Driving Rain: A Rain Chaser Novel

by Sierra Dean

  I drank in the view a bit longer, giving myself some extra time before I pivoted back to the waiting group. Sawyer was the only other one interested in looking at the view, standing beside me and leaning over the railing as far as it would let her. Everyone else was waiting for me, as if I could be even remotely as interesting as the Grand Canyon.

  Leo moved up next to me and put his hand on my arm, rubbing it gently. I often forgot how big he really was until he was standing right beside me.

  “Nothing is going to happen to you.” He made sure I was looking at him, then added, “You’re going to be fine.”

  I snorted. “I’ll worry about me. You keep an eye on her.” I jerked my chin towards Sawyer, who suddenly seemed aware we were talking about her.

  “I don’t need a babysitter.” It was so eerily similar to what I’d said to Teddy at the heliport I almost laughed.

  “You don’t need a babysitter. You need to be tagged like rogue wildlife.”

  She screwed up her face trying to act offended, but couldn’t quite manage it.

  I took a steadying breath and lifted my gaze to the clouds above us. I doubted anyone but me would be able to feel their potential.

  “All right,” I announced. “Let’s put on a show.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The trickiest part of what I was about to do wasn’t drawing out the lightning. I could call lightning in my sleep, and actually had done so memorably once. My landlord hadn’t been thrilled when the building was struck twenty-seven times in a row, knocking out the power grid.

  Oops.

  No, the hardest thing I’d have to manage today would be creating the amount of electricity Seth would want, without any rain to accompany it.

  I didn’t need the rain to do my job, but rain and lightning usually went hand in hand. I didn’t have to force the rain to come mid-storm; it did that on its own.

  But we couldn’t exactly have our captive audience getting soaked to the bone while they watched white-hot light illuminate the sky. People would leave. And it wouldn’t look nearly as impressive if I was performing in front of no one.

  Seth wouldn’t be pleased.

  So I had to demonstrate that I could do one without the other. The problem with this would be splitting my focus. One part of me would need to concentrate on keeping the rain at bay while the other manipulated pure energy into doing my bidding.

  I had to hope the big guy would lend a hand, but I also couldn’t count on it.

  This was going to suck for me.

  I’d make sure he got a show worthy of all the effort though. Then maybe the temple would lay off for the rest of the week and let me finish figuring out who was trying to wipe the clerics off the face of the planet.

  You know, my hobby. The thing I did for funsies when I wasn’t too busy.

  A path was cleared through the crowd, and Teddy guided me to my place at the end of the platform. Out here the wind was a bit more vicious, tugging at my hair and clothes. Normally I’d keep my hair in a ponytail because I hated having it whip into my eyes and stick to my lip gloss, but I knew part of the show would be me looking as impressive as possible.

  I’d already changed into a dress Sido had sent from the temple, which the clone assistant had handed to me after it became obvious I was going to participate. I’d changed in the back of the car because my only other option was the public bathroom.

  I might sleep in dive motels and practically live in my car, but I had to draw the line somewhere, and that involved taking my shoes off in a national park restroom.

  The dress was long and regal. The phrase ball gown came to mind.

  It definitely wasn’t something I’d have chosen for myself, and it was a lot fancier than my jersey cotton dress hanging up at the hotel.

  The material was black lace, but it was so delicate it felt as if I were wearing spider webs. The underlay was a rich, deep-blue satin that seemed to shift colors depending on the light I was in, from royal blue to a stunning purple. Cap sleeves gave me full range of motion with my arms, thank Seth, but the high-necked lace collar also managed to make me look both severe and prim. It was a bit Victorian in its overall aesthetic. But Victorian as imagined by the singer for a goth cello quartet.

  To my surprise I liked it. With my hair flowing around my shoulders and the blue managing to bring out the golden undertones of my skin, I looked regal. Both beautiful and a little scary. Precisely how a cleric ought to look if they were going to strike awe and astonishment into the hearts of millions.

  Sawyer caught sight of me on my way out to the platform, and her mouth fell open.

  I think part of what I liked about the girl was her complete inability to hide what she was feeling. She was the most open of books. If she’d hated the dress, it would have shown in her expression immediately.

  Nope, she appeared dazzled.

  I also knew this meant any progress I’d made in showing her how bland and boring my life was had been entirely undone in this one afternoon.

  How did you convince someone your life was terminally uncool when you got a private helicopter ride to the Grand Canyon to perform divine magic on television while wearing a designer gown probably worth thousands?

  You couldn’t. Even to me this was too outrageous to be believed, and I was the one living it.

  My genius plan had been totally obliterated. I’d never get rid of her now.

  I doubted she cared which god she was a cleric for at this point. As far as Sawyer was concerned, this was the most badass job in the world.

  I found myself smiling at Sawyer in spite of myself. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad when we figured out where she belonged. She seemed so lost. Finding a new home as a cleric might actually be the thing to give her the sense of purpose she was so desperate for.

  I handed my coat off to Teddy, who gave my appearance one final head-to-toe scan. There was nothing salacious about his gaze. I might as well have been a mannequin for whatever heat his eyes gave off. He did, however, seem satisfied with what he saw, because he smiled and gave me a single nod of approval.

  “Very good, Ms. Corentine. Very good.”

  “Yeah, I clean up okay.”

  The wind plucked at me, but the lace was stiff enough the dress only ruffled slightly, and the satin rippled beneath the lace like water. I bet it would look downright magical on camera.

  I pushed my hair behind my shoulders, hoping the wind would keep it back there and out of my eyes. Not that I needed to see anything in order to do my work, but it was still really annoying to have hairs twisted up into my eyelashes.

  Teddy and his assistant withdrew, leaving me all alone on the platform, facing a sea of indistinguishable faces.

  I wished Cade were here.

  The last thing I needed was bad luck, but I wanted him nearby all the same. His presence made me feel safe no matter how much danger lurked in the periphery. On a totally vain level, I also wanted to see his expression when he saw me in this dress.

  Our whole time knowing each other I’d been a T-shirt-and-jeans girl. He’d gotten the best of me once this week, showing up in that suit. This dress would be the exact kind of revenge I wanted.

  I hoped they let me keep it.

  I wasn’t wearing a watch, but it had to be getting close to show time. While I’d been changing, someone had set up speakers closer to the audience. Soft classical music started to play.

  The crowd fell into a collective hush. Every eye was on me. A dozen different national news crews had shown up as well. I spotted cameras bearing the labels of CNN, NBC, BBC. The whole alphabet seemed to be out there.

  There wasn’t usually this much scrutiny on me when I worked.

  My breath hitched, and I realized for the first time what this unfamiliar sensation in my chest was.

  I was nervous.

  Me.

  It was enough to make me laugh, which probably just made me look like a psycho.

  I pushed that idea out of my head because it made me think
of my would-be killer again.

  See you tonight.

  Not if I see you first, asshole.

  My palms itched with the first flare of power. Yes, rage was good at a time like this. Anger was one of those intense emotions that could help fuel me through this. As long as I didn’t let it control me, I could make it do my bidding, and this show would be nothing short of historic.

  We’d put the dream god to shame.

  This would be the display they talked about for the next fifty years as being the one to top.

  It would be my public legacy.

  Nervous excitement coursed through me, mingling with the anger. I was such a jumble of confused emotions it was all I could do to concentrate on the clouds overhead.

  Let’s do this.

  The classical music changed, picking up tempo to something richer, more booming, like the music that normally accompanied fireworks displays. They wanted a light show? All right.

  I lifted one hand, and a sensation of raw energy tingled from my fingertips right down my arm, until it felt as if my very bones were made of light and heat rather than anything organic.

  Seth, hear me.

  Overhead, a rumble of thunder growled loud enough to drown out the music. Murmurs rippled through the crowd, but so far it was just noise.

  At least the boss man was listening.

  Electricity, like the spark from static, arced across my fingertips. No one in the back rows was likely to see it, but the people up front definitely did. I could feel the excitement building.

  This was going to hurt me so badly.

  It would be worth it.

  I didn’t say anything. Didn’t announce who I was or explain what they were about to see. Everyone already knew.

  I snapped my fingers, and the entire sky lit up, sheet lightning ricocheting from cloud to cloud like a thousand strobe lights going off at once.

  The audience gasped.

  Then the real show began.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  I got carried away.

  It started slow. I dragged the clouds in overhead until the setting sun was blotted out and only the big, heavy waves of an incoming storm could be seen overhead.

  The clouds settled over the canyon like a thick blanket.

  Now, with the darkness in full effect, each new flash of lightning seemed to bring on temporary daylight. Pop, the world was alight. Boom, thunder crashed, trembling the world around us. Each new bang was so loud it rattled my teeth and shook in my chest.

  I’d long since stopped hearing the responses of the crowd or the music pumping through the speakers. All I could hear now was the buzz of electricity as the lightning built and cascaded overhead. The corresponding crashes of thunder were Seth’s way of telling me he approved.

  Based on the rich, ear-splitting rumbles that followed each fork of lightning, he was pretty pleased with me.

  I started with the showy stuff, things that didn’t hurt me too badly. Dozens of lightning strikes came down around us, hitting points all throughout the park behind me. I counted them out, one, two, threefourfive. I made sure some bolts hit the same place three or four times in a row to demonstrate there were no accidents here.

  I made them come down in an array, landing one after the other in order, so you could trace their path across the skyline one at a time. The bolts started coming so quickly the thunder could barely keep up. Soon it was all just one long growling boom.

  Wind swirled around me, tugging at my dress, blowing my hair up behind me, across my forehead and back. I felt as if I were trapped in my own mini tornado the way the breeze plucked at me, pushed me, teased me. It was like a thousand little fingers were pinching me all at once.

  Considering I’d never done anything quite like this before, I was astonished by how well I was pulling it off.

  Then, after a solid thirty minutes of showing off at a distance, I felt his command more than heard it.

  Now you.

  Of course it wouldn’t be enough to simply strike lightning down on the horizon a few hundred times.

  Seth had to show them that his power was within me.

  Which meant I had to get hit.

  I dropped my hands to my sides, and everything fell silent. The crowd held its breath. The sky was completely dark. On the air was the unmistakable scent of coming rain, something I’d managed to hold aloft this whole time. But once my show was over it was going to pour buckets.

  I could only hold back nature for so long. Rain would eventually fall if it wanted to fall.

  The audience was waiting, wondering if I was done. No one applauded. They just stared. Teddy had shut off the music, because what was the point of playing the 1812 Overture if no one could hear a single note?

  I raised my head, and even from seven hundred feet back, people gasped.

  When I channeled the storm, it showed in my eyes. While I couldn’t see what they saw, I knew what was happening. Flashes of lightning were coming from inside my pupils. A tiny storm trapped within me for all time.

  Dramatically I lifted my hands over my head. I dropped my left arm first, and a huge fork of lightning hit the ground right next to me. It was so close the fabric of my dressed shuddered and the heat of it made my skin tingle.

  A few people screamed.

  I brought down my right arm and another bolt crashed on my opposite side, near enough I had to blink away stars. The screams turned into a rumbling of approval from the crowd that rivaled the thunderous thanks I was receiving from Seth.

  One more.

  I clasped my hands together, silently asking that the platform was really as strong as Teddy claimed it was, then whispered, “Okay.”

  The bolt crashed into me, hitting me right in the top of my head. If the audience responded at all, I didn’t hear it. Everything turned white, blurring out the world around me. All sensations aside from light and pain were gone.

  I knew a lot of people thought getting hit by lightning must be painless. One of those things that was such a shock to the system the brain shut down and didn’t let anything be felt. Like one minute you’re standing and a few minutes later you wake up wondering what happened.

  There were a lot of days I wished that were true.

  Instead, I felt it all.

  It was like being plugged into a wall socket, and just when you think the power will be so intense it will obliterate you, fracture you into tiny specks of dust and atoms, you plug your other hand into a different wall socket.

  The sensation of channeling lightning is like being the most alive you’ve ever felt while also feeling absolutely certain you will die at any second. It’s being torn apart to the root of your existence and reassembled from the ground up. I was exploded and glued back together, but the parts never fit the same as they had before.

  I gritted my teeth and tried to steady my breath, but the lightning stole that away too.

  I was reduced to a stuttering heartbeat. I no longer had limbs or skin. I was only my pulse and my pain. How could everything hurt this badly all at once? As I came back into myself, as my body rebuilt and the lightning passed through me, I wondered how I had any skin left.

  I was an open wound. Everywhere the air touched me I wanted to scream and cry. My hands shook, and it took all my willpower not to stumble to my knees.

  The first fat drops of rain started to come down around me because I no longer had the strength to keep them back. I was done.

  The show was over.

  One final boom of thunder shook the night sky, and it was so intense, so magnificent, it was as if Seth were speaking directly to everyone present. They felt it, how could they not?

  After a long, drawn-out silence, the crowd positively exploded in applause.

  The chorus of hoots and cheers was loud enough to cut through the ringing in my ears, and I steadied myself enough to open my eyes and glance up at them. A huge black circle had charred the ground around me. Little sparks of light continued to dance off my fingertips and even the end
s of my hair.

  It hurt like a son of a bitch, but I bet it looked pretty cool.

  I gave a shuddering sigh, almost a laugh, and lifted my hand in a wave.

  The audience went ballistic.

  In my whole life I’d never had people cheer like that for what I did. I felt… I felt special. I felt seen. I’d been a Rain Chaser since birth, I’d been with the temple since I was seven, and I’d been face-to-face with a god more times than I could count.

  It wasn’t until right this second that I understood maybe this wasn’t a curse.

  Maybe it really was a gift after all.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  I napped the whole way back to Las Vegas.

  I woke up an hour after we got into the helicopter with my head on Leo’s shoulder, my headset knocked askew, and my mouth hanging open in a very ladylike manner.

  “Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty.” He didn’t push me off, so I felt the rumble of his laughter in my jaw. “That was quite a display.”

  “That. Was. Amazing.” Sawyer, seeing I was awake, shuffled to the edge of her seat and looked like she was desperate to say a thousand more things. “Like, you didn’t explode. You didn’t die.”

  “Didn’t I?” I pushed myself off Leo, and my body absolutely screamed in protest. I winced, unable to pretend I wasn’t in total agony. The nap had helped me get back a little energy, but I wouldn’t be running a marathon any time soon.

  My stomach growled so loudly I could hear it even with my headphones on. I’m such a lady.

  The helicopter had just landed, and the pilot got out to open our door for us. Teddy exited first, ducking to avoid the rotating blades as they slowed. He offered me a hand to help me, and I actually took it.

  I hadn’t bothered changing out of the gown I’d been given, partly because trying to get my jeans back on in a car sounded like way too much effort, and also because I was hoping if I kept the dress on, they would let me keep it. Since no one had said anything yet about me needing to return it, I was guessing it might be my reward for a job well done.