A Time to Die (Elemental Rage Book 2) (14 page)

Zach leaned his
head against the window.  He seemed bereft. He said, “I didn’t ask to be
anything.  My gifts came from my family line, same as you. I’m committed to my
parents and my brothers, but I don’t think much of Harold or the Order.”

“You’ve met
Harold?” Jade tilted her head, “Did he send you after us?”

Zach took a deep
breath.  “He had to be honest.  If he wanted a real relationship with Jade…and
he did, it had to start here.  He said, “Please hear me out before you make any
judgments. Promise?”

“Promise.” Jade
said. The way he looked out the window reminded her of those nights on the
volleyball bus when she sat in the front, just behind the coaches, and stared
out the window daydreaming that she could fly, that she had an Element of her
own.  Her envy of Raven had always related to her sisters soaring out of the
crib. 

She took his hand.

“Harold is high up
in the Death Keepers.  I’m talking like president of the North American
Chapter.  Six months ago he requested support from the Midwest League and
specifically requested my family. My Mom is still working her job in Chicago
until Christmas, but the rest of us moved here while we waited.  The Death
Keepers paid for our home here and got my Dad his job.  They said they’d found
the Gift of Time. It’s kind of like the holy grail to a Death Keeper.”

“And now?” Jade
wouldn’t even give him the satisfaction of telling him she didn’t have Time. 
Heck, she barely had Fire.

Hey.

Oops.  Fire
overheard. Jade said,
I just meant I found you late and I’m not very skilled
yet.

True enough.
Fire said.

Jade wondered if
Fire would be there if she ever
did
decide to make love.

If you want.  I
can make it super hot...and I’m not just talking energy.

It was something
to consider.  The thought had Jade’s heart racing.

Zach’s thumb moved
in slow strokes across the top of her hand.  It was hard to concentrate on what
he was talking about between the sensation of his hand and Fire’s
interjections. He said, “I wish I could go on that date with you as a normal
person, that we could start over.  Harold told me to get close to you.  That’s
why I first asked you out, but I was attracted to you on my own.  Otherwise, I
wouldn’t have done it.” Zach closed his eyes, “I lost my gift when I healed
you.  My role was to take you to the land of the dead.  I broke faith with the
Universe. I still don’t know what will happen to me.”

“Did Harold tell
you to save me?” Jade asked.  She almost hadn’t.  She couldn’t bear to hear
that Zach’s rescue had been just one more orchestrated maneuver from the Death
Keepers to figure out who carried their gift.

“No. When I was
called, I didn’t know who was dying.  Even when I saw your house, I thought I
was going to be taking Bertha.  When I saw you, I couldn’t handle it.  I abused
my gift. Now it’s gone.  Raven said she thought that you only needed a Death
Keeper in the ritual to get your Mom back, not necessarily one with power. 
I’ll do anything I can to help you, even if you never want to see me again.”

Jade definitely
wanted to see him again. 

That kiss meant so
much to her. It was her first.  She didn’t dare ask if it was Zach’s first as
well.

“Can we take it
slow?  Maybe once Mom is free we can figure out what to do?” Jade asked. She sat
stiffly, awkwardly, with her hand in Zach’s. She wondered what it would feel
like to lean on him, to cuddle him the way she longed to. 

“Two weeks from
Sunday.  I think I can handle that.  We’ll see each other during lunches?” Zach’s
question was impish with a bright smile and waggling eyebrows.  He knew Jade
would say yes.

She did.

Zach noticed
Danika and Jeremy leaving the school with their arms locked around each other.
He said, “Looks like my date’s leaving.  I bought pictures.  Would you like to
be in them with me?”

Jade wondered for
about 1.2 seconds if Matt would care before squeezing Zach’s hand, “Sure.”

If they had known
what was coming, they might have stayed out all night dancing.  Fate doesn’t
usually come with a fortune teller, and they were in for a rough time.

Chapter 12

It was October 16
^th
and the house was empty. Bertha slowly turned the yellowing pages of the photo
album.  Happier times.  The laughing faces in the photos had all passed away,
her parents, her siblings, her friends.  She was the last hold-out.  She missed
her sister deeply.

The pain had been
growing steadily worse.  Harold’s estimate of three months was spot on.  Sometimes
Bertha wondered if she would even make it that long. She wondered how bad the
end would be.  Would she be able to hobble around the house or would she be
laid up?  She needed a plan.  Bertha was afraid of nursing homes, terrified of hospitals. 
She would almost rather walk into the woods and find a quiet meadow to in which
to sit until the end came.  She could just wait for Death to come in a pleasant
field. 

The girls never
mentioned death.  Whenever it came to her illness, they turned into generals,
ready to fight until the last man for her to survive.  They asked her if she
was taking vitamins, getting enough sleep, getting enough to eat, and would she
please have another bite…as if she were a five year old child! They told her
not to give up, that they weren’t giving up on her either. They never asked her
if she was willing to fight.

It was all very
sweet…and frustrating. She felt her body giving way all around her.  She was
angry.  Funny thing about eighty was that it happened so fast.  One moment she
was a tiny girl playing tag among the trees, and the next she was hobbling on a
cane, her knees unable to hold her up.

Bertha had to last
a little longer.  She wanted to go camping with the girls at Diana’s waterfall
when they went to rescue Amy, but her body just didn’t have the strength.  Jade
almost called a nurse, but Bertha managed to stop that cold. Now she just had
to wait…and hope that her girls would come through okay.

~~ Raven ~~

Jade, Raven,
Claire, Mindy, and Zach stood barefoot on the soft grass next to the pool under
the waterfall.  The full moon danced playfully on the water. They were all
nervous for various reasons, and excited for the same.

“I still don’t see
why you need my swim suit,” Jade complained. 

Mindy giggled.

Raven wore jeans
and a long-sleeved t-shirt over the swim suit.  She said, “Mine is a one piece.
That’s all you need to know.”

“You better not
wreck it. That thing cost sixty dollars,” Jade warned.  Her feet were cold, and
she was scared.  If this didn’t work, they didn’t have a prayer at finding
their Mom.  Jade wanted to go to college the year after next and start her life. 
She didn’t want to be stuck in Wildwood Springs forever.

Mindy stopped
laughing, “Wreck?”

Raven pulled Mindy
into a hug from behind, “Don’t worry, Mindy.  She won’t blame you for
anything.”

“Blame her for
what?” Jade asked her gaze moving sharply from Raven to Mindy. 

Claire rolled her
eyes, “Can’t we just get started?”

“I want to know
what Raven and Mindy did to my swimsuit,” Jade said.  If she were being honest
with herself, she would admit that she didn’t care so much about the suit as
that Zach was standing just beside her, and she didn’t know quite how to act. 
Everything seemed so serious today, and with all of her sisters, she was afraid
that Zach would think she was too much trouble and ditch her, even though she
wasn’t even sure she wanted him there. How was that for logic!

“Dragon!” Mindy
exclaimed, giggling.

Raven ruffled
Mindy’s hair and let her out of the hug.  She side-stepped toward Jade with a
beckoning finger.

“That’s not fair.
I want to hear, too.” Claire said.  Her hair suddenly blew in her face.  Air
was showing off a little with Raven.

Raven leaned in
and said, “Chastity belt.  I told Mindy she was turning me into a dragon.  Your
suit is like flexible metal.  Impenetrable,”

Zach chimed in,
“It’s 12:20. We should take our places.”

Raven felt a
twinge of dread mirrored in her gut with a fluttery feeling that bordered on
illness.  Her mouth felt dry.  She took a deep breath and held it for a second
before releasing it slowly.  She felt frightened.

Mindy took Claire’s
hand and aligned herself across from the waterfall.

“No, stand here,”
Claire said, “That way I can see the water.”

As a Water
Elemental, Claire loved Water.  It made sense, but Mindy knew where she had to
be.  She shook her head and held out her hand, “Come.”

Claire relented to
Mindy’s stubbornness. She took Raven’s left hand.  Raven’s back was to the
waterfall, as was Zach’s who took her other hand.  Jade completed the circle
between Mindy and Zach.

“Now what?” Claire
asked.

“Shh…” Mindy said.

Earth rumbled her
greetings to the Elementals.  Water sang a short song. Air danced around the
circle, ruffling hair and whispering encouragement in their ears. Fire sparkled
in trails above their heads, giving the illusion of fireflies with lights
flickering in and out.  The Universe joined from a distance, not touching Zach,
never touching Zach. 

Zach reached out,
tears in his eyes.  The Universe ignored him, but Zach felt the presence…if
nothing else the Universe was watching.

A flash.

A roar.

The ground shook
violently.  The circle was torn apart.

Mist shimmered
from a space behind Raven.  Palming a sharp pocket knife able to open with the
press of a button, Raven searched the mist for some clue as to what lay behind.
She saw nothing. With a nod to Jade, she waved goodbye and turned stepping into
the shrouded fog.

Raven was on a
mission.  She knew her role.  She knew her place.  The cost was negotiable. 
With Mindy’s help, she had fashioned protection from a vile man whose history
included violence toward women in general and Elementals in specific. She had
to survive, rescue Mom and get the serial killing monster back in prison.
Easy-peasy.

The blow came from
behind, which was a trick as Raven thought the doorway was directly behind
her.  She fell to her knees, only to feel a body twice her size flip her back. 
Raven would have been surprised, would have been scared if Bertha hadn’t warned
her.

She wasn’t scared
now. She was furious.

He’d already
managed to get her left arm trapped, but her right arm was free.  She clicked
the button to the knife and with a violent slash sent it in the direction of
his throat.  She missed his throat, but opened up his jaw.

He let go just
long enough for Raven to wrench herself away.

Calling to Air,
she was ready for a power tornado to throw him off.

Raven waited.

Air didn’t answer.
Raven clutched the knife with a death grip. Aunt Bertha’s lectures over the
last two weeks didn’t exactly boost her confidence level at this exact moment. 
Killers could take weapons from a weaker person.  If she didn’t hang onto that
knife, it would be used against her.

He turned around.
His eyes were dead.  He had no soul. Not even a vestige of a self remaining. 
Raven felt a tremor of recognition when he faced her.  His real self was gone. 
This thing standing before her was close to a Void creation, but he still kept
his eyes.  He was a violent menace who would kill until stopped. Raven realized
that in a fight, she wouldn’t win.

That first
realization was shock enough.

The second shock
was accompanied with a sense of hopelessness.

The portal was
gone.

Raven refused to
let a little thing like being trapped and isolated in a strange dimension with
a serial killer get her down.  After all, she still had her knife, and a
chastity swimsuit the freak would never get through.  He might kill her. But he
wouldn’t do the other.  Raven was grateful for Aunt Bertha, grateful for her
visions.

She thanked the
Universe.

“Stop that,” The
man growled at her, his voice gravelly from centuries of disuse.

“What?” Raven
asked.

“Stop talking to
anyone but me,” Petrodus had a feral look about him, wild and frightening.
There are two kinds of wildness.  There is the kind of wildness that people
like and understand, that they can even respect, like a lion pulling down a gazelle. 
It’s ruthless and brutal, but the lion is still in some way innocent by virtue
of staying true to its own nature.  Not this man.  He was so disgusting, so
twisted, so turned, that his wildness came across as an evil taint.  That was
Petrodus.

“Oh, I get it,”
Raven said.  She nodded and spoke with her knife, waving it up and down to make
her point.  Really she just wanted to see Petrodus follow that knife with his
eyes.  He was a predator all right.  He didn’t even notice his own blood
dripping onto a shirt that was rags.

Realizing Petrodus
wasn’t going to engage, Raven said, “Yep, I’ve got you figured out. You’re the
original narcissist going back to the days of Diana and her Elementals and
nymphs. Sorry, Buddy, but those times are long gone. Sure, you can kill me,
maybe even succeed, but you’ll still be a desperate wannabe who lost his power
and is holed up in the backwater middle of nowhere hanging out in the mist and
hoping for the end of time.”

Raven hit more
than one nerve.

Petrodus roared.

Not a scream. His
cry was so much animal Raven could almost smell the fur.

That was because Petrodus
was no longer a man.

His haunches were
huge, the size of her own legs.  He was as tall on four legs as Raven was on
two.  His muzzle, yes muzzle, was curled up to show fangs the size of Raven’s
fingers. 

Staring down the
wolf’s open throat, waiting for the end, Raven said the first thing that came
to her mind, “I’m really going to have to have a conversation with Bertha about
the accuracy of her visions. I’m pretty sure she would have mentioned it if I
were eaten by a wolf.”

Petrodus snarled,
saliva dripping from his tongue.  He bit Raven’s shoulder and pulled her back,
which was for her a stumble forward. She didn’t understand what was happening. 
Why was he maneuvering her forward?  It made no sense.

Until it did.

As he pushed her
through the mist, she realized that he needed her to go through the portal. 
She remembered Bertha’s warning that no one could move her through time and
space without her approval, that
she
could choose the destination.

Raven called to
Emptiness.

Emptiness was such
a quiet little Element.  Raven could hardly hear her.

Emptiness
whispered,
I’m here.

Raven thought,
Mom.

As Raven fell
through the portal between dimensions, she connected to Emptiness. She
connected to Mom, so far away, and then they were close, standing in a room
with plush peach carpeting and a gentle breeze blowing in through the windows.

Raven hurt.  The
wolf knew a thing or two about anatomy and was wiggling his tooth along her
muscles, tearing even while he tried to pull her back to the portal.

Remembering
something about dogs, Raven took the elbow that wasn’t being mangled and
elbowed Petrodus as hard as she could in the nose.  He let go abruptly. Raven
had no illusions about what would happen next.  Predators didn’t forgive.  They
just ripped you apart.

“Back off.  I’m
rescuing Mom.  I’m sure you recognize the place, being a Death Keeper.  You
can’t leave without me, and until I get Mom, you’re going to find yourself
coming back here again and again and again.  Kill me if you want, but this
place is as much a prison as the mist you were in.”

Petrodus growled.

“If you bite me
again, I’m taking us to the Unmaker.  I’ll leave you there for eternity, even
if I have to stay there with you. I swear it by the oath of my Elements, Air
and Emptiness.”  The words echoed in the tiny room with the binding of truth. 
No Elemental would make an oath like that and break it.  Raven knew exactly
what she was doing.  What she didn’t know was whether Petrodus was sane enough
to control himself.

The wolf ducked
his head so slightly that Raven almost missed it.  So Petrodus could control
himself. As a blood drop dripped onto the pristine carpet, Raven said, “I’m
going to find my Mom.”

Raven hated that
moment of stepping by the wolf.  He was so big.  Fierce, too, even if he wasn’t
growling and showing his teeth.  He was calmer now, but his eyes were still
dead.  They were still serial killer eyes.  She couldn’t trust him enough to
turn her back on him, but that’s exactly what she had to do.

If Raven had
hackles they would be raised as she passed by Petrodus.  Her shoulder muscles
were so tense they ached.  The ache was nothing compared to the throbbing pain
of her mangled upper arm.  She would think it needed stitches, but it probably
needed a lot more than that.  Raven didn’t even want to think about what her
arm looked like.

Air whispered a
soft hello.

“You’re here!”
Raven said, “I need Mom.”

Run! 
Air’s
warning echoed.

Raven sprinted
across the hall. Looking back over her shoulder, she saw a second portal open
and a huge grey wolf step out, shake his fur and lower his head at the other
wolf.

She almost fell
down the stairs, she was running so fast.  She felt Air lift her off her feet as
the wolves yapped back and forth and then turned as one unit and gave chase. 
Raven had hoped they would snarl at each other and fight.  So much for that.

Her fear gave Air
strength.

She swooshed down
corridors, the bay of wolves and the scrabbling of claws on polished wood
giving her the feeling that they were almost on top of her.  Raven wanted to
look back. Instead she trusted Air to keep her safe and focused on barreling
forward. As they rounded into a huge dining room spanning a hall the size of a
gym with a dozen chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, Raven felt the pressure
change as Air tried to push even faster.