“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go. You and me. Let’s start the adoption procedures. They’ll take a while. I know we can be parents and oversee GASP, too. We’ve multitasked before, haven’t we?”
I pushed myself upward and wrapped my arms around his neck. I kissed him deeply, pouring all my love and gratitude into it. To say that I was fortunate to have met Derek in the first place would’ve been a terrible understatement.
“Look who’s rushing to dadhood,” I said, tilting my head back for a moment.
“You got me started on this, Sofia. I’m serious. Let’s go. Right now.”
“You mean it,” I murmured, slightly surprised—though I shouldn’t have been. Derek did have a flair for the spontaneous sometimes, especially when it came to life-changing decisions. Yet picking out a color for the bedroom had been a titanic, month-long mission. The irony did not escape me.
“Of course,” he replied. “It’s time, isn’t—”
“Derek! Sofia!” River’s voice cut through the woods like the sharpest of blades.
It prompted us to stand back from each other. River ran down the path, panting and sweating as if she’d just run a marathon. I would’ve made a joke about it, but her ashen face instantly triggered my worst fears, somehow.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
My heart was already shrinking, close to collapsing in on itself. I knew that look on River all too well. I’d seen it before, and it always left me broken.
“It’s Ben,” she said.
I loathed being right. I absolutely hated it! With the fire of a trillion suns!
“What about Ben?” Derek replied, his brow furrowed.
“I haven’t seen him since the GASP meeting last night,” River said, her voice faltering. “He won’t answer my calls, my texts. I’ve asked around, and no one’s seen him. At first, I thought he was just having a bad day… It’s been like that since it came to light that fire fae were prone to these Hermessi cult attacks. He’s taken it very personally. I figured he just needed some time to cool off, but he always answers my messages. Always.”
The worst-case scenarios flashed through my head. I’d been here before. I’d lost my son once. I couldn’t let that happen again.
“River, this whole fire fae problem has taken a serious toll on Ben,” Derek said. He was the voice of reason I desperately needed. I gripped his forearm in a feeble attempt to absorb some of that confidence. “Here, let me try.”
He took out his phone and speed-dialed Ben’s number. The darkness in his gaze told me everything I needed to know. Ben wasn’t answering.
“There’s something wrong, I can feel it.” River sighed. “I don’t know what. It’s this… this bad vibe, this silent darkness settling over The Shade, over my home and my life.”
“It’s too early to jump to grim conclusions,” Derek replied, though I could hear the shift in his tone. He didn’t like this any more than I did. Only, he didn’t show it. As ruler of The Shade and leader of GASP, he’d gotten used to keeping some emotions to himself.
“Let’s get back to your place,” I suggested. “We might find something there that leads us to Ben. If anything, we can just use a tracking spell and get to him.”
“If he’s in The Shade, yes. Or in this dimension,” River muttered.
“We’ll try one in the In-Between, too, and the Supernatural dimension, and wherever the hell else he might’ve gone,” I said, unwilling to let any of this get to me.
Derek was right. I was still a mother, and a fierce one at that. Without hesitation, I walked down the path, headed straight for Ben and River’s treehouse. Derek and River followed, as we entered the residential area of our redwood forest.
Lights twinkled here and there. Some of the Novaks were home, it seemed. Only my Ben wasn’t. Loud voices brought me to a halt. I looked to my right, recognizing the source. It didn’t take long for me to realize what was happening. Grace and Lawrence were having an argument—a heated, downright scorching argument.
The three of us were compelled to make a detour. Grace was shouting at Lawrence at a level I’d never heard before.
“Dammit, it’s not okay! I’m not okay! How the hell am I supposed to be okay with this?!” Grace cried out.
“Honey, please. I’m just trying to help you,” Lawrence said.
“You can’t help! Nobody can help!”
I knocked on the door. Silence followed. As soon as Lawrence opened it, however, I could tell that he was in a bad place. His hair was disheveled. His shirt’s top buttons had been torn, and there were three parallel scratches right under his Adam’s apple.
My blood ran cold. “Lawrence, what’s going on?” I asked. “We could hear you from outside.”
His shoulders dropped. He was in so much pain, it hurt me, deeply.
“It’s Grace,” he said. “She’s not being herself… I don’t understand what’s happening.”
“Talk us through it,” Derek replied.
Grace showed up behind Lawrence, visibly distraught. Her blue eyes were puffy and red, her lower lip quivering. She’d been crying. Then again, so had Lawrence.
“What is going on here?” I asked, raising my voice. I’d had enough already. I hated seeing my family in any kind of turmoil. Fights weren’t even in our nature. Sure, there was the occasional bickering of married couples, but Grace and Lawrence had taken it to a new and scary level.
“I don’t know!” Grace screamed.
Derek gasped. “Grace!”
“I’m mad, okay?!” she screeched. “I’m mad. No one understands me. No one! Not Lawrence, not you, not anyone!”
“Honey,” Derek replied calmly, as Lawrence stepped to the side, leaving the doorway clear for us. “I’m sure we will, if you tell us. Clearly, there’s something bothering you. Hurting you, even.”
“We talk about these things,” I added softly. “That’s what we do in this family. We address things and work them out together. You’re not alone in this.”
To be honest, I was quite irritated. I’d yet to find my son, and this had just popped up at the worst possible moment. Grace was in a lot of pain, that much I could see. The sooner we sorted this out, the quicker I could get to reaching Ben.
“I… I don’t know…” Grace said, shuddering as she broke into tears again. “It’s… I’ve had this horrible feeling. I’m a fire fae, and… Everyone’s looking at me funny. The whole Shade is giving me the stink eye because of what happened.”
“Oh, sweetie.” I sighed. “That’s not true. No one here would ever judge you for the shortcomings of others.”
“They are! I see them! Every day!”
Lawrence shook his head. “I’ve tried to tell her this, and…” His voice trailed off as he pointed at his scratches.
“Grace… Did you attack Lawrence?” River asked, unable to believe that she was actually asking that question. “Why would you hurt him?”
“Because he got too close!” Grace snapped. “He got too close, and that’s what you get when you get too close to a fire fae. You get hurt!”
She wasn’t making much sense, but the layer of sweat on her skin made me realize she wasn’t feeling that well, either. She was pale, though her cheeks were bright red. I was willing to bet she had a fever.
I stepped forward and put my palm on her forehead. She jerked herself back, but I managed to feel the scorching heat. It made my heart stop.
“Grandma, I’m fine, physically speaking,” she said, suddenly changing her demeanor. She crossed her arms. This was the most defensive I’d ever seen her.
“You’re not, you’re burning up,” I replied firmly. “You’re not well at all, Grace.”
“Listen, I got out of line,” Grace insisted, then gave Lawrence a pained, apologetic glance. “I’m sorry… I really am. I… I spilled all my frustrations on you. Forgive me.”
“There’s nothing to forgive, Grace,” Lawrence replied. “But we need to talk this stuff through. You can’t just bottle it up and hope i
t goes away. It obviously doesn’t. Look at what it’s doing to you.”
She nodded. “You’re right. You’re absolutely right.” She sighed, then smiled at us. “I’m sorry… I’m really sorry.”
I smiled, hoping to reassure her that I wasn’t upset in any way. She was scared and angry, much like Ben, and I couldn’t blame her. However, I needed her to know that it was okay to just talk about it. “Come to us, Grace. Whenever it feels like too much to carry on your own,” I said. “We will never judge you or, as you put it, give you the stink eye.”
“I’ll be honest, I’m worried like I’ve never been worried before,” River said, her gaze fixed on her daughter. “You’ve never acted like this before. Never. It’s not like you, and, frankly, it’s a little scary.”
“I don’t know how to explain what came over me. It was like I was seeing red, and no matter what Lawrence was telling me, it didn’t do anything to stop my ears from ringing,” Grace replied. “It was as if I was stuck in the passenger seat, and rage had the wheel. I was watching everything unfold, and I couldn’t stop it.”
“You mean, like, possession?” I asked, my stomach tensing.
“No. Not that. I was out of focus. My mouth, my limbs moved without me, but I was conscious. I was able to pull back after I scratched Lawrence. But I was on such a fiery roll, I couldn’t find the brakes anymore.”
“Grace, would you agree to see Corrine about this? Maybe she could help,” River offered.
“Yeah. Absolutely… I don’t ever want to feel that way, ever again. Even now, as I look back, I’m mortified,” she said, her voice trembling. A single tear rolled down her cheek.
Lawrence put an arm around her, pressing his lips against her temple. “It’s okay, baby. You just weren’t you. We’ll see Corrine as soon as possible, and we’ll figure out a better way to cope with everything that’s going on.”
“Remember, Grace, that everything that affects you affects Lawrence, too. And us. And your kids,” I said. “Anyway, like I said. Talk to us. Don’t hold anything back, no matter how small or insignificant it might seem in the moment.”
Grace exhaled sharply, as if the weight of the world was taken off her shoulders. The red in her cheeks began to dissolve, as well, and she wiped the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand.
“I’m going to cook the most amazing dinner for Lawrence tonight.” She chuckled. “I feel like such a dope.”
“Make sure you top that off with dessert, too. Lawrence has earned a slice of your exquisite peach cobbler, if you ask me,” Derek replied, trying his best to diffuse the last remnants of tension left between us and Grace, though I knew, in the back of his head, he’d already made a note to monitor Grace, going forward. I did the same.
Grace smiled, then looked at River. “Mom, I talked to Dad, just so you know. Sorry, I forgot to tell you earlier. It’s what got me riled up in the first place.”
“He’s okay?” River managed. “When did you hear from him?”
“About an hour ago. He’s taken some time out. He’s angry about this whole fire fae malarkey, too,” Grace replied.
“Dammit, Grace. I’ve been worried sick about him. Why didn’t he just answer my texts, at least?!” River growled. She was pissed off, and for good reason.
I should’ve been annoyed, too, but I was simply too relieved to know that someone had spoken to Ben, that he was okay. Everything else seemed trivial. That came with the territory when losing a child—albeit temporarily. He was all that mattered.
“I told him you’d get mad,” Grace said.
“Well, you’ll need to tell me everything he said, honey, because I’ve been freaking out over here,” River retorted. “I want details.”
Grace took a deep breath, then let it out slowly, as if regaining her composure. Whatever had come over her seemed to be gone, but, deep down, I knew it wasn’t going to be her last descent into such crippling anger.
“We talked about how the fire fae are viewed now, in light of the attacks,” she replied. “He’s feeling the heat like me. He’s on edge. He’s just trying to put some distance between him and us, because he doesn’t want to hurt us. With words, I mean. He’s… Anyway, he just needs to process some things.”
River nodded repeatedly, though she didn’t seem convinced or comforted by Grace’s account. “Yeah, well, good for him. Is that why he went AWOL? Because his temper is flaring?”
“Yeah.”
“Geez,” River murmured, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I cannot believe this.”
Something was happening to our family. The tension felt unnatural. The anger, misplaced. Both Grace and Ben seemed to be under the influence of some kind of darkness. They were on edge. Almost incandescent.
I had to admit, the knot in my stomach was only getting tighter and more painful. Not that I wanted to, but I had a feeling that Derek and I would end up putting the adoption process on hold—at least until we figured out what was going on with the Hermessi and, most importantly, our current children.
They needed us now, more than ever. Whether they liked it or not.
Derek and I exchanged glances. He gave me a brief nod, and I knew we were on the same page. There was something off about our son and our granddaughter, and we were both determined to fix it. No matter what.
Eva
In order for her to try reaching out to her father, Inalia needed a safe and comfortable space. Somewhere that made her feel at home. So, without hesitation, we let her take us into the Hadeen Domain. The familiarity of her origins was bound to support her in this endeavor.
The trip itself was relatively easy and interesting, to say the least. We traveled hundreds of miles, alternating between the Cerixian modes of transportation and our own teleportation methods. Since we didn’t know exactly where the Hadeen Domain was, and since Taeral and Riza had not been there before, we had to mix it up. The long distances were covered by Arrow—the name the Cerixians had given to their version of… well, trains.
I’d seen them on Earth, as well. One steam-powered engine pulling hundreds of carts, each loaded with people or merchandise. In some cases, both, depending on the region they were crossing. On Cerix, however, the engines were fueled by a mixture of solar batteries and black oil, leaving only a thin trail of smoke behind. The locals had done their best to facilitate travel without stinking up the air.
“These are solar batteries?” I asked, as Inalia and Eira showed us to the back of one such train, where the conductors had stored backups for the engines.
The batteries were basically brass cylinders with black, rectangular panels attached to the surface. Each of them was connected to an internal circuit, I realized as I pulled one such panel open, through a series of copper-like wires. It was a rudimentary system, compared to the solar-powered batteries I’d seen on Earth, but it did the job, nonetheless. The internal circuit was tied into a metallic knob of sorts at the end of each battery.
Eira nodded. “Yes. They mount them on the top of the engine, bright and early in the morning. Even with clouds, they still store enough energy to get the Arrow started. From there, they continue to draw from the sun and, where it shows signs of faltering, the conductor switches the power source to oil. They do their best to stick to the batteries, though. Locals complain about smoke all the time, in these parts,” she said, then pointed at the knob on the battery. “See this? It gets screwed into the top of the engine. Fewer than twenty of these things can keep the Arrow going for miles and miles, especially on a sunny day.”
Glancing out the window of this last cart, I could see snippets of the Rose Domain’s outskirts. We were deep inland, and the train rumbled and occasionally shook as it slid across rougher terrain. There were railroad-like lines connecting multiple destinations across the land, from what I could tell. I could see other Arrows rushing in the distance, in different directions.
The edges of the Rose Domain were mostly wilderness—tall hills, covered in deep, dark woods; fields basking in
the sun, the golden grains undulating beneath the breeze; rocky segments through which the Cerixians had cut and carved in order to make their Arrows’ lines as straight as possible. Villages were sprinkled around on both sides. Most of them were small gatherings of up to fifty houses, but they seemed clean and orderly, each roof and garden curated to perfection. The Rose Domain had a thing about keeping up appearances, from what I could tell.
“This is amazing technology, if you ask me,” Varga replied, while I put the battery back in its storage place.
“Well, we couldn’t rely solely on what the swamp witch gave us,” Inalia said. “Cerixians are quite curious and enterprising by nature. We’ve found ways to ease life for ourselves over the past couple of centuries.”
“Then why can’t they just keep up with this process, instead of hounding Hermessi children for their energy?” I asked, as we walked back into the next cart. Our seats were there. Inalia had paid the fares for us to hop on this Arrow. Transport wasn’t free here, but it was cheap enough to allow everyone to move around while making sure the lines and the trains themselves were maintained. Eira had bought us cloaks from a clothing store near the Arrow station prior to boarding, and, with the hoods on, we were able to blend in and pass undetected for the most part. Whenever we spotted Armed Forces soldiers, we were elegantly teleported past them before they could even get to us. It was a tedious process but it kept us out of trouble.
“You misunderstand. There are only a handful of Cerixians who think this is a good idea,” Eira interjected. “Nalyon is the one leading them. It doesn’t mean the rest of the population is on board.”
“Sure, but you know how persuasive Nalyon can be. Especially if he has some of the upper echelon on his side.” Inalia sighed.
“You mean like the High Chancellor? It doesn’t matter,” Taeral replied. “They won’t hurt you. They won’t move ahead with that. Lumi is already in Silvergate, turning the place upside down until they concede and back away from the idea altogether.”
A Shade of Vampire 70: A Breed of Elements Page 10
