Breath of Air (7 page)

That was when she remembered where she was, and she sat up with a jolt, pinching her arm so hard she winced. So it’s all still real, I didn’t dream it up, she thought shakily as she released the breath she had been holding in one long whoosh. Thank God, she thought as she felt her eyes well with tears again. Thank God it wasn’t a dream.

She got out of bed and padded into the bathroom to splash some water on her face. When she glanced at herself in the mirror, a huge grin on her face, she had to bite her lip to keep from bouncing up and down with joy. She was here, she was real, and she was home. Her father was alive and well and here with her, and she had a family. It was more than she could have ever hoped to receive in one day, much less at all. But the best part about the whole thing was that her childhood dreams had been based in reality. She hadn’t imagined this place, she hadn’t conjured it up subconsciously to explain away her abandonment issues. No, it had been real, and what she had experienced was real. The castle, the courtyard, the jasmine flowers…everything. If only she could remember more about the person who took her, maybe she could give some kind of closure to her father and the others.

Shaking away the thought, she brushed her hair and finished getting ready, throwing on a plain pair of faded jeans and a white t-shirt. She didn’t own that much clothing and she hoped no one would be offended by her casual attire. She wondered briefly if everyone on Euphora went out into the human world to buy clothing and other necessities, or if they somehow made their own there. Deciding that it was just another mystery she would one day solve about her new home, Capri left her room and headed down the stone steps that lead to the atrium.

Her father had instructed her to meet him in the Atrium in the morning so that she could get started on her training. She felt nervous about it all, hoping that she could live up to whatever expectations everyone had for her.

When she stepped into the Atrium, Clynn was waiting for her. She approached him and he opened his arms, enveloping her in a big hug.

“Good morning, Capri.” Clynn greeted as he released her, his eyes warm and kind. “Would you like something to eat?”

Capri nodded, just then realizing how hungry she was.

He led the way to the dining hall, and as they entered she noticed a few other people sitting around at the table, a host of breakfast essentials gracing its surface. This was obviously an informal breakfast, and everyone looked somewhat less polished and more bleary eyed than they had the night before. Capri kept her gaze lowered, shyly not wanting to meet anyone’s eyes as she took a seat. Clynn sat beside her and automatically reached for a white pitcher.

“Coffee?” He asked, gesturing to the coffee cup that sat in front of her.

“Yes, please.” Capri added sugar and creamer to the coffee after he had poured it for her, stirring it gently with a solid gold spoon.

“Good mo-ho-horning!” A sleepily cheerful voice said with a yawn from behind her. Capri turned around and watched as Blythe slid into the seat next to her, her red hair curled wild and free around her face. Her amber eyes were sleepy. “Ugh, need coffee. Now.”

Capri passed the pitcher over, watching as Blythe not only poured coffee, but simultaneously reached over and grabbed a bagel slathered in cream cheese, a chocolate chip muffin, a scoop of scrambled eggs, a few chunks of golden hash browns, and several pieces of bacon and sausage. She proceeded to set down the coffee pitcher with her left hand, and with her right hand she reached for what looked like maple syrup, which she then began to pour over everything.

Capri didn’t get the chance to hide the gaping look of shock on her face as she watched Blythe rapidly and efficiently prepare a breakfast that would surely clog the arteries and stop the heart.

When Blythe tilted her head and noticed Capri looking at the food with wide eyes, she let her head fall back as she laughed so hard her body shook with it. She was gasping for air when she managed to look at Capri again, who was still staring at the plate in alarm. “Your face…it’s so…funny…!” Blythe snorted with more laughter, and when Liam sat down across from them, his eyes were dancing with amusement.

“Blythe’s eating habits are…unique.” He remarked as he gathered his own breakfast, an egg white omelet and fresh fruit with orange juice. “But don’t worry about her, she’s got the metabolism of a five year old.”

“But…you’re so tiny.” Capri managed, eyeing Blythe’s slim, athletic figure with awe. “I just don’t get it.”

Blythe looked smug. “I have a lot of energy, and I’m constantly running around if you didn’t notice. Trust me, I’ll be hungry again in about an hour, and I’ll need to refuel.”

Capri’s lips curved in amusement at her fellow Dryad as she reached for a bagel and bit in delicately. It was by far the most delicious bagel she had ever tasted, but she knew she shouldn’t be surprised. She was going to have to get used to the idea that everything seemed to taste and look better on Euphora.

As they left the dining hall after breakfast, Clynn stopped in the corridor and turned to her, his eyes bright. “Would you like a tour of the castle before we get started?”

“Of course!” Capri replied, smiling as she glanced around, wondering where they were off to first.

“Follow me.” He started down the main corridor and turned right, leading the way down another corridor with more doors flanking the sides and beautiful stained glass windows at the far end casting multicolored light upon the stone floor. He stopped at a door on the left hand side that had a large symbol emblazoned on the front of a golden lightning bolt with a black snake coiling around it. Beneath the symbol was the word FURY in bold black letters.

“Oh.” Capri said softly as she stared at the symbol, feeling her heart jump into her throat. So it would be the Euphora ‘police force’ first…

Clynn opened the door for her and beckoned her inside before him. She stepped into a long, dark hallway with torches lining the stone walls. There were blank doors flanking both sides, as well as one large door at the very end. Her father led her down towards this last door, and when they reached it he pushed it open. The sudden brightness of the room startled her, and she felt her hand come up to shield her eyes.

The room was enormously spacious and rectangular in shape, with white walls and white ceiling and pale stone floor. Along the right wall were four desks grouped together, each piled with paperwork. A large screen, nearly eight feet long and six feet high, hung on the wall near the desks with a digital map of the world on it. There were dots scattered throughout the map, varying from green to yellow to orange to red, the majority either green or yellow, and were more heavily populated over certain areas than others. Above the map were the words DEMON TRACKER. There were three smaller screens flanking the side wall, but they were blank. Above them were the names: FBI, INTERPOL, and UNITED NATIONS.

On the opposite side of the room was what looked like a large indoor shooting range with cages and targets against the wall, coupled with what looked like a gym, complete with free weights, treadmills, and punching bags. On the side wall were lighted display shelves with row upon row of different weapons. Pistols, rifles, revolvers, whips, ninja stars…nearly every weapon imaginable was there along with more she couldn’t even name.

In the shooting cages were the four Fury men.

“Good morning, Roarke, Balgaire.” Clynn called out as he and Capri walked towards the cages. Roarke, who had been watching Rian target shoot, turned and smiled broadly at them.

“Clynn!” He bellowed, laughing as he stepped out of the cages and shut the gate behind him. He shook Clynn’s hand genially, his grin wide and his scarred face cheerful. “Showing your baby girl around this morning?” He asked, winking at Capri.

“And this is our first stop.” Clynn told him as he glanced over at where Rian and Brogan were both still shooting. “Maybe you could show Capri how you operate here.”

“My pleasure.” Roarke turned to Capri and placed his hand at the small of her back to lead her over towards the desks, and it was then that she realized just how big he was. Tall, built like a tank, and heavily scarred. And yet he seemed to be so completely in his element, as if he wouldn’t do anything else for the world. She admired that about him, and that he seemed so dedicated to his work.

When they reached the desks, Roarke shuffled around on one of them for a moment, lifting papers and pushing aside pamphlets and books until he unearthed what looked like a remote control. He pointed it at the DEMON TRACKER screen and pressed a button, and suddenly the map moved and shifted, zooming in to just show the United States.

“See all those dots on there?” He asked her, motioning to the screen.

She nodded, mesmerized as she scanned the map, seeing multicolored dots scattered all across the country by what had to be the millions…and what was more interesting was how so many of the dots seemed to be centered around the major cities. Los Angeles, Chicago, Las Vegas, New York, Miami…

“Each dot is a demon, and the color tells us what kind of demon it is. You have green for unlikely dangerous, yellow for possibly dangerous, orange for surely dangerous, and red for positively lethal. Obviously, we spend most of our time focusing on the last two.” He turned to her and winked again, and she blushed. Something about him intimidated her, despite his obvious politeness and good humor.

“What are those other screens for?” She asked, pointing towards the other monitors flanking the side wall.

He pointed the remote in that direction and pressed a few more buttons, and the screens flickered to life. Visible on each was what looked like a boardroom, with a long table and chairs. They were empty.

“We communicate with a select few human organizations through live video feed, and they supply us with the extra man power we need to hunt down the demons. See, it used to be that just two Furies could monitor and control the demons throughout the world, but within the last few hundred years, demon activity has been spiked. So now we communicate with humans and get them involved, which makes our job easier and we get the added benefit of catching more demons. The humans who help us are specially trained agents, usually with police or military background, and are known as Enforcers.”

Capri nodded as she glanced back at the demon tracker. “So these Enforcers hunt down the demons for you?”

“They assist us with the more trivial cases, and then alert us if there’s a really bad case and then we swoop in and take the bastard out.” He swiped his finger across his throat and grinned. “All demons are better when they’re dead. And only we have the ability to banish a demon who has possessed a human, and the power to sense if a demon is nearby or has recently vacated an area. So many times the Enforcers require our help to finish the job.”

“How do the demons live amongst humans and never get detected?” She asked curiously. “I never even knew they existed until I came here.”

“A demon’s true form is that of a serpent, or snake, and most of the time they simply search for an emotionally vulnerable human and latch onto them, possessing their body and living like that. Some of the most horrific murderers and dictators in history have been under the influence of a demon.”

“You’re kidding?” Capri managed, looking horrified. “So I might have come across someone who was possessed and I wouldn’t even know it?”

“Probably not. But then again, if you crossed paths with someone possessed by a demon and lived to tell the tale, you’d be damn lucky. They would have sensed your Dryad blood and known within two seconds what you were.”

“Oh, well…” Her hand came up to her heart to steady herself. “That’s terrifying.”

“It’s a harsh, cruel world out there, girl. Better get used to it.” He chuckled and turned his eyes back to the demon tracker screen. After a moment, he spoke again, and his voice was kinder. “But you’ll be safe here, on Euphora. It’s the safest place there is.”

Capri looked at the screen again as well, and her eyes focused on Richmond, Virginia, where there were three or four tiny red dots.

“So, let me show you how we fight these demons!” Roarke said suddenly, his booming voice startling Capri back to reality. She nodded again, still feeling disturbed at the thought of ‘positively lethal’ demons living within miles of her just yesterday…

Roarke led her back over to the shooting cages, where Clynn was busy watching Rian firing off rounds from what had to be the largest revolver Capri had ever seen.

As they entered the cage, Roarke laid a hand against Rian’s shoulder, and he pulled the ear plugs out of his ears and turned to face Capri.

“Hold out that revolver, son, let’s give the girl here a lesson in demon weaponry.”

Rian skillfully removed the rounds from the revolver, and Capri noticed that they were no ordinary lead bullets.

He caught her staring at them with wide eyes, and his lips twitched into a smirk as Roarke began to speak.

“In case you’re wondering, these are called Demon Fire Rounds, or Eternal Fire Rounds, depending on who you ask.” Roarke chuckled, grabbing one of the rounds as his son passed it to him. He held it up to Capri‘s face, so she could see it up close. “See, it has a lead casing at the bottom that holds an extremely flammable liquid, something more potent than anything humans use, trust me. And above it is eternal fire encased by glass. Eternal fire is something that can only be found in the Underworld, and only demons can control it. It needs no oxygen, no fuel, nothing. It burns, just like its name suggests, eternally. When this round is fired and hits a target, the eternal fire combines with the liquid underneath, and BAM!” He swung his arms out, simulating an explosion, and despite herself, Capri jumped in surprise. Roarke laughed at her reaction. “Pretty damn scary, huh?”

She nodded, her eyes still on the round, her imagination running wild with images of burning buildings and epic destruction.

“Anyway, we come across demons who have these sometimes and we confiscate them. It’s good for us to test them out, and see how best we can defend ourselves against them. Now, the revolver itself is something we confiscated from a demon recently, and we’re testing it out to see if they’ve modified it in any way. It’s your basic double action, old west style revolver with an eight inch barrel. The only modification we can see so far is that they’ve enlarged the openings for the rounds, since these bullets are much larger than the kind normally carried in a revolver like this one. Why don’t you go ahead and fire this one off again, Rian, so Capri can see it in action.”