elemental 01 - whirlwind

by Larissa Ladd

  “How well do you know the client?” He asked.

  Aira considered it. “The one who contacted me, I know pretty well. I don’t know his new client at all.”

  Dylan glanced at Aiden, who shrugged.

  “It could be nothing at all, just a coincidence.”

  Aira raised an eyebrow. “Are we really going to do this thing where we question everything that happens in my life?”

  Dylan smiled mildly at the woman, and Aiden took a deep breath, forcing down his impatience. “Since your grandmother hired us to protect you, we have to look at the worst possibility for every situation.” He kept his voice as level as possible. “Which one of us goes with you?”

  Aira looked from one to the other, her arms crossed over her chest. Aiden noticed she wasn’t wearing a bra and wondered, without meaning to, whether she was wearing panties underneath her pajamas. He pushed the thought away immediately.

  “Well, you decided by coin toss last night, go for it.” She collected their dishes and took them to the sink. Aiden read her irritation and knew she was trying to suppress it, to channel it into more productive activities. He looked at his brother who shot him a grin and found a quarter in his wallet he had left on the bar the night before. Aiden called heads, as he typically did; the quarter landed on tails. Dylan would go with Aira to her meeting. Aiden tried not to be annoyed when Aira greeted the news with a satisfied smile. He knew she preferred his brother’s company and he could understand why. It seemed as though if he and Aira spoke for more than ten minutes at a time, they ended up having an argument, sniping at each other in irritation over some very unworthy topics.

  Aiden realized he was as much to blame as Aira for the arguments. The fight that started their relationship off had been a portent for how it would continue. Aira was fiercely independent, a trait Aiden could appreciate and would normally have enjoyed, but her independent spirit could get her into trouble under the current circumstances. He had never again tried to impress upon her the limits of her abilities, particularly since she hadn’t come into her full power as an elemental yet. But he had been tempted with every argument they’d had since that first day.

  Dylan was the more suitable person, Aiden told himself, as he settled in on the couch in the living room. She was meeting with someone she knew already. If the ‘new client’ was someone suspicious, Dylan could handle the situation. If he wasn’t, then he and Aira could come up with a decent cover, a reason for him to be there. When Aira came down from her bedroom ready for the meeting, Aiden tried not to stare. She was utterly professional looking, in a pair of dark wash jeans, a subdued blouse, and a fitted blazer; but somehow in spite of the fact she was dressed conservatively, Aiden couldn’t keep his eyes from tracing her curves. His gaze lingered at her full bust, the way her hips moved as she walked across the floor in a pair of low heels. For a moment he was tempted to ask her to get something for him from the kitchen, for the sole purpose of seeing her from behind. He conquered the temptation and turned his attention firmly back to the hockey game he was watching, even though he wasn’t interested in the least.

  Dylan came out of his room in a suitably professional looking outfit and he and Aira discussed what the cover would be. Dylan would be her assistant. Aira produced a notebook for him to write in while they met with the clients. They went over their cover story and Aiden thought to himself that it stood as good a chance as any of working. Aiden got involved in the planning just before they left, taking Aira’s phone from her and programming his own cell phone into it as one of the quick-dial contacts.

  “Dylan’s got me on his phone too,” he said. It was an obvious precaution they took with every phone either of them ever owned. “If anything goes down, call me. Even if you can’t talk. If I get a call from you, I’ll know there’s something going on and I can track you down from there.” He didn’t tell her he had a barely-legal program built into his phone that would trace the location of her cell phone once it received her call. It wasn’t important. He could track any number that called, and if Aira and Dylan were separated, it would do no good if Aira couldn’t call.

  Aira said the meeting shouldn’t last longer than an hour and left with Dylan in tow. Aiden tried to settle back into watching the game, but found he felt anxious in spite of the precautions they had taken. While Dylan had never had any problems dealing with similar assignments in the past, Aiden understood from his conversations with Aira’s grandmother they were up against some heavy hitters—something Aiden and Dylan hadn’t really contended with before. The client they were seeing wasn’t an elemental, and had no idea Aira was. Aiden knew there was no reason to suspect anything was out of the ordinary. In addition to the phones, Aiden and Dylan had invested in fail-safes. They carried backup contact methods, so in the worst case scenario, they could always find each other.

  One of Aiden’s fire-aligned talents was tracking. He was a quintessential hunter, like the animals his fire abilities gave him the ability to control. Dylan had limited psychic abilities, which would doubtless become strengthened when he came fully into his power, but at the very least he could lock in on Aiden’s mind anywhere in the world. As teenagers they had tested the ability, increasing the distance gradually. He was able to “read” Aiden and some other people he was close to, in a limited sense, but didn’t have any ability to communicate. Aiden thought if Dylan got sufficiently close to Aira, between the two of them combining their power, they’d be able to get a message out telepathically.

  Aiden helped himself to another cup of coffee, trying to settle his uneasy nerves. He realized some of his disquiet sprung from the fact there hadn’t been any attempt on Aira since he and his brother had arrived in her life. Of course, he told himself, they had only been away from her grandmother’s house for a little over twenty-four hours. That was hardly enough time for someone to spring any real trap. His mind countered, if someone had been working on a plan before her grandmother had asked him and his brother to protect Aira, they should have already come after her. He flipped through the channels and told himself he was uneasy because he was in a stranger’s home, and because he was out of control of the situation. He had faith in his brother. He reminded himself that Dylan had protected plenty of people before; they had acted as bodyguards on more than one occasion. While they may not look like the stereotypical bodyguard type, both of them athletically built rather than muscle-bound, they were sufficiently powerful to make up for it—and they were stronger than they looked.

  Aiden was finally beginning to convince himself to relax. He looked at his watch, the meeting should’ve almost been over and then she would be home and under two sets of watchful eyes. He started to let his mind wander, trying to think of what he and Dylan could do to break up the monotony of their watch, when his phone pinged once. Then again. Seconds later it was ringing.

  Picking it up quickly, Aiden saw the text message from his brother just before it disappeared: SOS. The phone call was from Aira. Aiden hit the intercept button to get her location before hitting the accept button to see if she was able to talk. If he could find anything out about their situation, at least he could locate her.

  Over the phone he heard scuffling, and Aira’s voice raised in strident protest. It cut out abruptly, the tone announcing the call had been terminated. “Fuck,” Aiden muttered. He calling up the application that would track her phone’s location. He hoped whoever had made the grab for her didn’t know she had the phone on her. The application was automatically tracking his brother based on data from the contact patch they each kept on them at all times. He watched the icon indicating his brother’s location as it moved, while the one for Aira remained in one place.

  Aiden had to make a decision—the right one. Either they had dropped Aira’s phone, leaving it behind before taking her or they had Aira in one place while they took his brother elsewhere. He wasn’t concerned with tracking his brother; Dylan would handle himself. Their priority had to be Aira’s safety. Whoever was involved in
the situation may have separated them, and without a tracker on Aira it would be much more difficult for Aiden to find them, especially without his brother. He could do it; he had the tracking ability, but it would be easier if she had the phone.

  Aiden grabbed his phone and the keys and rushed out of the apartment. He decided on the location where the phone was. If Aira wasn’t there, he would track her with his other abilities and hopefully find his brother at the same time.

  Aiden cursed lowly under his breath as he got into the car and plugged in the phone, hooking it into the car’s GPS and instructing it to lead him to the phone’s location. He wouldn’t have much time, particularly if the intent of Aira’s assailants was to kill her. Aiden pushed the thought away that they may have already, if that was their goal. He pulled out of the parking spot quickly and got on the road, listening dispassionately to the GPS directions echoing through the car’s sound system.

  Chapter 7

  Aira felt like hell. She lay bound in the back of a van, seething with rage and utterly powerless. She should have noticed something was amiss, she thought bitterly, taking refuge in anger to avoid the fear bubbling under the surface. The meeting had been concluding, everything had seemed more or less normal. She stood to shake hands with the new client and leave. The very next moment, she felt herself suddenly crippled, pain shooting through her body. Alarmed, she had looked down to see an iron bracelet locked onto her wrist. The pain was intense, rocking Aira’s body from head to toe. She saw Dylan start to stand when another person—one who hadn’t been in the room before—came up behind him and murmured something before knocking him unconscious with some form of magic. The “new client” locked another iron bracelet on Aira’s other wrist, intensifying the pain. She fell to her knees, groaning in helpless misery. It was a dirty trick, she thought, fuming as the two men gathered her and Dylan and carried them out. Aira’s old client had left the room halfway through the meeting, saying he needed to attend to a business matter, but he trusted they would come to an agreement.

  Aira quickly remembered Aiden had put his number as a speed-contact into her phone. She suspected he would have a way to track her, but didn’t know how. She managed to gather enough energy to dial out, and saw it connect. Her anger overcame her at that point and, as they took her and Dylan outside, she screamed to be let go, kicking and twisting in spite of the terrible pain that shot through her body every time the iron bracelets brushed against her skin. It was magic of an ancient sort—a type Aira had learned about, but had never had occasion to use. She managed one good kick at her assailant before he bundled her into the cleared back area of an unmarked van, reaching out for a pair of iron shackles. She kicked more vigorously. Her phone fell from her hands onto the floor of the van. Her assailant saw it and threw it out through the open door before falling on her and holding her down while he locked the shackles around her ankles.

  Aira had time to reflect on her situation while the two strangers drove them away from her client’s office, silent in the front seats of the van. Dylan still had not recovered, but Aira hoped he had managed to get word out to his brother. Even if he didn’t, she thought angrily, she would find a way out of her predicament. Glancing at Dylan’s unconscious form nearby, Aira knew she was responsible for him as well. The iron bracelets made her ache bone deep, their ancient magic sapping away at her strength. For a while, she knew, anger would remain useful to her, would keep her energy up, but long enough in the restraints and she would fall into an utterly helpless exhaustion. Iron, an earth-aligned metal, quintessentially associated with that element, had the power to “ground” any air elemental. The magic came from the magical associations that each element, and elemental, had. Since earth was in almost all ways opposed to air as an element, it pulled air down in a sense, the magical items associated with it carried the power to sap the abilities and strength of air elementals. The pain was a side-effect, a particularly galling one in Aira’s current situation. She tried to lie as still as possible, tried to push her sleeves down between her skin and the iron bracelets on her wrists, but it was no use.

  As long as the restraints were on her, she wouldn’t have access to her elemental abilities. Her mind would be the last thing to go. She would maintain her intelligence and her willpower the longest, since that was so central to her being. But she couldn’t call the wind, she couldn’t call for any of the animals she had dominion over, she couldn’t do any air-related magic while she was trapped in the iron. Aira’s fear rose to greater prominence than her anger, and she felt a sharp panic. She didn’t know the men who had taken her and Dylan, or what they wanted. She only knew they were elementals, or at least familiar with magic associated with elementals. Aira looked at Dylan again and wondered just what kind of spell the other man had used on him and how long would he be unconscious.

  She had no way to keep track of how long they had been driving. Aira curled up, aching and becoming more and more exhausted as the iron pulled her down. Whoever had grabbed them, they knew exactly what they were doing. She tried to keep her mind occupied with her mental list of elemental correspondences to distract her from the pain, thankful at least to have something productive to do. If they were fire elementals, she thought, she would find silver bracelets and anklets and somehow find a way to get them on the two men. If they were water elementals, she’d give them a taste of brass. If they were earth elementals, she would damned well wrap them up in aluminum foil if she couldn’t find anything better.

  Abruptly, the car came to a stop, and Aira opened her eyes. From her point of view on the floor, all she could through the thin strip not covered on the back window were signs of a lavishly landscaped location, trees overhead. She heard the men in the front of the van talking to someone. While her mind wasn’t as quick as it might be, she realized they must be talking to some kind of gate guard. Aira struggled to try and sit up; the iron felt as though it weighed so much more than it must. She fought against it, breaking out in a sweat from the simple act of trying to pull herself from the floor of the van. She knew the longer the restraints were in place, the more difficult it would be, and the heavier they would feel. The van began moving again and Aira caught sight of the top of a gate they were passing through just as the movement made her fall to the floor again too weakened to keep herself stable. She needed to find a way to get the restraints off. The sooner they were gone, the sooner she would regain her abilities.

  Dylan was beginning to stir when the vehicle came to another stop. Aira considered struggling with her assailants once more when they came to get her, but the amount of effort it would take was next to impossible. Until Dylan was fully awake and aware, she was in too weakened a state to take care of them both. The best thing to do would be to find a way to get the restraints off, and deal with the rest afterwards. Dylan groaned, and Aira held a small hope he would be able to help her soon.

  The van doors opened. She cried out in pain when one of the men the pretend client, shifted her and pulled her toward the back opening of the van. Every minute the iron touched her was a practice in withstanding torture.

  The other man grabbed Dylan and managed to lock a gold bracelet on each of his wrists. Aira knew she was in more serious trouble than she had first suspected. If they knew an elemental technique to quell powers, they were likely to know more. The question was, how they had known Dylan was a water-aligned elemental? This was a serious situation, and Aira’s fear—and anger—intensified. She occupied her mind with thoughts of revenge as she and Dylan were lifted out of the van and carried towards a house.

  The correct term for the residence, Aira decided as she got a better look at it, would be a mansion. It sprawled over a huge piece of land. The grounds were as well-maintained as any wealthy Victorian would have them, with topiary and perfectly manicured grass. The house was brick and timber, a half-Tudor style Aira would have admired more if it were not for the fact her assailants were carrying her toward it shackled. Her surprisingly sluggish mind realized the men wh
o had attacked her and Dylan were not the ones in charge. She shook her head, trying to clear it of the deep, cold fog settling in, to no avail. As she was carried towards the house, Aira thought if she never saw another iron bracelet in her life, it would be too soon. She could consume iron as part of her diet, and with certain precautions she could use cast-iron cookware, but from a very young age, she had kept all of the iron in her life to a bare minimum. She hated that metal, and she had now more reason than ever for her hatred.

  She and Dylan were taken into the palatial home through a marble foyer that was all gilt and ostentatious wealth. Aira pieced together if she had indeed been taken by elementals—and it seemed likely that such was the case—then the person in charge was likely an earth elemental. Aira yelped as she was deposited haphazardly onto a couch, Dylan was dropped in a chair not too far away. The two men left them there without a word. Aira felt anger overcoming fear at the thought of two of them being so helpless. She looked over at Dylan, who was waking up from whatever spell their assailants had used on him. She pitied him once he became fully conscious and felt the pain of the fire-aligned bracelets burning away at him.

  When Dylan came to completely, he let out a muffled groan. Aira tried to think, tried to force her mind into high gear. Clearly, whoever had come after them was not interested in killing them or they’d be dead already. There was some other purpose at play. Aira couldn’t imagine anyone—even an elemental—thinking she would be a good target for a ransom attempt. While her grandmother was comfortable in her living, the person who owned this stately home was already far wealthier. For what purpose would someone kidnap her then?

  Her skin began to itch where the iron touched it. She fought the urge to scratch, knowing it would only become more intense until she had scratched her skin raw. She tried once more to push her sleeve down between the bracelets and her skin, to get some kind of relief from the constant magical irritation of the metal.