as though he’d began to speak an alien language, Freya scoffed, “Are you, like, completely deluded? If a quake hits while we’re in there we could get nailed by falling stalactites . . . stalagmites? Oh whatever, I never could keep those straight.”

Dusting off his hands, he stood up. “Yeah, but we’re more likely to survive dodging falling rocks then being knocked off the mountain and falling to the ground.”

Forcibly perking herself up, she nodded. “Good point, so how do we get in there?”

“I swing you across and once you’re in, I’ll jump after you.”

His calm tone did nothing to stifle her sudden panic. “You are insane! Hey wait a minute, aren’t you the Dragon of the Wind?”

Rai nodded, furrowing his brow as he leaned one hand against the mountain, swaying easily with the next tremor and hiding his amusement at the cat-stuck-in-a-tree look on Freya’s face. “Yeah, so?”

“So?” Hazel eyes went just a hint wide, “Aren’t people with power of the wind supposed to like, be able to fly?”

His entire face falling Rai responded in a dull tone, “You watch too many cartoons. C’mon now, we can do this.”

She couldn’t help frowning as her shoulders slumped in defeat. “Fine, how?”

“Gimme your hand, you’re going to climb down the ledge and let go. Then I’m going to swing you toward the opening. You grab that ledge and when you have a good hold, let go of my hand and pull yourself in.”

After craning her neck to look at said opening, she rolled her eyes up toward the sky as she heaved an aggravated sigh. “Alright, okay, let’s just get this over with.”

Rai knelt beside the edge of the cliff, clasping her hand tightly as she lowered herself to the ground and slowly inched her body backward until she was clinging to the side of the mountain once more. Closing her eyes, she blew out a loud breath before pushing away from the wall just a little to dangle in the air.

Forcing a gulp down her throat, she looked up the length of her outstretched arm to meet Rai’s gaze. “I really hope you’re as strong as you think you are.”

“Shut up and worry about grabbing that ledge. Here we go.”