by Keya Jay
Chapter three: Ryder Ferris
Sidney was just a project to Ryder, he never really had true feelings for her, how could he, she’s human for goodness sake? Her money had nothing to do with it; it was her father, her birth father. But now it’s her mother’s new toy he’s worried about. Ryder knows Hank’s a wisp; his involvement with Sidney’s mother is a bit suspicious.
It’s no secret wisps don’t like humans so why date one? Ryder had his reasons but what’s Hank’s? Ryder needed to get closer to Hank but Sidney wasn’t much help so he had to let her go. She hates Hank’s guts but he couldn’t convince her to play nice for him–she would never do it, so there for he had no use for her.
Ryder thought about coming down from the tree but what fun would that have been? He should be mad that Nathan took Sidney away but it was past time they mend their fences.
“Human’s and there problems,” Ryder grumbled, “always making things difficult.”
Though Ryder seemed to hate humans as much as the average wisp, it wasn’t like that for him. He was very hypocritical when it came to his hate toward humans. He was torn in two, not sure of his reasoning but only knowing that there was one.
Ryder’s mother is only half wisps and because of that her immune system wasn’t strong enough to fight off the virus running through her veins. That only succeeded in deepening Ryder’s fears of ever getting close to his mother, he knew that any minute he could—would lose her.
Robby—which was what Ryder’s mother would call him—has the same condition and that is also part of his—keeping emotional distance—reasoning. He can’t afford to give a part of himself away knowing that he’ll leave the other person devastated once he’s forced to take it all back.
Ryder hopped down out of the tree before Nathan decided he wanted to come back; he had a lot to do and so little time to do it in.
He walked two blocks and turned on Auburn St. to the abandoned warehouse on 58th. He could see Ashley standing outside of the ware house half unnoticeable by the shadows in the alley way behind her.
Ashley used to be just a wisp Ryder had no intentions of paying little to no attention to, but then later down the road she became very useful, his very own personal maid of sorts [but word to the wise don’t ever call her that, Ryder could get away with it because there’s nothing she can say or do to him, but others she has no problem serving them hell on a pretty little platter].
“Oh Sir! Thank goodness you’re here, we have a problem.”
“Can’t it wait until we get inside first Ash? I don’t need others noses’ in our business where it does not belong, does that need farther clarification?” Ryder said impatiently
“No sir, but once I tell you you’re just going to walk right back out of here,” she said as she turned on her heels and began walking down toward the basement of the old warehouse.
Ryder runs a tight business down there, everything is as it should be, especially location. Humans are too stupid to realize that if the police suspect anything they will look inside the old abandoned buildings but they’d never look underneath.
Once in the tunnels of the warehouse building Ryder began repeating the steps needing to be taken in his head.
One…Two…Three…, he counted off as he walked past two intersections and kept going straight then he stopped two to the left he reminded himself. One down and two to the right, then one down for the last time, he stopped in front of a door not a very noticeable door but a door none the less. He pushed on the door and light bathed the dark tunnels, he stepped in quickly with Ash right on his heels.
Ryder looked around and so far everything was to his liking… wait a minute…
“Where are Nico and Carter?” He turned to indicate that he wanted Ash to answer the question.
You couldn’t possibly say one name without saying the other, they weren’t just joined by the hip, they were joined by the brain, by the heart and…well they were just joined period. They were Bevis and Butthead, SpongeBob and Patrick, Stewie and Brian, Batman and Robyn, only trouble linked the two.
“Well that’s what I was trying to tell you,” Ash said.
“What exactly are you trynna tell me?” he asked making sure no emotion seeped into his words for her sake.
She looked around at all of the other eyes and ears on her and motioned toward the door. Once outside her pale blue eyes met his.
“They got bored they said and so they left…together.”
“They wouldn’t have it any other way now would they?” he growled.
“Well no sir,” she said shaking her blonde curls around wildly, the anger clearly visible in his voice making her timid.
“Well I followed them and I told Elliot to watch the Wisps while I was gone,” she said motioning toward the door they stood outside of. “And when I finally caught up to Nico and Carter they were harassing some blonde girl but she wasn’t taking it, she was roughing them up quite a bit I was astound, but no doubt you or me would be able to take her,” she added quickly.
“Get to the point Ashley.”
The look in her eyes was like that of a wounded animal, Ryder didn’t call her Ashley unless he was angry—which he was.
“My apologies sir,” she said bowing her head slightly, a true act of worship. “I have no idea what led them to attach the poor woman.”
“This is Nico and Carter we’re talking about here, they don’t need reason, reason is foreign to them.”
“Right, well I did get close enough to hear them say something about wisps, and they wouldn’t have said such a thing, they knew better. They wouldn’t just casually talk about it—”
“Unless the woman they were attaching was one,” he finished for her. “Are they still with the woman?”
“The last I saw,” she said holding her chin a bit higher, realizing that she had delved some important information to him.
“Where exactly are they now?”
“They were at the corner of Reeding the last I saw of them.”
“Thanks Ash, good work,” he said patting her on the side of her arm [never one to show too much affection] before turning around and heading out of the tunnels.
Ryder didn’t have to walk far to know where they were he has an eye for catching wisps, and by the looks of it she was most definitely a wisps.
Wisps move like air and when one strikes it’s like a deadly whisper against the enemy’s skin and they won’t even know they’ve been attached until it’s too late. A blue hue radiates from wisps’ finger tips. A wisp tends to move with the wind and at times might appear to be invisible.
Eye sight is a wisps strongest point in day light and at night, the irises of a wisp is outlined in a glowing blue light and becomes more pronounced at night which is beneficial, and is like its own night vision.
A wisps weakness is an injury to the neck, if the head is severed from the neck then all of the wisps strong points go with it. You can close a wisps’ wind pipe but that won’t do any damage. Most of the power of a wisp is stored in its head and so without the neck to support it, its head is useless [to most]. A wisp is also very agile and light on its toes as well. But to an untrained eye, to someone who doesn’t know what to look for a wisp may appear—dare anyone say it –-human.
Ryder stayed in the shadows as he watched the female wisp, by the looks of it she was rogue but she was probably the strongest he’s ever seen yet. Her balance seemed to be better than most and her moves seemed to register faster than she could control but her reflexes were on point so it stopped her from falling. This is someone who’s had a lot of practice.
By the looks of it Nico and Carter were double teaming her but she held her own against the two that is until they decided to lay her flat on her back, which was Ryder’s cue to make himself seen.
“Nico and Carter!” he said walking up to the two of them.
“Why?” he said throwing his hands into the air and letting them fall right back down to his side.
; Carter made a big show of dusting off his hands before facing hm. The girl still lay on her back, face red from exhaustion.
“Let me handle this,” Nico said stepping in. “This feisty little snap here,” he said motioning toward the girl, with the quickest of reflexes she swept her feet catching Nico’s feet under her own and making him fall to the ground. He mumbled a few choice words before getting back to his feet with the help of his partner in crime.
“Jeez now you know what we’re dealing with,” he said dusting himself off once more.
Ryder looked down at the girl; she didn’t even bother to hide her smile as she got to her feet and dusted herself off.
“You should watch your mouth next time,” she said to Nico, and if Ryder didn’t know any better he’d actually go as far as to say Nico looked scared.
“Any way’s me and Carter here were just minding our business, you know messing around,” which is code for messing around with someone else, “when this…girl,” he said thinking twice before calling her anything else, “came up to us and ruined the fun.”
“Only a sick psycho would think what yall were doing was fun,” she commented, eyes downcast and shoulders slumped when she said it, as if she was ashamed of something.
“Well only a psycho,” he said putting the emphasis on psycho, “would scream and yell at the victim—-”
“And don’t forget threaten,” Carter added.
“Yes thanks C-Man, and threaten the victim after she refused to do what you want. She told the woman if she did not calm down and listen to her then she would string her up on the highest street light by her hair and let the little vicious pit-bull down the street have his way with her.”
The look on this woman’s face was odd; she looked as if his accusations sickened her, as if she couldn’t believe she had said such a thing.
“That still doesn’t explain how yall came to be fighting in the middle of the street,” Ryder said averting his eyes off of the woman.
“Well when we didn’t leave like she told us to she got a bit feisty and began hitting us, I mean not no little baby bitch hits I mean she did damage,” Carter said, his eyes wide displaying his disbelief. “She snapped after the woman she threatened left in tears, she morphed right before our eyes she was like a—-”
“lean-mean-killing-machine,” Carter and Nico said at the same time, sharing a smile that Ryder wanted no parts of.
“Well anyway that’s when we realized that she was a wisp and so we had no problem ruffing her up a bit,” Nico concluded.
“Maybe you should take a second look at yourselves,” she growled the atmosphere around here changing, electrically charged with tension and built up anger. Ryder looked down at the girl a bit suspiciously; her mood seemed to have come out of nowhere it was like she was a whole new person almost.
“What’s your name?” Ryder asked the girl.
“That’s none of your business,” she said in a deadly calm voice, her storm cloud gray eyes meeting his.
“You don’t need it, it’s not like you’ll be seeing me again, as for you two,” she said turning to face Nico and Carter, “yall better hope and pray that you don’t see me again.” Those were obviously her parting words as she began to walk away.
“Warehouse, both of you!” Ryder ordered them as he chased after the rapidly disappearing girl.
“Chasing me’s not smart mister, I gave you a chance to leave you should have taken it,” she said her voice bone chilling as she didn’t even turn around to look at him.
“Where are you going?” Ryder asked the girl, still having a hard time meeting her pace, never in his life has he ever come across a rogue so powerful.
“I’m going somewhere you’re not,” she said in that deadly calm voice that slowly started to unnerve him which in its self was a problem.
“Do you even know what you are?” He asked slowly getting a grip on himself.
“If I answer that question it’s just going to open the door to about 100 more and I don’t have time for questions,” she said simply not bothering to turn around and have a real conversation with him.
Ryder had a tight grip on his anger and it was slowly dissipating, he hasn’t had someone treat him with such disrespect since…never, it’s never happened and he refused to have it start. She may be one of the strongest rogues he has ever come across but she was nothing compared to the real thing.
With a step as easy as breathing Ryder breezed right past her and stood right in her way. When she met his eyes she didn’t look phased by his move and she didn’t stop walking either.
“I guess you’re the Don’t-take-no-for-an-answer type,” she said.
He kept the girl in his line of vision as he matched all of her forward steps with a backwards one.
“No I don’t, I’m also the Refuse-to-be-talked-to-unless-you-show-some-respect type as well.”
“Hmm I guess it’s a good thing I don’t want to talk to you.”
She’s good, but she will show him some respect if it’s the last thing she does, she was now on his radar.
“Your name,” he demanded.
“We’ve been through this mister,” she said impatiently. “I’m the I-don’t-like-to-repeat-myself type,” she said.
“Good one thing we have in common,” Ryder said through clenched teeth. “Your name,” he demanded again. She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest.
“If by chance you ever see me again just call me Bēlua.”
“I’m under the impression that that’s not your name,” he said as a slow sinister smile framed his now highly amused face. Obviously the girl spoke a little Latin.
“No but it is what you will call me if you so choose to call me anything.”
“What does that stand for?”
“Are you asking me?”
She’s too smart, it seems she has him all figured out and he can’t figure her out for the life of him.
“No I’m demanding you.”
“If I tell you will you let me go home?”
“I don’t make promises,” he growled.
“Fair enough,” she smiled. “It means the monster,” she said softly her words full of confidence and depth. Ryder smiled he couldn’t help it.
“And you?” she asked suddenly,
“And me what?”
“Your name” she demanded.
“You can call me Eres” Ryder said amusement apparent in his eyes.
“Which means…?”
“Which means Owner.”