Treasure of the Fire Kingdom (The Elemental Phases Book 4) (34 page)

“
No
. 
Shit, don’t do that or I’ll never get through this.”  He sat up straighter,
dislodging her hand and keeping her in his lap.  “It’s not fair to hold you
with lies.”

Hope
squinted.  “Fair?  Oh, Kingu, we don’t have to start playing
fair
, do
we?”  That didn’t sound like much fun, at all.  “Let’s go back to making out.”

He
hesitated, clearly wanting to do just that.  “Yes… I mean,
no.
”  He
adopted a determined expression.  It was the look someone who’d decided to jump
off a bridge must get right before they went freefalling into the water.  “No. 
I’ve read
Phantom of the Opera
, Hope.  The monster lets her go at the
end.”

“Yeah,
but I think time told on how brainless that was.  Did you ever see the sequel?”

“No,
but I understand the story, now.  I know why the Phantom did something so
stupid.”  Kingu sighed.  “Listen to me.  What do you know of your origins? 
Your birth parents?”

“They
abandoned me in the Agora.  I don’t care to know much beyond that.”

“What
of your mother’s House?”  He gently reached over to touch her bracelet,
pointing at the star shaped charm.  Red eyes met hers solemnly and Hope
suddenly realized what this was about.

“Oh
great.”  She wrinkled her nose.  “You know about the Star Phase thing.”

“If she be
other than a bubble of the elements," exclaimed Copley, "I must look
upon her face again.”

Nathaniel
Hawthorne-“Drowne's Wooden Image”

Sullivan
Pryce didn’t like holidays.

On
New Years, drunken assholes hosted loud parties and he was called into to quiet
them.

On
Easter, he was guaranteed to spend hours looking for children who’d wandered
away from the annual egg hunt in the park

On
the Fourth of July, morons set off fireworks and caught palm trees on fire all
over town.

On
Thanksgiving, drivers dealt with nightmarish traffic by ignoring all laws of
the road and then bitching at him when he wrote them massive tickets.

On
Christmas, he was expected to be jolly to everyone and, since he was generally
a miserable bastard, he got whined at by every cheery do-gooder in town for his
lack of good will towards men.

But
worst of all was Halloween.  All the other holidays, he could at least go home
from work and be left alone.  On Halloween, people came right to his front
door.

He
wasn’t so far gone into his antisocial apathy that he’d refuse to give kids
candy, but he
was
far gone enough to walk home pretty damn slowly so as
to miss the rush of little princesses and ghosts and children dressed like Iron
Man.  Not that there was anything wrong with Iron Man, except the movie had
missed some of the deeper metaphors of the comic book, but Sullivan just didn’t
do well with people.  He’d rather be left alone.

Especially
today.

Seeing
that woman had messed with his head.  Even after she left with that nimrod
Alder, Sullivan had been thinking of her.  Being attracted to one of the Cult
nuts was just a sad indication that he needed to meet someone who
wasn’t
a lunatic.  But, he couldn’t help it.  Whoever she was, she was the most
beautiful woman he’d ever seen.  Sullivan had honest to Christ just gaped at
her for the entire fifteen seconds she’d been in his office.

For
her part, the woman had barely even glanced his way after she caught sight of
his face.  She’d overpaid for Alder’s bail and then went sweeping out again as
fast as possible. 
Obviously
.  Sullivan wasn’t an idiot.  No one who
looked like an even more gorgeous Sophia Loren was going to be interested in
him.  The girl was apparently dating Alder, so her taste must run towards
obnoxious, steroid riddled, asshole Cult members… without disfiguring facial
scars.

But,
as the woman walked away, Sullivan had had the almost overpowering urge to run
after her.  To careen across his desk in a mad rush for the door and somehow
stop her from vanishing from his life, again.

He’d
somehow stayed perfectly still, even as his brain had gone into meltdown about
losing her.  Of course, he’d also stopped threatening Gion with the Home Depot
DVD.  All of a sudden, Sullivan hadn’t been quite so desperate to get the Cult
out of town.  Instead, he’d just told Gion and Ty to go away and to behave for
once.

Ty
had looked eager to fill him in on all kinds of facts about the mysterious woman,
but Sullivan didn’t want to hear them.  He wasn’t a masochist.  Learning more
about her would just be more salt in his wound.  Besides, he wasn’t giving the
Cult more ammunition to use against him by showing them he was suddenly crazy-obsessed
with the girl.

But,
shit…  He really wanted to know her name.

There
was nothing on her in any of his research on the Cult.  Either she was new in
town or she was good at staying hidden.  Sullivan kept files on every Cult
member he met, grouping them according to their hair colors.  That wasn’t the
easiest thing to do, being colorblind, but he was working on a theory that
those colors at their temples all
meant
something.

The
different shades seemed to appear on people with different personality types. 
The turquoise ones were harmless and friendly…  The orange ones were
jackasses…  The yellow ones were even
bigger
jackasses…  The chartreuse
ones liked to talk about their wacked-out religion…  In all, Sullivan had over
a dozen different categories containing fifty-seven various Cult members.  But,
the red and the periwinkle were both new colors.  Why were they suddenly
showing up in his town?  Why were
any
of them?  What where they up to?

Analyzing
various sinister motives, Sullivan cut across the park towards his house.  He
lived alone in one of Mayport Beach’s arts and craft style bungalows.  It was
situated about two blocks from the ocean and had been entirely furnished with
the stuff left over from the previous owners’ yard sale.  All he wanted to do
was get home, lock himself into the solitude, and brood.

A
pack of miniature pirates and witches dashed by him laughing.  It occurred to
Sullivan that he never remembered being that happy.  For so long, he’d felt
weary and out of step with the…

Sullivan
paused, suddenly knowing that he was being watched.  He could feel eyes on
him.  Turning to scan around the darkened park, he spotted a figure standing
about fifteen feet away, in the shadows.

It
was the woman.

The
one he’d been thinking about nonstop since yesterday.  She was dressed in that
same letterman’s style sweater, her dark hair a mass of curls, and Sullivan
forgot everything he’d ever known.  Every logical, rational, semi-civilized
thought vanished from his mind, replaced with a rush of need and desire.  Deep
inside of him, something woke up and focused on her like she was the only thing
in the world.

He
automatically took a step closer to her.

She
took a step back.

Of
course she did.

Sullivan
stopped and blew out a long breath.

“Teja.” 
She said like she expected him to know what the hell that meant.

He
didn’t.

“Teja?” 
Sullivan repeated blankly.  It was a miracle he could respond, at all.  His
instincts were screaming at him to close the distance between them before she
disappeared, again.  It took everything in him to stay still and not scare her
away.  The woman already looked like she’d rather be sitting in the electric
chair than talking to him.

“My
name is Teja.”

“Oh.” 
He’d never heard of that name before.  It was beautiful.  Damn it.  “I’m
Sullivan Pryce.”

“I
know exactly who you are.”  And she didn’t seem pleased about it.  “Look it’s
not a good idea for us to be… interacting.”

“Then
why are you following me?”

She
frowned at him like he was somehow to blame.  “I’m watching out for you.  What
choice do I have?  Do you walk home alone
every
night?”

“Yeah.” 
He allowed slowly, looking for some hidden threat in that question.

She
didn’t like that answer.  “Has it occurred to you that that’s a pretty stupid
thing to do, given how valuable you are?”

“Valuable?”

“Yeah. 
You must have noticed all the determined and sometimes insane people trying to
claim you.  What if they get tired of you playing hard-to-get and just jump you
someplace until you give in?”

“You
mean the stalkers?”  Women from the Cult sometimes followed him, but he doubted
any of them were rapists.  “I don’t think they’re going to jump me.  And even
if they did, I’m a police officer.  I can handle myself.”

“See,
that’s
another
bad idea.”

“Being
a cop?”  The woman was so stunning he would’ve talked to her about anything,
but it was hard to keep up.  She wasn’t coming even one stop closer to him than
she had to in order to be heard, but he swore he could feel an almost magnetic
draw to her.

Teja
crossed her arms over her chest.  “Why are you a law keeper?  Law keepers can
be hurt at any time.  Why can’t you do something safer?  You could be a
kindergarten teacher or a ballet dancer or a cowboy…”

“A
cowboy?”  Sullivan repeated, mystified by the list of career options she laid
out and picturing himself teaching kids in a ten gallon hat and tutu.

“Just
pick some
other
human job.  Or don’t pick
any
job and just go
quietly live somewhere far away.  Somewhere with very low crime rates.  I
looked it up and Yemen has barely any murders at all.”

“Where
the hell is Yemen?”

“Does
it matter?  It would be so much
safer
for you.  Living in this town is
just asking for trouble.”

“Yeah…
Interesting points, but I don’t think it’s such a great idea for me to become a
Yemenite cowboy.”  It was kind of pitiful how entertaining he found this
conversation, though.  “How much would that even pay?”

She
made a frustrated sound like he was just being difficult.  “I swear to Gaia,
it’s as if you
want
to die.  Do you really not see how fragile human
life is?”

“Are
you –like-- warning me that I’m in danger here?”

“Yes!” 
Teja nodded like he was finally getting you.  “You’re in very grave danger
every day you behave so recklessly.”

“Is
the Cult targeting me?”  That was actually good news.  It showed that he was
getting somewhere in his investigation.  Maybe that DVD had really spooked
them.

“What
Cult?”

Sullivan
gestured to the unbelievably attractive periwinkle streak in her hair.  “
Your
Cult.  The Cult of time traveling mutants, according to your friends.”

“Fire
Phases don’t have
friends.
”  She said the word like it meant lice.  “You
mean
Ty?
  Wait, Ty told you we were
time traveling mutants?
” 
Teja shook her head in aggravation.  “Fucking Water House.”

“It
wasn’t just her.  Your boyfriend was there, too, and he wasn’t exactly denying
that he was secretly Professor X.”

She
regarded him blankly.

“Your
boyfriend?  Alder?  Dark hair.  Swears a lot.  Just waiting to be cast on a
reality show about ex-convicts from Jersey.”

“Alder’s
not my boyfriend.  He’s my nephew.  My cousin’s son.”

Sullivan
squinted.  Alder had to be in his late twenties, just like Teja.  How did that
work?  “Your cousin is older than you, then?”

“By
about three weeks.”  Teja ran a hand through her hair.  “Alright, let’s just
concentrate on security issues. I don’t want you getting yourself killed, while
I figure this out.”

“You
think the Cult is going to try and kill me?  Are you willing to testify to some
threats they’ve made?”

“None
of
us
are going to kill you.  I told you, you’re too valuable.  But all
kinds of shit could happen to your frail human body.  Disease, drive-by
shootings, wolves…”

“Wolves?”

“Wolves
kill humans all the time.”

“Not
in Florida they don’t.”

“The
point is, I need to decide what I’m going to do about you.  I’m hoping that
something will happen and this will just go away.”  She waved a hand between
them and Sullivan had the brief, impossible thought that she felt the
inexplicable connection, too.  “But in the meantime, I have a responsibility to
keep you safe.”

“Well,
I appreciate that.”  It was sad how deeply she was trapped in the Cult’s
lunacy.  It was even sadder how much he wanted her anyway.  “Tell me, would you
be willing to submit to a drug test?”

She
glowered at him.  “I know a hell of a lot about defensive measures and this is
pretty standard stuff:  You should
not
be a law keeper.  You should have
a guard walking you home at night.  You should be away from this town and all
the freaks that show up here from various realms.”

Sullivan
shook his head as she ticked off the suggestions on her fingers.  So beautiful
and so crazy.  It broke his heart.  “Teja, there’s so much more you could be
doing with your life than hallucinogenics.  I can get you help someplace
that’ll let you break free of the Cult’s deluded fantasy world.”

“I’m
not high!  Those are all perfectly reasonable precautions.  I know more about
this than you do, so you should just listen to me and move to Yemen.  If you…”

A
sudden surge of power interrupted whatever she planned to say next.

The
street lights surrounding the park flickered and the closest ones blew-out in
showers of sparks.  The hair on Sullivan’s arms stood up, partly from the
electrical charge in the air and partly from the eerie feeling that they
suddenly weren’t alone anymore.

He
spared Teja a quick glance, checking to ensure she was safe, even as he pulled
his gun free.  “Something weird is happening.  You should get out of here…”

He
never got the rest of the words out.  A Cult member, dressed in military
fatigues and no shirt, was just suddenly
there
.  Just suddenly
right
there
in front of him.

He
just… appeared.