The Stelter City Saga: Ultranatural (9 page)

“
I was!” Lotus exclaimed,
“He asked me during the Flabbergasted segment on the Dylan Dade
Show earlier today.”

“
Ooooh!! Do I have your
permission to look that up on YouTube during my next conference
meeting?” Kasper asked eagerly.

“
Absolutely not!” Lotus
exclaimed though she smiled a little at his remark. “But I’m
breaking up with him in a little bit. We’re supposed to meet here
at the beach, but…” Lotus glanced around. The line of white sand
and the sprinkle of swimmers still hadn’t changed. “I still don’t
see him. I never see him anymore. Kasper, did you know that Michael
will ignore my texts for days at a time? I can’t remember the last
time he took me on an honest date. I can’t believe he thinks he can
be my husband when he can’t even be a boyfriend.”

Kasper sighed into the phone. “I’m
sorry about that Lotus. I hope the two of you can still be
friends.”

Lotus scoffed over the ocean breeze,
“Of course we can still be friends. That’s practically what we were
to begin with.” Lotus rubbed the back of her neck and glanced at
the time on her dashboard. Michael should have been here by now,
but once more he managed to prove how unreliable he was.

“
I’m sorry to bug you about
this Kasper.” Lotus confessed. “You probably have another meeting
to go to.”

The man chuckled from the other end of
the phone and said, “Lotus, you are a lot of things. But one thing
you are not, nor ever will be is a bother to me. However, I do
appreciate the concern for my schedule.”

Lotus smiled. She loved Kasper. He was
always so much fun to talk to and she missed him when he was away
on business. “When are you coming back?”

“
Tomorrow.” Kasper answered,
“Let’s go surfing when I get back. All this sitting in these
meetings are making my legs go stiff.”

Lotus beamed, “I look forward to that!
I’ll see you soon.”

It was Kasper’s turn to smile, though
Lotus couldn’t see through the phone. “I love you Princess
Stelter!”

“
I love you too, Sir
Kasper.” Lotus teased before hanging up and leaning back in her
Stelter.

The waves were beckoning and the sea
breeze felt amazing in her hair. Seagulls glided through the air
above her and she watched as one of them landed on the white sand
near the grill of her car. She watched the waves roll perfectly
before coming to a crash on the sandy shore. Though she sat in the
car, she could almost feel the rush of an ocean current against her
body and she longed to submerge herself in the deep blue
water.

“
Lozey?”

At the sound of her nickname, she sat
up and gazed wide eyed at Michael who had suddenly appeared beside
the passenger door. “Caster!” she exclaimed glancing around for
signs of his car, but it wasn’t there. “How did you…?”

“
I came here to talk.” He
said as Lotus’s voice faded. Judging by his appearance, he clearly
was not beach ready. In fact, he looked like he had just stepped
out of a recording studio. A string of earphones was tied around
his dark hair, making him look like a hippie. “Sorry, I didn’t
bring any of my stuff.” He said holding up a big guitarist’s hand
to shield his thickly lashed brown eyes from the sun.

He was a very good looking
twenty-five-year-old, even Lotus had to admit. He had high cheek
bones, a big singing mouth and lips, lean. Michael never worked
out, but he could have fooled any one with his wash board abs and
flat chest. For some reason he was always beach body ready, even
though Lotus had seen him scarffing down pizza after potato chips
after doughnuts.

“
Can we talk?” Lotus asked,
but Michael was already pushing her surfboard off to the side so he
could sit down in the car beside her.

“
Of course,” Michael
answered, “Actually, I was hoping to have a word with you
too.”

Lotus raised a brow at him. She wasn’t
sure what else he needed to say.

“
It’s about Mirage.” He
explained.

“
Oh!” Lotus exclaimed
hearing the relief in her own voice. “Good! How is she? She hasn’t
been answering my phone calls-”

“
Loze,” Michael’s quiet
voice cut her off and Lotus glanced up to look into his somber
eyes. “Mirage is dead.”

There had been moments in Lotus’s
acting career when the director would tell her to feel a specific
way about something terrible. She had felt like she had acted out
that moment so many times already, but none of them felt that real.
“Are you…? How? What about-?”

“
Shadow’s dead too.” Said
Michael gravely, “I’m sorry.” He reached for her hand but she
pulled away. Her eyes fell on the ocean, but she wasn’t seeing any
of it.

“
I have to show you.” He
said taking her by the hand. “I think they would have wanted you to
know the truth.”

“
What truth?” she bellowed a
little too loud for the ocean air to block and a sunbathing couple
looked her way.

This time Lotus let him take her hand.
“Just trust me and don’t freak.”

She looked up into his brown eyes, and
then the world was spinning. Her vision blurred as the different
shades of ocean and sky seemed to swirl before her. The sensation
was like evert cell in her body was being ripped apart and being
thrown back together all at the same time. Her car vanished from
beneath her and before she could comprehend what was going on, they
slammed back down on a cool stone floor. Everything stopped and she
was standing on the balcony of her penthouse.

Lotus hung on to the railing blinking
hard and trying to keep her stomach from heaving. “How did you do
that?” she wheezed as panic flared in her voice. That wasn’t
possible. No one should be able to vanish from a beach then
reappear in a penthouse. Nobody! Especially not her
boyfriend!

Michael waited a moment for her to
catch her breath before answering. “There are people in this world
who are gifted with extreme senses, super strength and speed, and
another sort of phenomenal ability.”

Lotus was still hunched over the
railing when she gazed at him, “And you’re one of them?” she
gasped, “You can teleport?”

Michael nodded. “On the streets they
call us the supernatural. We’re famous in the gang world because
the supernatural tend to lead the gangs. But there’s a sort of cast
system among our race; a sort of government we obey. We call the
leader the King.”

Lotus sucked in a big breath of air and
nodded. She had heard about that Legend; the story about a race of
super human individuals governed by one man who ruled all the
streets. It had been Kasper who told her. He could testify from all
his years of travel that this story was like a street religion.
From Bangkok to Rio de Janeiro, from London to Denver, every gang
was humbled by this one entity.

“
There’s a Council the King
has. It’s there to help him rule. Mirage and Shadow were only some
of the members.”

“
Wh-what about you? Are you
on the council thing too?”

Michael shook his head and took a deep
breath. “Lozey, I am the King.”

Chapter 3 A White and Silver
Wedding

~A week and a half. That’s how long it
took to plan and organize a wedding; a legitimate wedding too. It
turned out that the Krome tended to keep their wedding decorations
within the gang so the union of Rose and DH was almost a repeat of
just about every other Krome member’s. It was in the same grand
gothic South Side chapel, the spring theme was identical, Rose even
borrowed her gown from a good gang friend. But she still looked
stunning, or at least that’s what Lee told Ace.

Ace wondered down the blue
and gold ornamented hallway. Elegantly dressed women dominated the
scene; all scurrying around carrying bouquets of springy flowers.
None of them had bothered to take out their piercings. It was a
Krome wedding after all, and it would have been drab if no one
wanted to show off their latest bright colored piercing since it
was tradition for
everyone
to come dressed in
white
and silver. Even the best man had to dress in Krome colors.
Everything on Ace was white from the coat, to the pants, to the
shoes. The only thing breaking the pale wash was his
s
teel
colored vest and bow tie.

Ace turned the corner and nearly ran
into a man on a ladder trying to drape the last of the pale yellow
ribbons over an arch way. After a quick apology, he nearly stumbled
into a woman balancing three vases of roses. To avoid a flowery
mess, Ace flattened himself against a window. As he waited there
for a parade of guests to pass, he caught sight of High Krome
member, Aaron Kim, tagging every window on Rose’s Koenigsegg in the
parking lot below.

With a crooked smile, Ace shook his
head and continued down the lively hall. “Good morning Sunshine,”
he announced stepping into the groom’s quarters.

DH stood in the farthest
corner, gazing at his reflection in the mirror. His hands jammed
deep into his white and silver tuxedo. Since it was a Krome
wedding,
everyone
would have to abide by the Krome traditions. The first and
most important one being that the wedded both flash Krome colors at
the alter. There were more to the list, and Ace knew Rose would
follow through with every single one of them. After all, she was
the ‘Tradition Nazi’.

The groom gazed at his friend solemnly
through the reflection as Ace let the door fall shut. For a moment
DH said nothing, only watched as his friend stepped
closer.

“
What’s wrong?” Ace
questioned, automatically assuming his friend was dealing with
wedding jitters.

DH turned to the side. His eyes were
still glued to the mirror, but were now running up and down his
handsome attire. “I have a serious problem.” He muttered
glumly.

“
What is it?” asked Ace
stepping behind a couch with DH’s dress bag draped over.

“
This suit makes my butt
look huge.” DH frowned, “White is not a slimming color. I mean look
at it!” he turned some more so that Ace could see, but the best man
had already slapped a hand to his eyes. “It looks like a moon!” DH
exclaimed sticking out his
r
ear
.

“
It does not make your butt
look big.” Ace comforted with a laugh.

“
You’re not even
looking!”

“
I’m not gunna stare at your
butt, DH!” Ace stated as he turned around to gaze at the door. “You
look fine. Come on, we’re running late. You were supposed to be at
the alter ten minutes ago.”

“
No I wasn’t,” DH objected
following Ace through the slightly less crowded hallway. “Look,
people are still decorating and- hey, is that Rose’s
Koenigsegg?”

Ace held onto DH’s tall shoulders and
hurried him away from the window. With Ace forcing the groom to a
half-sprint, they made it through the flowery halls and descended
the stairs. In no time at all, they had emerged through the heavy
stain glass doors and into the chapel. Instantly the mumble of a
congregation rang through their ears. Some even began laughing at
the sight of the groom and his best man sprinting toward the
alter.

“
Crap, they weren’t supposed
to let people in until I got here were they?” DH asked as they
sprinted. It was another one of the traditions that the groom stand
at the alter as the guests enter the chapel.

“
Rose, doesn’t have to
know.” Ace replied.

Their footsteps blended with the rumble
of spectators and echoed off the endlessly high mahogany ceiling.
Blue and gold ribbons clumped together to form elegant flowery
clusters that looped with more ribbons to the pews in front of
them. Sunlight bled through the enormous stained glass windows that
lined the chapel walls. Each one was so unique and colorful, but
none of them surpassed the overwhelming magnitude of the grand
organ above their heads.

Like everything Krome, it
too was fare and silver. Each individual pipe seemed to be frosted
over with diamonds making them glitter without sunlight. They stood
there like a choir of angels. Every single one of them was
magnificent, even down to the smallest pipe. With the biggest pipes
in the center they seemed to shape an upside-down V and spanned the
entire width of the chapel
's
front.

Ace bounded up the steps to where the
priest awaited them in his robes. He seemed like such a kind man
and smiled at the pair with a twinkle in his glossy pale eyes.
“Hello,” he said shaking DH’s hand with his own wrinkly ones. “You
must be the lucky groom.” When he spoke his voice sounded old with
age and vibrant with excitement all at the same time.

“
I am.” DH confirmed, “And
this is my best man.”

Ace smiled and shook the priest’s hand,
“How do you do?”

“
Oh fine, fine,” the dove
haired priest replied licking his dry mouth. “Fine indeed. I
suppose you forgot you were to stand up here as your guests
entered?” he guessed.

DH laughed nervously and
tugged on his silver bow tie. “Haa… don’t tell my wife.”
Wife
. Even that word
seemed to tingle his tongue.