The Chilling Change Of Air (Elemental Awakening, Book 3)

by Nicola Claire

  Theo held out his hand and I didn't hesitate to grip it, letting him guide me onto the blanket beside him. We had a spectacular view of utter mayhem. Somehow it fitted the mood.

  He began rummaging in the chilli-bin, pulling out a bottle of wine and two glasses and a Tupperware container full of Aktor-style cheese and crackers, fruit and nuts. My eyes welled and I glanced up at Theo's face.

  "Aktor?"

  "I do have a romantic streak, you know," he deadpanned. Then added, "He thought you might have forgotten to eat lunch."

  "I didn't forget," I whispered. I'd just been too busy caring for my brother and getting hot and heavy with my Thisavros.

  Theo smiled, clearly seeing where my thoughts had gone. He opened the bottle and poured two glasses, offering me one when he was done.

  "Here's to Aktor storing our wine in an earthquake proof cellar," he toasted.

  I had to smile at that.

  "At least we have the essentials," I offered taking a sip and letting the alcohol seep into my body.

  We drank and ate in silence watching a world try futilely to right itself.

  "They're resilient, aren't they?" Theo commented, watching the orange flashing lights of earthmoving equipment intermingled with the reflective jerkins on the police and army alike.

  "You've really never seen anything like this before?"

  "What? Humanity's ability to fight back against the odds? All the time. I just never had to see them do so against such insurmountable ones."

  "Why did Aetheros abandon us?" I asked, staring into my wine, unable to look the devastation before me in the eyes as I asked that. Feeling responsible for the heartache below on those streets, just by being associated with the Athanatos.

  Theo placed his wine down on a flat bit of ground beside him and lay back on the blanket, staring up at the clouds. At least it had stopped raining, as though even the heavens had cried themselves out.

  "We abandoned him," Theo corrected.

  "But why?"

  "We became complacent, too full of our own self-importance. Too sure of our place in the world. We entertained the notion that we were god-like. That we no longer needed to follow the sometimes strict teachings of a real god."

  "How did the Alchemists fit into your belief at that time?" I asked.

  "Come here," he urged, holding out his arm from me to lie down beside him. I placed my wine glass down safely and crawled into his embrace, looking up at the clouds while he talked.

  "I told you we gave the humans access to our history as payment for feeding us for so long," he started. "Even though they were not aware that Pyrkagia fed off humans at that stage. But it had been a long time since we had heard from our god, we were careless. Fearless. There were those elders who cautioned against our fraternisation with humans. They never gave reasons, just dire predictions of all that could go wrong. When it did, no one bothered to question their guidance again."

  He fell silent, his fingers slowly running through my hair as though to soothe him as well as me, as we stared up into the heavens. The elders had known. Probably still did, or the passing of time had helped dim their memories. But they'd known. Back then when the Alchemists returned and the Pyrkagia felt guilt enough to allow them access to their history as payment. They'd known.

  "Mark said that the Alchemists and Athanatos once worked together," I offered and Theo's soothing touch stilled.

  "What else did he say?"

  "That the Alchemists worshipped Aetheros."

  Theo let out a disgruntled snort.

  "That their role was to record history and guide the Athanatos through times of peril, such as..."

  "Genesis," Theo completed for me.

  I nodded. "I guess that could be why they know so much more than us about what's happening."

  "You believe that?" Or did he mean, you believe Mark?

  I shrugged against his arm as it wrapped around my shoulders.

  "I honestly don't know anymore. Trust earned can be so easily broken, but I do know right now that we've nothing to work with. No knowledge or experience to lead the way. We're flying blind, rudderless, and incapacitated at the same time, and if what he says is true, the Alchemists are not."

  "Know thy enemy," Theo murmured, quoting Sun Tzu. "We need to question him, even if we can't wholly trust him, we need to know what he knows."

  I nodded. "You're not going to like it."

  He groaned and rolled over until he was looking down into my face. "Tell me," he instructed softly, clearly resigned to his dislike already.

  His fingers delved into my hair again, at the side of my temples, brushing it away from my cheeks as though he couldn't stop touching me, needed to keep touching me, wasn't ever going to let me go again.

  I liked it.

  I needed it.

  It felt so very right.

  "He told me Gramps faked his death when their seers discovered I was to be the next Aether."

  "To protect you," Theo surmised, figuring it out faster than I had.

  I nodded. "He killed the seer and gave them a false name to follow. Eventually they found out the truth, though, and now he's trapped in CERN."

  Theo looked intently at me. I didn't think I had any particular expression on my face. I couldn't put into words even what I was thinking or feeling right then. But he could.

  "You are not mounting a rescue mission to save your grandfather," he declared.

  I hadn't realised until then, that thought had indeed been in the back of my mind. But now voiced, it took root and rapidly grew, overtaking all other reasoning, stealing into the depths of my psyche, wrapping sticky tendrils around my mind.

  "Cassandra," Theo pressed. "We are without Stoicheio, cut off from any support, facing an additional Genesis disaster, it is impossible right now."

  Well, it was impossible. I'd give him that.

  "Life's a little complicated to storm the Alchemist fortress, huh?" I hedged.

  He closed his eyes and shook his head.

  "You vex me, sometimes, you really do," he muttered.

  "So, first things first," I said brightly, trying to steer the conversation towards happier ground. "Attempt to commune with our Stoicheio and commune with each other." I was sure my smile was wicked.

  His eyes opened and hungry hazel stared down at me.

  "Now, there's a plan I can get on board with," he quipped. Then proceeded to nuzzle the skin behind my ear.

  "Of course," I added, my mind not willing to let go of a damn thing right now. "We do need to establish which side the Alchemists are on."

  Theo groaned and slowly pulled his head back.

  "What did your brother say they wanted with you which forced your grandfather to fake his death, thwart his people, and kill one of their, no doubt, precious seers?"

  "He didn't," I admitted. "But he did say mistakes were made on both sides, and that Alchemist and Athanatos history was complicated."

  "That narrows it down," Theo quipped.

  "You know what I mean. Good and bad exists in both camps, that doesn't mean they intended anything horrible once they got me."

  "Then why did your grandfather take such drastic action to ensure they didn't?"

  Good point. My shoulders slumped.

  "Oraia," Theo murmured. "I don't have the answers, but we will figure this out."

  "How do you know that?" I asked, looking up into warm eyes.

  "Because where you are concerned, I have come to realise there is no need for doubt. You set your mind to something and you succeed at it. Whether it's finding acceptance in amongst a new preternatural race you've just joined, or thwarting the Queen of the Gi. Or befriending an insular Aeras or pledging to right the world when its Elements are imbalanced. You have a way of making things happen and I believe wholeheartedly that you will accomplish whatever your next goal is."

  "I just need to pick one," I muttered.

  "How about I help you with that," Theo offered, suddenly looking at me in an entirely different li
ght. No longer awed as such, but definitely a type of wonderment.

  "And what would you suggest I battle first?" I asked, eyebrows raised.

  He licked his lips, his eyes darting down to my breasts and back up to my mouth.

  "Your Thisavros," he husked. Then offered me a rakish smile and said, "Let the battle begin."

  I giggled as he made his way under my t-shirt, the location forgotten, the scenery no longer viewed. My top was removed in a flash and then his hands were on naked skin, making all protests - had there actually been any - disappear. My bra came next, leaving me bare chested and open for anyone who passed by to see.

  But I had a feeling, a strange, unexplainable feeling, that although we may have abandoned Aetheros in the past, he hadn't abandoned us. And right here on that mountainside, overlooking a crushed and near broken city, his presence was felt.

  No cry of Oh, my Aether inside my head, just a sensation that we were not alone, but our companion was not of this world.

  Hot lips wrapped around my nipple, followed by the tingling touch of a wet tongue. I moaned, arched my back and then he began to suck.

  I was sure I'd come from his suckling alone, the pull of his hot, wet mouth on my breast, the connection each draw seemed to have directly to my centre, making me writhe and groan and beg for more.

  Then he undid the buttons on my jeans, the zip followed, and his hand slipped inside. I came the instant he touched my core, before he'd even sunk a digit inside, just a soft glide over my swollen nub and I shattered beneath him, calling out his name for all to hear.

  "Aetheros," he growled, removing his shirt and quickly moving onto my jeans and underwear. In a second I was fully naked and he was shirtless and struggling with his belt.

  I reached forward and brushed his shaking hands away, bemused to note his body was thrumming with nervous anticipation like he was the innocent and not I. Although, I could hardly be called innocent any longer. Theo had put paid to that in the most delicious of ways. And life had a way of making you grow up in other areas, survival making embarrassment of nudity seem a trivial thing indeed.

  He sprang free, a proud, broad head weeping his desire. My thumb brushed over the moisture making him rumble in encouragement and my insides curl with my desperate want and need. I pushed him onto his back and worked to remove the rest of his clothing, until I had my Greek god laid out before me, under the sky, beneath a gentle breeze, high up in the heavens.

  I kissed his chest, following the contours of his so beautifully defined muscles, marvelling all over again at the dips and ridges, the flat planes and hard bulges. He was a pure work of art, magnificent in every way. Mine.

  My lips wrapped around his arousal causing him to shout out at the sensation it created. Hands gripped my hair carefully, as his hips rose and his breaths rasped and my hum electrified the moment.

  "Casey," he cried, straining to hold himself back from the final surrender.

  Then in an instant I was hauled up his body, lips crushing into mine, tongues tangling as he encouraged my legs to spread wide, straddling his waist and allowing him entry.

  He rose up, as I came down, and we met in a heated, explosive collision, our breaths spent, our eyes locked, our hearts thundering in tandem.

  "You are stunning," he managed to rasp in that sexy husky voice he uses. "Absolutely stunning."

  I smiled, sat upright and began to rock my hips in a seductive wave.

  "Oh, Aetheros," Theo groaned. Sweat beading his forehead, his hands gripping my hips, his shaft plunging in so deeply and then withdrawing to the very tip, only to be taken in a rush all over again.

  It was heady, it was sensual, it was completely out of this world. Out of any world. Just us. Just that moment. Reconnecting our bodies and hearts. Our souls. Every sensation so vivid and colourful, so full of glorious life.

  Theo rolled us, my back to the blanket, the scratch of the wool a contrast to the smooth glide of his erection as he thrust in and out of my core.

  "Stunning," he whispered, his fingers lacing with mine. He held them above my head, making my body stretch out beneath him, allowing him full access to view what he was doing to me. Where we met at my centre. How my skin was damp with perspiration, flushed with arousal. My back arching, making my breasts thrust out and bounce before him, as he picked up pace and moved us closer and closer to the edge of blissful release.

  "Theo," I begged. What for, I don't know. But Theo did. He always did. He knew me better than I knew myself, even when he couldn't remember me.

  That thought was forefront in my mind when his teeth met my shoulder, as he broke skin in a Thisavros mark. But unlike before... it hurt. And I felt the bruise of flesh, the sharp sting of the bite.

  I came despite the discomfort, because I was too close to the edge and him even attempting to reconnect the Thisavros side of us was enough to send me over into that beautiful abyss. He followed, a sound of pure delight escaping his lips, a shudder of his massive, glorious body above mine. A tender kiss of his lips against feverish skin.

  We panted through the after-effects and then he rolled us gently to my side, his glazed and still freaking hazel eyes roaming the mark and then lifting to look me in the face.

  For a second nothing was said, then he whispered, in a voice that felt as lost and as sorrowful as mine, "It didn't work, did it?"

  I held his gaze for as long as I could then shook my head, my eyes closing and tears streaming down my cheeks.

  I'd hoped. I'd prayed. And in the end none of it mattered.

  Theo was no longer my Thisavros. And I was no longer his.

  Chapter 19

  How Did I Combat This?

  The disappointment was crushing.

  "This means nothing," Theo said, his voice harder than the moment should have allowed.

  We were still lying on the blanket, skin cooling where the wind crested the hilltop and dried our sweat. His arms around my body, his legs tangled with mine, his chest shaking ever so slightly with fury or dismay or defeat.

  I couldn't say a word in reply. I couldn't speak past the lump in my throat. I blinked the tears away, because what good did they do us now? The ache that had lived inside my chest for far too long returned, filling me up with a kind of numbness that at least eased the pain.

  I offered a small smile, as much of one as I could, and shifted, reaching out a hand to grab my bra, with the intention of getting dressed and covering up and somehow hiding myself away from the truth.

  We were no longer Thisavros. I swallowed the sob before it could reach the outside world.

  Theo pulled back, a wary look on his face, heartache and concern not hidden. This was not the Theo Peters I had come to know. Where was his impassive mask now? Where was the Prince who had been trained to show no emotions?

  "We should get going," I said, as my t-shirt was hastily pulled on, the wind picking up and making my hair fly in every direction, just frustrating me more and more, and turning what should have been a romantic reunion into something awful and wretched and so not fair.

  Life was not fair, was it?

  "Cassandra," Theo started, just as screams rang out from below in the city and loud crashes joined in when a building suddenly collapsed.

  We both stilled and watched the dust from the demolished structure whirl up and around, twisting in the air. For a moment I thought it wouldn't settle. But a few suspended heartbeats later it disappeared on the air and left utter destruction.

  "God," I breathed. "There'll be more buildings falling."

  Theo stood tall beside me, still spectacularly naked, smooth golden skin over hard muscles, as he scanned Wellington below us. I pulled my underwear on and was just stepping into my jeans when another building crashed to the ground in a different part of the city.

  "Is it another earthquake?" I asked a still immobile Theo.

  I did my jeans up and searched his face, then looked out over the devastation he was so keenly viewing. Dust flurries rose up in various spots, some
merging together and making bigger twisters, then just as quickly dissipating on the air.

  "With all that rain you'd think there would be nothing dry enough to whisk up in the wind," I commented, having to push my hair behind my ears again as a gust whipped at my face. "Theo?" I queried, he was still immobile and hadn't said anything. "Are you going to get dressed?"

  "Can you feel it?" he queried.

  "What? Earth? Another quake?"

  He shook his head. "No. Air."

  I glanced back out across the cityscape as Theo picked his clothes up quickly and got dressed. The wind was making a mournful howling sound now through the few trees left standing on Mount Victoria, litter tumbling across the uneven carpark, something bigger landing in a thud against the SUV. My eyes returned to the city below, the dust flurries more prevalent now. Wellington had always been a windy city, it was nothing out of the ordinary to have your umbrella blown inside out.

  But there was nothing ordinary about these dust devils. Too many at once. Too selective in their placing. Too inconsistent with the wet weather we'd just had.

  "Oh freaking hell," I muttered. "Genesis part two."

  "Yes," Theo announced at my side, now fully dressed and eager to go. He'd grabbed the blanket and thrown everything else into the chilli-bin, and was reaching out to grab my hand with his free one when a tree crashed down almost taking the SUV out with it.

  "Oh crap," I managed as Theo started hauling me towards the car and throwing our gear in the back. "Can we get past?" I yelled, as the noise suddenly seemed thunderous. Was it because we were so high?

  Power poles up the side of the mountain started to topple one after another, thankful electricity had been off since the earthquake so no sparks flew, setting the now strangely dry grass on the side of the winding road to the summit on fire.

  "This is going to only get worse," Theo shouted above the screeching and whining and dreadful howl of the wind. He scanned the area, searching no doubt for shelter.

  Not a hell of a lot existed here. Just the raised round viewing platform, which now seemed lopsided due to the earthquake. The metal railing around the edge buckled and more dangerous because of it. An old cannon from a long ago war lay on its side, I was sure it hadn't been when we first arrived, which meant it hadn't toppled in the earthquake, but fell during a gust of wind just now. The power required to achieve that seemed phenomenal, but the precision was what stole my breath away.