by D. N. Hoxa
The first man to my right with cobalt eyes and a really uncomfortable expression on his face spoke. “I’m Nelson Westchester from the Washington Base.”
The man next to him who had his hair tied into a very girly braid, continued next.
“Chuck Dolan, Minnesota.”
“Eliot Dickens,” the next said in a heavy, deep voice without moving a muscle on his face. “Arizona.”
The guy with swollen-looking lips and gray hair invited my eyes to him. “Vig, Nebraska.” No last name, and no emotion in his dark eyes. Good for him.
“Okay. As we’ve already established, I’m Star and the Elemental, or even Raven for those of you who heard.” I put it out there proudly since I knew they all had heard. “But you may call me Star. Now, to get to the important part—what are you doing here?”
I leaned back in my seat and I waited. I could practically feel the cold air coming in waves from Aaron’s body. I risked a peek his way and saw that he was in demon-mode. The air around him sizzled with dark electricity.
“What? It’s a fair question.” I reasoned. “I need to know if they know why they’re here.”
He shook his head, and the storm in his eyes told me that I was never going to hear the end of this.
“We’re here to help our people,” one of the men said. I think Chuck was his name.
“To take down Master Samayan,” said another.
“First of all, don’t call him Master. It’s annoying. Second, do you believe we can do it?”
“Yes,” Eliot from Arizona said.
“Of course. That is why we’re here. A war is coming, and we’re ready to fight,” said Nelson.
“Trust me. None of you is ready to—”
“Star,” Aaron cut me off.
The warning in his tone was evident. I widened my eyes at him a second before I realized. Hope. He didn’t want me to take away their hope.
Well, I could play along if it meant we would get this over with sooner. So I rephrased.
“What I mean is, none of us is ready to imagine what it will be like, but we will fight. Yes, we’ll fight.”
Because I was already bored, I stood up and paced around the room, just to have something to do.
“Now, I will be in New York in a few days, and I’m going to talk the SKO into working for me.”
Oops.
“For us,” I amended. “What I need is simple. Numbers, as in exactly how many soldiers do each of your Bases have, exactly how many sups are ready to fight for…the cause.” I stifled my grin. “I need a plan proposed. I need to know how all of you propose we group, if we attack or if we’ll settle for defense when they do.”
With that, I would know exactly what to expect from them when the time came.
“I need witnesses, sups who have been taken by Samayan and have been fed the potion and survived. I don’t care how you do it, if you pay them, kidnap them or talk them into coming, but I need as many as I can get with me in New York. And of course, I need a cook.”
Marie. She was going to be priceless.
“Wait, I thought that—” Eliot started, but I cut him off.
“I don’t care what you thought. I care about what you do. Now, get to work, all of you, and we’ll meet again by midnight.”
Aaron stood up and came to me, grabbed my arm and pulled me to the door. I was too stunned to object, even if I’d wanted to. He slammed the door behind me and did what he always did when he was mad and didn’t want to break something. He turned his back to me, rubbed his face, and breathed deeply a few times.
“Aaron, what is it with you?”
As if I’d cussed, he turned furiously.
“With me?” he hissed, his spit wetting my cheek. I leaned my head back.
“I already took a shower,” I mumbled in an attempt to ease his mood a little.
“Un-fucking-believable!” he shouted. “Are you out of your fucking mind? What the hell is wrong with you? How dare you talk like that in front of the people who will be our arms in this war?”
“They’re not going to be our arms,” I said, shaking my head. I checked the wall around my little glowing sphere of feelings, and once I was sure it was intact, I continued. “The only thing that will matter in this thing is the SKO members that we’re going to meet. Not them! They have no choice. They’re already enslaved by Samayan so they have no other option but to fight with us.”
His dark eyes almost popped out of his skull.
“Do you even hear yourself? For fuck’s sake, what the hell happened to you in Alcatraz?”
“Nothing happened to me, Aaron. It’s just how it is. I don’t see why you’re so upset about it.” I really was just being realistic.
“How can I…” His voice trailed off as he laughed dryly. “You don’t see why I’m so upset? This whole thing was your idea, Star. The meeting, the gathering of proof, of witnesses to present to New York, it’s all because of them!”
He pointed at the door of the room we had just left. I was going to tell him that now it really wasn’t about them anymore, but I kept quiet, knowing how much that would set him off. I sighed loudly instead.
“All of this, everything we are doing, we are doing it for the people. To save humans and to save supernaturals from a fate worse than death. Do you not understand that anymore?”
Aaron grabbed my shoulders and shook me. I jerked away.
“I do. I do understand. But that doesn’t mean that they get a say in it. This is us. All of this, the ideas, everything! It was me and you.”
He couldn’t deny that, at least.
“What are you…how can you say that?”
It wasn’t really a question. I was ninety percent sure that he was about to lose his fucking mind, and I had no idea how to handle that. The look on his face was ludicrous.
“Well, it’s the truth!”
“You killed so many of their friends and family. That, too, is the truth. Last time we talked, you were trying to make it up to them. All of them.”
Aaron was right. But that was the last time we talked and I wasn’t the same person anymore.
Shit. This wasn’t going anywhere so I had to leave and figure out how to convince him to let me handle things the way I wanted to. The way I was destined to. And it actually made sense. I was the Elemental, a soulless vessel created to keep balance in the world between supernaturals and humans. It was only fair that I reigned, just so I could keep said balance.
“I can't do this right now, Aaron. I’m going to the training room.”
“You’ve got to get out of this, Star. Whatever this is. People are counting on you,” he called after me.
And I am counting on people.
I spent a few hours in the training room with Ella. Now that she was a vampire, everything about her was better. I loved how quick her kicks had become, and I couldn’t wait to start with katanas. I had a feeling that she was going to be the best with a shiny new katana in her hands.
When Kyle came to call for me—giving Ella a goofy smile first and earning a death glare from me—I followed him to his office. Kyle, without a word, put his white laptop on my lap as soon as I sat down.
“The Arsenal guy was fairly easy to find. I’ve explained to him that you want to talk, and he’s waiting.”
Kyle pressed Enter on the keyboard, and instantly, a new window appeared in front of me.
Arsenal had his head down, writing something in front of the camera, but I knew him immediately. His hair was considerably grayer but still as thick. His chubby fingers held tightly to the black pen while he wrote. I grinned.
“Good boy,” I told Kyle, patting his shoulder. He flinched. “I’d like to keep this private.”
He stood up. “I can leave…”
He was almost too eager to get to the door.
“You can stay if you like. I know you wouldn’t tell anyone. You’re not stupid.”
“I’ll just…yeah.” He disappeared out the door before I could say anything else.
“Hello there, old foe.”
The man looked up. His green eyes shone and his thin long lips were still turned downwards as always.
“I thought we were friends,” he joked.
I grinned. We hated each other all through our mission. But still, my saving his life kind of put him in my debt so I had the upper hand in the relationship.
“Not really,” I said. “I would ask you how you’ve been, but I already know it must suck to be legless.”
I wiggled my brows at him. The corner of his lip turned up.
“I almost thought you’d changed.” He reached for his glasses and put the square, too-wide-for-his-face frames above the bridge of his nose. “What do you want, Raven?”
“Samayan. As I’m sure you do, too.”
“We all want Samayan, Raven,” he said, shaking his head with a smile.
“Yes, but I can get to him. Through you, of course.”
“And how will you do that?” He tried to act casual, but I saw the curiosity, a living slithering thing in his green eyes.
“Well, you are a tracker, aren’t you?”
“I don’t know if you remember, but I can't track anything without having a part of it in my hands.”
How could I forget? And I had just the thing that would enable Arsenal to find exactly where Samayan was hiding his pretty face.
“I do remember, old foe. And it so happens, I have something that I believe belonged to Samayan right here with me.”
His grey brows shot up immediately, and he leaned in to the camera of his computer.
“What? Are you sure?” he said in one breath.
“Of course.”
“Incredible,” he whispered and leaned back on his wheelchair, a thoughtful look on his face as his fingers wrapped around his chin. I waited patiently for him to stare holes into the floor next to him until he came to his senses again. “What is it?”
“We’ll get to that. First, I need to know if you’re as good as you used to be.”
I wouldn’t put it past anyone to get rusty after losing a limb.
“Please, Raven. Don’t insult me,” Arsenal said dryly.
“Good to know. So, will you do it?” I already knew the answer, but I was still surprised when he nodded in a heartbeat. “Perfect. Now, all I need is for you to promise me that you will not tell any living—or dead—soul and then we can get to the important stuff.”
His brows shot up again. I tried to act casual, knowing well that he was observing me. It was what the guy did.
“Oh. You don’t want anyone else to know, because…”
He dragged the last word until I was bored enough to roll my eyes.
“Because no one can know. Just me. And you. I promise I’m going to kill him, and that’s the only thing you want. I know you’re a man of your word, Arsenal. Has that changed since I last saw you?”
“No, it hasn’t. But I do need to know why, Raven. I heard about you joining the RR. I also heard about you going soft, but I can’t say I see it. If anything, you look…worse.” He grinned. “It’s frankly very intriguing.”
“You know better than to trust rumors, Arsenal. A wolf will always remain a wolf,” I said, smiling evilly. “Yes, I do work with the Red Rebels.” Not for long, though. “But I don’t want them in on this particular information, and that’s all you’re going to get. So, what’s it going to be Arsenal? Has your thirst for revenge been quenched, or is it still as it was in the beginning, when he killed your granddaughter and took all your life away, just like that?”
Men are driven to act for women, money, or revenge. A man guided by pride like Arsenal would never turn down an opportunity to get revenge. Nobody ever would. I was doing them all a favor, really. And after I removed Samayan from the picture, the world would willingly kneel at my feet. All of it, mine. Win-win.
“Deal,” Arsenal’s voice coming from the speakers woke me from my daydreaming session. “I give you my word that I will keep any information about Samayan between the two of us.” So dramatic. “Now, what is it? A piece of cloth? A token?”
Excitement sparkled in his wide eyes as he almost smiled at the camera in front of him.
“Something like that. I have a flask that held potion I think he made himself. He took it out of his pocket with his own hands.”
“I don’t believe it,” he said, incredulous. “Where could you have possibly found—”
“Not relevant. I have it and I will bring it to you. How fast can you track him?” I wasn’t about to tell him I’d been held in Alcatraz for three days.
“With something so close to him? Very fast, I believe,” Arsenal breathed. “Especially if he really made a potion himself…”
He made my fucking day.
7
——————————
Two days later, I was in a big, round office with a too-big table in the middle taking up all the space. In front of me, I had Ned, Amber, Drean, Helen, and Gin-the-warlock, who really was a big man.
But that wasn’t all. True to his words, Everett Hapsburg stood to the side, as uncomfortable and as angry-looking as ever. He wasn’t scaring anyone though. Aaron and Jack were at my sides, and I was smiling brightly.
Everything was set. I was going to meet Arsenal after I was finished there. The warlock was so eager, he couldn’t wait for me to get to him. He said he’d wait for me in New York at a nearby hotel. Good for me.
I turned to look at Aaron, who hadn’t spoken to me ever since the meeting with the representatives of the Bases. He was starting to worry me. I wondered for a second, what would happen if he didn’t agree with my plans?
Well, he was definitely not going to agree, but what if he didn’t buy my excuses? They were pretty lame. I was going to need to work harder on them.
For now, I had to get back to the issue at hand. Amber wanted to eat me alive with her eyes. Her hands were pulled into fists. Drean, the fairy, was as beautiful as ever with golden hair and light green eyes. He looked like he could kill you with kindness—slowly. The others looked normal enough, except for Everett, who was the most impatient. His fingers kept tapping the wood of the table around which we all sat.
“So…” I tried. They should have been the ones to start because they’d been the ones who’d called us to the meeting.
I looked out the windows at the humans passing by, going about their business. I was told the office was enchanted so that we’d look like normal people just having a meeting, and no one would suspect a thing. I could feel the magic in the air, and that was good enough for me.
“Excuse me, what the hell is he doing here?” Ned exploded first, pointing at Everett. I grinned.
“Don’t worry, he’s safe. At least he will be if he wants to see a certain someone.” I winked at Everett. “But I’d rather we start with what Samayan is doing.”
Ned immediately leaned back in his chair. Neither of them wanted to be the first to speak. Pathetic. So, I was going to have to break the ice again apparently. Fair enough. I cleared my throat.
“Since none of you is going to start this, I might as well get it over with.”
I had every right to rub it in their faces a little with an evil smile.
“I understand that my presentation at the SKO conference in Dakota has left impressions on you. And I also know that the five of you have been aware of the real threat for the past decade.”
Their eyes widened a bit, but they weren’t all that surprised.
“May I remind you that Samayan will be releasing the potion earlier than we were all led to believe and therefore we do not have time to lose. We need to act fast, and all I need to know from you right now is if you’re willing and ready.”
There was no more time for smiles and jokes. We were getting to the serious part.
“We might have heard what you had to say, and we do admit that some of the things were as serious as they were unexpect
ed,” Amber said dryly, a look of superiority on her face. “But that doesn’t mean we’re going to throw it all to the wind and join you.”
“Oh, I understand your hesitation. Believe me, I do. The problem is, we don’t have time for games, Amber. You saw what the people said, you saw what the documents said. You yourselves”—I looked straight at Ned—“admitted that this wasn’t beyond what Samayan could do. He will not hesitate. We all know that he has gone behind all of your backs. The question is, what are you going to do about it?”
Heads turned down. Lips pressed tightly. Three minutes later, nobody had spoken.
“Since you obviously don’t have the balls to talk, let’s try this another way. Raise your hand if you want to be turned into a human and age at an extremely fast rate.”
This got me a better reaction from them, though I was surprised to see than none of them raised their hands. Go figure.
“That is nonsense. You can’t really expect us to believe that,” Drean said, his beautiful face flinching.
“It’s not nonsense, but you know what? Since I’m in the mood, I’m going to just go ahead and show you.”
I waved for Jack and he knew to do his part. He walked out of the office and left everyone but Aaron and me surprised and confused as hell.
The heads of the Bases hadn’t really been as useless as I’d feared they would be. They’d actually managed to find four other sups who’d been fed the potion and who were now human and too old-looking for their years. When Jack came back with the five poorly dressed men who’d no doubt looked better back in the days when they still had superpowers, I stood up.
“These poor bastards have been given the potion, and they have unfortunately survived. Before you ask, I have no idea where I got them, but I do have them. And I’m going to use them to prove to you that if you allow your precious Master to have his way, this is what you’re going to get. They are not only human, but they’re old, too. Too old for their ages.”
I turned and pointed my finger at one tall man, who had his bald head down, barely a handful of hair around the crown of his head. He looked at least fifty.