by Jeff Hale
I went back to Travis’s cell. He cringed when he saw me, pulling at the restraints that held him to the bed.
“Are you going to kill me?” he asked in a strangled whisper.
“I wish.” I let my hate for him show in my eyes. “No, we have to leave, this place is coming down, and we’re taking you with us.” I pulled strength from my Aspect, removed the restraints that were holding him, used them to bind his hands and feet. I was very careful not to touch the ice that rimed the skin of his feet and ankles. I was also very careful not to picture what he looked like without skin; it wouldn’t bode well for either of us.
I threw him over one shoulder in a fireman’s carry, then met Val out in the little hall as she escorted Malachai. The rooms were already starting to fade. We made our way up and into the club proper as quickly as we could.
When we got up top, I could see that the two Cyclopes and several of the other fae staff were busy herding all the humans out of the building. The dining room was totally empty now, devoid of all furnishing and decoration, just an empty bare room. So was the room with the dance floor when we entered it.
Lucien and Lily both lay on the floor, not far from one another. Lily was curled in on herself, sweat glistening on her skin, making small moaning noises, as though she were in the middle of a very strong orgasm that just would not stop.
Dolf, Lucien’s ogre-gnome lieutenant, was kneeling next to Lucien, Lucien’s head cradled in his wide lap. The rest of Lucien’s fae retainers watched from a distance away, fear and concern on their faces. I didn’t know any of them, but they were all some of the more beautiful and exotic fae and all very, very scantily clad; Lucien had a thing for anything beautiful.
“What happened?” Val demanded as we approached them, one hand holding the chains that dangled from Malachai’s forearm cuffs.
“I’m not exactly sure,” Dolf said. Lucien was still breathing but his eyelids fluttered open and closed and he looked close to losing complete consciousness. “One of them,” and he pointed to one of the fae watching, “came and got me and said that Aerick had done something to Lucien, but when I got here, Lucien was like this and Aerick was gone.”
“Shit.” Val wiped an arm across her forehead. “We need to get out of here, I’m not sure how long this place will hold up. All the humans out?”
Dolf nodded, then pointed toward Lily. “Except her, don’t know what the hell is wrong with her either.”
“Probably something Aerick did again,” Val said, sighing. “Okay, you bundle up Lucien, you,” she waved at one of the returning Cyclopes, “pick Lily up, we need to go. The rest of you, out!”
Val made a beeline for the door, dragging Malachai behind her while I followed with Travis over my shoulder. He had wisely been silent and unmoving. He probably still remembered what I had done to him the last time I had been this close to him.
Once in the parking garage, those with vehicles got into them. Dolf put Lucien in the front seat of an older forties model German truck, the two Cyclopes hopping in the back with Lily and a few of the other fae. Some of the others went to cars of their own, but they all looked to Val and me as they pulled out and waited to see what we were doing.
“You all should really get going,” I said, adjusting Travis’s weight over my shoulder. I didn’t have a car, not anymore, and I figured I’d just ride along with Val.
Dolf leaned partly out the window of the truck. “We don’t have anywhere to go, this was our home.”
I just stared at him, then stared at the Cyclopes and the almost dozen other fae as they peered at us through car windows.
“All of you?” I asked, eyes wide.
Dolf just nodded. “We all lived here. Lucien provided for us, we’re his.”
“Well, fuck.” I sighed.
“They’re not the only ones, Kat. I don’t exactly have anywhere either,” Val said. She was standing near the trunk of her black and silver Camaro, the lid popped. She gave Malachai a little shove toward it.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Malachai protested. “The trunk? You’re going to put me in the fucking trunk? Good lord, woman, I am bound in fucking iron, what the hell to do expect me to do?”
“Get in the trunk like a good boy, that’s what I expect,” Val returned, glaring at him. She shoved him again.
“It’s cramped in there!” he pointed out.
Val conjured her whip, waved the shadowy weapon at him. “Fair enough. Won’t take me but a moment to remove your arms and legs with this, should take care of the cramped bit.”
“I’m getting in, I’m getting in!” Malachai leaned down, rolled his body into the trunk and tucked his limbs around him. “You’ve become vicious, Lancelot.”
“Whatever.” Val slammed the trunk lid and turned to me. “Got any place we can all go, at least temporarily until we get this all figured out?”
I shrugged. “My apartment? It’s not big but—”
“Perfect. Stuff him in the back,” Val indicated Travis. “And so help me, Travis, if you piss in my backseat again, I will have Kat tie you to the bumper and we’ll drag you through town, got it?”
There was a muffled noise from my back. I thought it might have been an acknowledgement, it might have been fright. I gave him a shove through the passenger door and over the black leather of the seat and into the back. Then I got into the back with him. I didn’t trust him to just sit back there and not try anything.
“You heard the girl, we’re heading to her place,” Val called out to the other four waiting vehicles. She got in the driver’s seat, pulled the car out and we all drove out of the garage in a five car train.
When Kris opened the door to my foot thumping, she just stood there slackjawed for a minute. It was a natural reaction. What else would you expect at seeing myself and Val, both toting prisoners, Dolf the ogre carrying Lucien, two Cyclopes, one holding Lily, and eleven fae of varying descriptions and lack of clothing standing outside the door expectantly.
“Jesus Christ, Kat, what the hell happened?” she asked finally, standing aside so that we could all file in. All but the Cyclopes; they were just too damned big and tall. I told them to wait outside the door and play sentry. They were more than willing.
I directed Dolf to take Lucien to my bedroom and make him as comfortable as he could. He came back out a moment later, went back outside and came back in with Lily. She was sleeping now, a sleep so deep she didn’t seem to want to waken, and Kris pointed to her own room.
We put Travis in the little laundry alcove and sat Malachai down in a chair in the dining room. The rest of the fae settled on, and around, my living room furniture. They were all agitated and anxious so I turned on the television to keep them occupied. Kris, Val and I stood in the kitchen, Val keeping an eye on Malachai.
“Aerick tried to kill Lucien, kidnapped Serena and is god knows where now,” I said to Kris.
“What?!”
“Yeah, well, he’s not exactly Aerick anymore. Something got severely messed up, or maybe somebody else is pulling some strings, but he’s gone off the deep end. The Flame isn’t safe anymore so I brought them all here,” I explained.
Kris peered across the breakfast bar and into the living room, counting heads. “That’s a lot of fae.”
“Yeah. I’ll have to make some sort of other arrangements, we just didn’t know where else to go.”
Val stood with her arms across her chest. Her shirt really didn’t need the help. “We need someplace decent sized, someplace we can keep Malachai and Travis locked up,” she said.
“What about Darien’s?” Kris suggested, looking at me. “It’s pretty big, he’s got lots of rooms, shit that barn is big enough to house a few families. It’s out in the boonies, so no nosey neighbors, plus the added bonus of having Darien and Alex to help.”
She was right. I rubbed a hand across my eyes. I hated to call him and ask that kind of favor, but there was no way we could house nineteen other people in my two bedroom apartment.
&nb
sp; I dug my cell phone out of my pants pocket, dialed the number and prayed that he didn’t just ignore my call. It barely made it through the first ring.
“Kat?” he asked, worry in his tone. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah, I am,” I said softly, his voice actually making me feel better just hearing him. “I have a big favor to ask you.”
“What’s wrong? You don’t sound right. Did he do anything to you again?” Darien demanded.
I began to laugh, almost hysterically. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, oh, wow,” I finally said as I regained myself. “I’m actually home right now, Darien. You were right, he was too damaged, he went too far.”
“What did Aerick do?”
“He took her, he took Serena and left. This was after he tried to kill Lucien. He damned near succeeded on that too. He’s gone, Darien and I—” I broke off suddenly, my attention caught by an emergency news report on the television in the other room. One of the fae had leaned forward and turned the volume up.
It was a video feed, being taken by a helicopter. The words scrolling by claimed it was taking place above Denver, Colorado. The camera work was a bit shaky, but you could see two people hovering in the air high above Denver, one of them holding the other. As the camera zoomed in, I could clearly see Aerick, Serena held tight against his side, his arm around her waist, a look of fright on her face as she clung to him.
“—don’t know what’s happening, Lindsey,” we could hear the cameraman saying, the sound of the helicopter’s blades in the background. “We were doing our normal Skyhigh traffic report when this guy suddenly appears out of thin air holding this girl… shit, what the hell is happening now?”
Aerick held out his free hand, a chilling and diabolical smile spreading across his face, and a pillar of white flame erupted from the middle of the city, slowly spreading outward, destroying everything in its path as it passed. The cameraman switched the view to the city below, zooming in on the destruction.
“I can’t believe this! He’s destroyed Denver! He’s killed thousands of people—wait, no, there are people moving down below!” The camera focused in on movement, and we could see thousands of people running panicked through the destruction. They were naked and suddenly most of them were amorphous blurs as the censors came into play.
As the helicopter made its way around Denver, switching angles, focusing on more blurry people, switching back to Aerick still hovering in the air, there was a rumble in the background. The camera swung around, we could see rock and ash and earth moving, as a singular tower was being formed in the center of the city, rising starkly from the wreckage.
“Kat? Are you okay? What’s going on?” Darien demanded impatiently.
“Turn your TV on to the news, Darien,” I whispered in shock.
The cameraman in the helicopter was focusing back on Aerick and Serena now, as Aerick flew them both to an open balcony on the tower. It showed Serena slapping Aerick. “Yes, I think the woman is with him against her will, at least it would seem so, and now she’s being taken away by some creatures,” the cameraman reported.
He was right, we could see her being led away by some beings that looked humanoid on the top half, all ice with fiery molten armor and bracers. The bottom half was nothing but a roiling swirl of fire and ice. They carried spears and shields made of ice.
“Oh, fuck me!” the cameraman said. The censors didn’t have a chance to bleep the word. Aerick had looked straight at the camera, smiled, given a two fingered wave, and then there was the sound of an explosion as the feed went dead. I stared at the television, clutching my phone to me as Darien called my name in panic, and a terrifying certainty went through me.
Aerick was just getting started.
About the Authors
Jeff Hale and Lezlee Cheek Hale live in southeast Washington State. The Shifting Storm is the fourth book in their Aetheric Elements series. For more information, visit:
www.jeffandlezleehale.com