by Aspose
“The house would be better. Your mom hasn’t left for the office yet, and she’ll want to see you, too. No rush, I’m still working on my coffee.”
“Okay. See you soon.” She hung up and looked at Nitro. “You don’t have to come.”
“I want to,” he said firmly. It was clear there was no stopping him.
“Here you are,” Nonna said, handing Gale her lunch basket. “Have fun!”
Fun. Panic wasn’t fun. What would her parents think about Nitro?
He’d already opened a portal outside her parent’s house. He’d clearly done his homework.
One look at him, and she knew he deliberately wasn’t giving her time to think. She was almost sure that asking him to avoid telling her parents exactly who he was wouldn’t work, but she tried anyway. “I’d rather not bring up our relationship, if you don’t mind. My dad doesn’t need to know about that yet.” Or ever, if she had her way.
“You wouldn’t introduce a suitor to him? Wouldn’t he be unhappy if he found his daughter had been clandestinely courting and hadn’t let him vet the man? I believe I thrashed the last man who tried that with my daughter.”
Right, play the guilt card. Narrowing her eyes, she gave him a warning look and stepped through. Faced with her parents’ door, she hesitated.
“Shall we?” Nitro said smoothly, and swept through the crack in the front door.
Cursing, Gale followed. As she feared, her parents were staring at Nitro in surprise. He nodded respectfully to them and introduced himself. “Good morning! My name is Nitro and I’m courting your daughter.”
Everyone froze like figures in a wax museum. Then her father frowned. “Excuse me?”
Nitro smiled. “Because of her transformation, Gale’s been reluctant to spring further surprises on you, but I felt it was time to introduce myself. I would want to know if someone were seeing my daughter.”
Randy sat back. “I see.” He sent Gale a wounded look.
“Dad…” Gale scrambled for words. “It’s a sudden thing. I’m not sure how I feel about it yet.”
Lisa set aside her dish towel and came to get a closer look at her potential son-in-law.
“Ma’am,” Nitro said, and bowed over her hand.
She gaped at the strength of his grip. “I can feel you! Randy, look at this!”
Randy stood and blinked at the strength of Nitro’s grip. “Why can I feel you and not my daughter?”
Nitro inclined his head. “I’m very old, very strong. It will be centuries before Gale has my control over air pressure, but she has great potential.” He smiled warmly at Gale.
She felt as if Nitro had hijacked the conversation and was steering it where she didn’t want to go. “Right. Anyway, Dad, if you want to get going…”
Her dad looked at her in disbelief. “What’s the rush, kid? I want to know more about this guy.”
Of course he did. Gale reluctantly took a seat, gesturing Nitro to the armchair next to her. She might as well keep him close, in case she needed to club him.
“Can I offer you…?” Lisa bit her lip as she recalled she had nothing she could serve him.
Nitro smiled and rose. A basket appeared in his hands. “I took the liberty of bringing a few snacks to leave on hand for Gale’s visits. We’ve been concerned that she needs to gain weight, and a new elemental must eat constantly. If you don’t mind, I’ll prepare tea for the both of us.”
Lisa was a little flustered, but led him to the kitchen, watching in fascination as he prepared the tea and stored the basket on the top shelf, where it promptly disappeared.
“Where did you have that stashed?” Gale asked as he brought her a cup and a plate of Nonna’s cookies. She still had her lunch basket with her.
“I’ll show you later,” he said warmly, smiling when she blushed at his flirtatious tone. “The food is made of air, and manipulating air is what we do.”
Randy looked at the vapor curling from the tea in fascination. “So tell me how you two met.”
Nitro was factual about his rescue, if not the cause of his captivity. Gale appreciated it; her parents would not like her seeing an ex-con, and she fervently supported their view. He talked about his home and children, promising to introduce them.
“I wish I could see your place,” Lisa said wistfully, perhaps wishing it were easier to visit her daughter.
“I can arrange that,” Nitro said, and took a tablet device from inside his clothes. He did something that made a three dimensional model of the palace appear over the coffee table. He showed her delighted parents how to manipulate and explode the model so they could see it from all angles. “If we had room, you could actually walk through the rooms,” he explained.
“Just like Iron Man!” Randy exclaimed and Gale knew he was lost. Her dad was a sci-fi fan, and this was beyond cool for him.
She narrowed her eyes at Nitro when her parents weren’t looking. Softly, she murmured, “You are such a jerk.”
He gave her a wounded look.
“You’re cheating,” she growled.
“Ah. You want your parents to dislike me?”
“I know what you’re up to.”
“Of course. Courtship and politics have a lot in common,” he said with a sly smile. It faded in the face of her anger, and he said calmly, “I will not be at odds with your interests. You value your family, so I will treat them very well. They will never have cause to complain about my treatment of you, either.”
“Really. We haven’t talked about things like monogamy or honesty or anything, buster, because I’m not ready. You’re rushing things.”
He sighed. “Ours is an unusual courtship. I do the best I can with what I have to work with.”
There he went, being reasonable. She didn’t like the reminder that he was older, more experienced and possibly more mature. Nothing about this was new to him.
She wasn’t special.
She pinched the bridge of her nose and silently groaned at the girlie thought. Here she was, trying to save the world, and she was worried that her deadly suitor didn’t really like her.
Lovely.
Her parents were winding down the tour, so she said, “Hey, Dad. Did you still want to fly today?”
“You bet,” Randy said, eyes sparkling. “Do you want to come, Nitro?”
“I don’t want to intrude on your special time with your daughter,” Nitro declined. “I wouldn’t mind answering any other questions your wife might have for me, however.”
Gale felt a pang of alarm. She wasn’t sure she felt safe leaving him with her mom, not with the way he felt about humans.
He must have recognized it, for he chided, “We’ll be here when you get back.”
Gale nodded slowly. If he wanted to harm her parents, he would have done it before now. She would trust him a little, but he’d better be careful.
Lisa waited until her daughter shut the door and then turned to Nitro. “So, how are things between you and my daughter, really?”
Nitro smiled and settled in for the real discussion.
Cara
Cara lay on her belly, humming as she worked on her homework. One foot swayed to the beat of her favorite radio station as she wrote a report for engineering class on the track rig she'd made in the frozen North. Earth elemental college was challenging, but she was enjoying it. Since becoming an Earth elemental she discovered a real knack for elemental machinery, and her teachers like her. She didn't think it was because she was married to a powerful elemental lord that was extremely generous with the college. Tremor was good to her and she was happy.
The sound of the knocker echoed through the sandstone chambers of her home in the rocks of the Garden of Gods. She still couldn't get over how amazing it was that elementals could live side-by-side with humans and not be detected. Elementals had hollowed the rocks into fabulous homes inlaid with tiles of turquoise and gold. Throngs of elementals walked the paths of the Garden of the Gods unseen by humans, shopping and doing business in the many boot
hs. With her elemental vision, she could see through the stone walls as if they were windows, and she could see her friends Kira and Alicia standing at her front door. Curious, she tossed aside her pen as the butler let them in.
“Hey guys, what's up?” Cara gave them big hugs. A Latin beauty, she was 5’10” and easily taller than her friends. She ushered them into the family room and curled up on one of the couches. “Would you like something to drink? It's been a hot one, hasn't it?” She grimaced as soon as she realized she’d reverted to human small talk. Alicia and Kira hung out under the sea and in volcanoes when they weren’t in their Hawaiian homes. “Scratch that; forgot I wasn’t talking to my mom.” At her maid’s inquiring look, she nodded to confirm an order of refreshments.
She flicked her long hair over her shoulder, untangling it from a gold and green diamond earring. The matching armband winked on her bare arm, looking upscale next to her black tank and jean shorts, but it wasn’t as if she could remove her wedding jewelry. They were permanently attached, which occasionally made it a challenge to accessorize. Elemental men made their wedding gifts to last.
They’d barely settled into their seats when Alicia announced, “It's finally happened! We just heard the North Wind is loose. There's another one.”
“Another girl,” Kira clarified. “The Fates changed another human.”
Cara scowled in sympathy for the unknown girl. She stroked her armband, a nervous habit she’d picked up. She still had nightmares about her own transformation. “Poor girl.”
“Yes, we need to meet her, tell her about the Oracle and the knife, and add her to our support group,” Kira said. “The guys are ready to take us to meet her as soon as we can set up a meeting.”
“Set up what?” Tremor asked as he entered the room. Nearly seven feet tall and all muscle, Tremor’s body was like white marble, his stone skin traced with artistic blue veins. His navy blue, pleated kilt revealed awesome legs as he folded into the couch beside his wife. His hair was white gold and short, a nice frame for eyes of copper-rimmed bronze. “What did I miss?”
“The North Wind is free!” Cara said with excitement.
“Oh, that. Yes, I was coming to tell you. We have an appointment to meet with them tomorrow.” He waved his hand to indicate all present as he accepted a cup of strong black coffee from his butler. Kira took hers roasted to burnt perfection, and Alicia preferred kelp tea.
“You didn’t tell me that,” Cara protested. She heaped sugar sand into her cup and distractedly poured in thick slaked lime. She might look human, but her eating habits had definitely changed.
“I just did.”
“What are you going to wear?” Cara asked her friends. “It’s the North, right? The ice didn’t agree with you last time, Kira.” She and Kira had been trapped in the North during a botched kidnapping attempt, and it had been especially hard on the fire elemental.
Kira waved her hand. “Raze will have something; he always does.”
Alicia grinned. “Surge is teasing me with hints about an ice form. I’m looking forward to it.”
“Ice form?” Kira asked with interest. “What’s that?”
Alicia shrugged. “All I could get out of him was that water freezes at a certain temperature, but we can control that by mixing in salt and natural antifreeze in our water forms…he deliberately lost me with the technical stuff.” She noticed Tremor’s smile and looked at him hopefully. “I bet you know more.”
He shook his head. “I won’t ruin his surprise.”
Cara sniffed and poked his ribs. “Spoil sport.”
He captured her hand and nibbled her fingers. “Play nice.”
Alicia rolled her eyes at the flirting. “All right, you two. Tell us about the North Wind, Tremor.”
“Yeah, give,” Cara demanded, putting her feet in his lap. Tremor was thousands of years old and seemed to know everything about anyone of consequence. His uncle hoped he’d be ready to take his seat in the House of Lords one day, and she could see Tremor in that role. Getting married had tamed his playboy ways, but nothing dulled his charisma. Thankfully, he was more than just a pretty face.
Tremor glanced thoughtfully at the ceiling and settled back to dish. “Well, hard to say what imprisonment has done to him, but he used to be a warrior king without peer…”
“I don’t suppose you need the plane to fly.”
They were checking out some of the wildfires that plagued Alaska every summer. Most were started by lightning strikes, and sometimes there were nearly a hundred burning. Smoke was an annual summer event in Fairbanks.
Gale glanced at her dad and saw he was only half joking. She sat in the copilot seat, but she didn’t need the headphones to hear him perfectly. It was so nice to get away from the stress on the ground; Nitro would give her white hair yet.
She grinned and quoted Peter Pan. “Just a little pinch of pixie dust.” She laughed as she considered the few benefits of her new state. “I get free cable, too.”
“What?” her dad asked, confused.
“We rule the airwaves,” she joked, feeling lighthearted. For the moment everything was almost normal. It was a giddy feeling. “I wish I could watch the Fire and Kettle Network with you. Hey, maybe Nitro could show me how to record it so we can. He’s pretty tech savvy for a guy who was incarcerated for centuries.”
“What?” her dad demanded.
Gale’s mouth snapped shut. Oh, crap. Nervous tension from Nitro meeting her parents must have addled her brain. Maybe she subconsciously didn’t want her parents to be too trusting of him? No point in lying now. “Er, he kinda caused the last Ice Age. The Fates helped put him away to think about his actions.”
Her dad glared. “You didn’t tell me he was dangerous!”
She winced. “I’m a menace now myself, Dad. He’s got an interest in behaving.”
“Because of you,” her dad said flatly. She could tell he was angry about his daughter dating an ex-con.
Gale squirmed. She’d relaxed too much and babbled, and now she had to make this better. “I believe he’ll be careful for my sake. If not, I’m no slouch in the power department. I also heard there are other elementals out there that help with checks and balance.”
“I don’t like this.” Her dad scowled at the landscape far below.
She shook her head. “There’s a reason for everything. This will work out.” She was about to say more when the plane dipped with sudden turbulence.
“What the…?” her dad muttered, peering at his instruments.
Gale scanned the sky, seeing things her father couldn’t. The wind currents were roiling with a strange pattern, and the wolf winds seemed agitated. She saw one leave, maybe to get Nitro? The others drew closer, but she didn’t see what was causing the disturbance.
The plane jostled rudely, and her eyes snapped front. There was a woman out there, a female elemental. She drifted ahead of the plane, maintaining a perfect distance as if she were standing still. Long black hair flowed past her waist, and she wore a sleeveless, silver satin gown that flowed to her bare feet. The sides were slit nearly to her hips, showing off the silver jewelry that wound around her thighs and all the way to her ankles. The woman smiled and made the plane jump.
Gale’s eyes narrowed. “What do you want?”
Her dad looked at her, but quieted at her gesture.
The woman smiled. “What is an air elemental doing with a human? I couldn’t resist the curiosity.”
Gale flicked away the coil of warm air that quested at her cheek. “You want to talk? Fine.” She glanced at her dad, but was interrupted by a whining tremor that shook the plane. It felt as if they were caught in a hurricane. The intent to do harm was clear.
“I want to play,” the woman whispered.
“What’s going on?” her dad demanded, struggling to maintain control of the plane. He wouldn’t fare well if the woman decided to rip the plane apart. He could die.
Gale’s eyes went white with fury. Power rose in answer to rage, eage
r to smash her attacker from the sky. The door panel on her side froze, and frost crept over the instrument panel.
“Gale?” her dad whispered.
She looked at him. This was her father, and she could hurt him. She blinked and fought for control. “I’ll meet you at home, Dad. Fly safe.” She flowed from the plane and signaled for a wolf wind to escort her father to the airport.
The wolf immediately settled around the plane, steadying it against the gale that made the trees below whip.
Gale turned her attention to the intruder and smiled. “Time for you to leave.”
The woman laughed. “I make my own rules.” She sent a punishing blast of air at Gale that smashed like a battering ram.
Gale flew through the air, slamming against an invisible wall. Something inside her popped, and she felt air leaking. Shaking with pain, she hissed. The power in her roiled as she reached for the sky, pulling freezing air from the upper atmosphere in a building tornado. The sky churned as the temperature dropped.
The woman glanced warily at the sky and flicked a sharp whip of wind at Gale that cut open her stomach like a blade of ice. Snarling, Gale wrapped an arm around the oozing wound and caught the next strike on her forearm as the storm built. It hurt hideously, brought tears to her eyes, but there was no stop button. She would obliterate this bitch. She felt the eye of the tornado opening and smiled savagely. This was going to be good.
A hard hand closed over her shoulder, catching Gale by surprise. She twisted, but Nitro mercilessly ripped the ice storm away from her, releasing the winds that frothed and roared. She cursed in fury, fighting for the addictive power that slid through her fingers. She had this! He’d stolen her kill.
She tried to punch him in retaliation, but he twisted and it slid harmlessly off his shoulder.
“Stop!” He shook her roughly, bringing her to her senses. Her vision cleared, and the rage eased, let her think again. The storm subsided with a growl, reluctantly clearing.
Gale stuck him again in frustration at her stolen rush, but he caught her fist and held it to his chest. His eyes were flat and cold as he looked at the elemental that had attacked her. “No one baits my wife.”