by Jane Cousins
“Erik has a younger brother.”
“He’s a fireman?” All traces of animosity disappeared as Saffron’s eyes swirled rather disconcertedly for a moment, like whirlpools.
“He’s single, cute and straight.” Cara could only surmise the cute part, but given the family gene pool, it was pretty much a given.
“You had me at single.” Saffron advised in a breathless tone.
“Well, he’s away right now at a conference but I think he’s due back any day.”
“Do you know where he lives?” Saffron brushed back her hair. “Never mind, I’ll find out.” The blue haired woman pushed past, heading for the front door.
“Umm.” Cara watched Saffron collect her things and hurriedly leave. Poor Fen, she had a feeling there would be a naked blue haired surprise waiting in his bed for him when he returned home. Oh well, she shrugged off any concern, he was a grown man it would be up to him to deal with his own problems.
Dealing with your own problems?
The very thought bought her up short. The ever looming threat of Sek and Mot was her fault… her problem to deal with. How could she move forward with Erik if she didn’t confront them… at the very least scare them off?
Hiding was no longer a solution, not with the changes she intended to make in her life. So facing them was her only option, but how? Oh, of course… she snapped her fingers, she knew exactly how to get in contact with her dear beloved relatives.
* * *
Lucy Valhalla was torn, she should go check on how a guest in her home was fairing after a slight mishap but Cara seemed like a nice girl, she was positive she’d make sure Saffron was okay. Her own priorities lay elsewhere. Turning her attention to Erik, she bestowed a warm loving motherly smile his way. “Does Cara come from a large family? Where did you two meet? What does she do for a living? Has she settled here permanently now?” Lucy rattled off her questions faster than a machine gun spraying bullets.
Erik gulped down some water. Sometimes being the subject of his mother’s intense focus could be worse than a multi-lightning strike courtesy of his father. “Mum!”
Lucy paused, the hopeful smile never wavering from her face, her blue eyes sparkling bright. “Um… yes Darling?”
“All you need to know is… if she’ll have me, I intend to meld and marry that girl.”
“You do?” Lucy clutched her hands to her chest. They would have the most beautiful babies together, she could picture herself holding them already… then she blinked and thought back over what Erik had said and the way he had said it. “What do you mean… if she’ll have you?”
“What did you do?” Gunther growled out the question.
“Gunn!” Lucy sent a brief frown her husband’s way. “I’m sure Erik didn’t do anything… you didn’t, did you?”
“Mum, I’m really not comfortable talking about this with you.”
“Oh no.” Lucy stared at her son in horror. “You did do something stupid, didn’t you? Goddess…” She rolled her eyes to the heavens. “… sometime you boys remind me far too much of your father.”
“Hey!” Both Gunther and Erik took umbrage at that statement.
Lucy ignored their dual protest, her mind roiling frantically. How could she save this? What could Erik have possibly done to upset that lovely girl? The picture in her head of gorgeous plump grandbabies with bright blue eyes and red gold curls was fading fast and Lucy was having none of it.
She fixed her son with her rarely used steely look that she pretty much reserved for her husband when he stepped out of line. “Did you tell her you love her?”
Erik really didn’t want to share his private life with his mother, of all people, but that look on her face… it was kind of scary. Lucy looked ready to sick a thousand post-it notes on his ass. “Yes!”
Lucy paused… then why wouldn’t…? Her eyes narrowed as she compared father and son. “Did you use those words?”
“Well… not exactly those words.” Erik admitted.
He opened his mouth to explain how he’d gone about baring his soul, ripping his heart out of his chest and presenting it to Cara when he’d declared his surrender, but the sound of a car engine starting up distracted him. Hmm, from the sound of it that was one problem less in his currently complicated life, Saffron was leaving.
It was the all too familiar sound of the second engine firing up that had him pushing back his chair and getting to his feet abruptly… what the hell? Where was Cara going in his truck?
“Erik, you need to…” Lucy stopped speaking, Erik had suddenly pushed his chair back, a look of stunned surprise on his face.
“Dad, I’m borrowing your car.” Erik yelled the words back over his shoulder as he ran into the house, no time for explanations, he had to find Cara and make sure she was okay.
Cara had a two minute head start on him, but at this time of night, in the dark, it wasn’t hard to surmise where she was headed, back into town. Damn, was she running? Had Saffron said something to offend her? To scare her off? Maybe there was something at the library she needed to check on.
Or maybe… just maybe she wanted to get as far away from him as she possibly could. Well, he’d just see about that… she owed him an explanation at the very least and the chance to tell her… damn it, tell her he loved her, if that was what it took to get her to stay.
He was surprised when she didn’t take the turn off for the town square, instead of heading for the library she turned on to Beach road. Was she intending to pick up her things? He watched as she braked hard in front of the cottage she was renting and slammed out of his truck, but instead of heading for the house she kicked off her shoes, turned, and started running through the park, towards the beach. Oh, no, shit.
He slammed out of his father’s car, hot on her trail. Whatever she was up to, he was hating the idea… all that sand… Sek and Mot… the sand creature. Heading towards the beach was madness. His work boots weren’t made for running across grass but he finally caught up with her a few feet away from the beach, swinging her up high in his arms.
For his trouble, Cara let out a high pitched scream of surprise and terror.
“Hey.” Erik winced, his ears continuing to ring. “It’s me.” He hugged her in tight to his body, moulding his chest to her back, willing her to calm down. “It’s just me.”
“What the hell do you…” Cara managed to land a punch on Erik’s arm, surprising him into letting her go, “… think you’re doing?” She turned around to glare up at him, the moonlight glinting off her glasses.
“I could well ask you the same question, Cara. What the hell are you thinking? Going onto the beach? Alone?”
“I have everything under control.” There was a mulish set to Cara’s mouth as she spoke, the gentle night breeze making her ringlets lift and dance.
“The fuck you do.” Erik all but roared. “You race off, no explanation, take my truck… to do what exactly? Hand yourself over on a platter to your relatives?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Cara’s hands came to rest on her hips. Now that she’d stopped running the feel of the cool damp sandy grass beneath her feet and the nearby thrum of waves breaking on the shore reminded her that the two of them were essentially on their own out here in the dark. She’d expected to have to do this alone, but it was kind of nice that Erik was here with her… except, what if he got hurt? “You need to leave.” Her tone was filled with urgency but no anger now.
“Just tell me what the hell you’re trying to do?” Erik stood firm, folding his muscular arms across his chest and glaring down at her, looking solid and immoveable.
“I’m going to put the fear of… well not God, but me, into those relatives of mine. I want them so scared they’ll never come near me, or anyone I care about again.”
“And suddenly you have this fearsome scary power do you? Since when?”
“Since always… I just didn’t know it. Maat told me I could control it… and I proved it tonight, that brief tremor? Sending the win
e back across the table Saffron’s way? That was me! I was cool, I was calm, I was in control.”
Damn, all his Angel needed was a flaming sword and she would be righteous vengeance personified. He hated to do it, but she had to know the truth. “Um… that’s not exactly what happened earlier.”
“What?” Cara blinked slowly.
“There wasn’t any tremor. That was me. I lifted our side of the table with my knees, that’s what sent the wine back in Saffron’s direction.”
“You….” Cara blinked again. “You… it was you?” She considered curling up into a small ball of misery. What had she been thinking? That she had control over a tiny earthquake? Talk about delusions of grandeur. Her mind began to churn as flash after flash of her failures bombarded her.
“I’m sorry.” It was a heartfelt statement from Erik, he could see what his revelation had done to Cara, her shoulders suddenly slumped, her mouth downturned. “I had no idea you thought you’d whammied her.” Cara released a defeated shaky breath that almost broke his heart. “I was just trying to protect you…”
Cara’s head snapped up. “You were trying to protect me?”
“Of course.” He felt offended that she sounded so surprised. “But look, just because you didn’t dump wine in Saffron’s lap tonight doesn’t negate whatever Maat told you… so what did she say? How do you control your chaos magic?”
“It’s stupid. I don’t want to talk about it.” Cara waved him off, digging her cold toes into the grass.
“Wow, already dissing advice from a Goddess. Look at you, how far you’ve come.” Erik smirked.
Cara rolled her eyes. “It’s not that.” Merda, how was she supposed to confide in Erik that Maat’s advice basically boiled down to ‘embrace life’? It sounded so trite when she thought about it now.
Staring up at him she couldn’t help but admire the way the night breeze made his white shirt mould to the sturdy planes of his chest. Damn it, he’d been trying to protect her tonight. First with Saffron’s catty outburst and now, following her to the dark desolate beach, where who knows what dangers may lurk.
Cara stepped forward, fisted one hand in the front of Erik’s shirt and yanked him down, kissing the brave stupid lug for all she was worth.
Erik’s arms wrapped around her, pulling her in close. She was all soft curves and heat in his arms, her lips tasted of red wine, honey and the faintest trace of Italian blood oranges. She made a sexy little moaning sound in the back of her throat and mentally he railed at his Goddess, why did it have to be winter? Why couldn’t it have been a warm summer’s night? They could have sunk to the soft grass and he could have shown his Angel how much she’d come to mean to him. Shown? Damn, he was still avoiding saying the words, wasn’t he? Well, no more, time to man up.
He broke the kiss slowly, reluctantly. With the moonlight playing across her uptilted face her skin, for once, looked pale and white, reminding him of the purest marble.
“What’s wrong?” She whispered the words.
“Cara…” He frowned as a shadow fell across her face. Had the moon disappeared behind a cloud? They both turned their heads to look. “Cara… get behind me.” He urged, preparing to face off against the sand creature that had appeared just a few feet away, standing on the sandy beach but looking strong and more than capable of moving on to the grass.
Cara’s first thought was to cower in fear behind Erik’s solid body. Her second thought was that perhaps both of them running away might be a better option. Live to fight another day…. Merda, when had that become her personal motto in life?
A sudden wave of anger swept through her. She was so tired of being scared and afraid. It was nice that Erik was willing to protect her, but he shouldn’t have to risk his life, not when she should be standing on her own two feet and squaring off against her fears.
Her powers came directly from a God, so why was she continuing to act like the mouse she too often pretended to be so she could creep though life without drawing undue attention her way? If she kept that up she’d wouldn’t just miss out on the bad stuff… she’d miss out on all the good stuff too. Like Erik, he definitely fell squarely into the good stuff category.
Ducking around Erik, she planted herself in front of him. “How about this time, you get behind me?”
“Cara…” Erik made a grab for her but she was already moving forward to meet the sand creature.
What was she doing? Even as her feet compelled her towards the Golem, Cara was asking herself that question, but at the same time she knew the answer was immaterial. For once she was doing something, taking charge. She wasn’t going to over analyse, second guess her actions or even be wavered by the obvious concern in Erik’s voice. So he didn’t think she could handle the Golem, why would he? She hadn’t done anything up until this point to prove that she could control her chaos powers. It was well past time she showed the both of them.
Swiftly closing in on the Golem, she frantically tried to come up with a plan of attack. Except she’d witnessed the Golem in action at The Met. It only had one weakness. Where was a pile of rocks when you needed it? Come on, think Cara, her feet hit the cold sand, her heels digging in deep.
Merda, it was only two feet away now, raising both its arms. Moving slowly. Acting as if it was surprised that she was running towards it. Of course the Golem couldn’t think at all. It was Sek and Mot who pulled its strings. They were the ones who had been caught off guard by her actions.
Huh, if they controlled the Golem, then it was only logical that they powered the Golem.
Even if she’d wanted to stop and weigh the pros and cons of her assumption, it was too late, her forward momentum could not be stopped. As she hit the Golem, she thrust both fists as deep as she could, into its sandy torso… her fingers ploughing through dense sand… questing… searching. Her left hand caught a thread of power first, her fingers gripping on tight, quickly clenching her hand into a fist so it wouldn’t escape her hold.
The other thread… she pushed deeper, her right arm now elbow deep in the Golem’s chest… there, she grabbed for it and missed. Cara winced as the Golem’s only working arm came down, its slab like hand resting on her left shoulder, gripping her too tight… squeezing. She pushed in deeper still… and just like that she grabbed it. Instantly the Golem's arm dropped to its side, its whole body lax and still.
“Cara, are you okay?” Erik loomed by her shoulder, staring in trepidation at the sight of her arms thrust deep in to the Golem’s upper torso.
“I’ve got them.” She kept her hands fisted tight, feeling the threads squirm and twist, trying to get away. “Sek and Mot, I’ve got them.”
“And what exactly do you intend to do with them?” Erik enquired warily, wondering if he should call for reinforcements.
“I’m going to have a little chat with them.” She squeezed the writhing threads tighter.
First one, then the second went still in her grip. Reaching deep down into her body, Cara felt for the small ball of chaos that dwelled within her. It pulsed and brightened under her attention, like a puppy getting its tummy scratched. Yeah, yeah, I see you, I acknowledge you. She’d been thinking of sending a warning pulse into those threads but as her ball of chaos magic twirled and glowed, basking in her acceptance of it, a much better idea took form.
What did her asshole relatives revere the most? Power. They coveted it above all else.
“Cara?” Erik was a trifle concerned, Cara’s eyes were a burning blue, her skin gleaming with gold glints even under the moonlight. “What’s happening?”
“I’m seeing how my long lost Great-Uncles like being treated like batteries.” Their energy, their strength filtered up through her arms, down through her body, to mix and mingle with her own magic, the ball pulsing rapidly as it grew in size to be the equivalent of a tennis ball.
Cara wasn’t sure how much more power she could hold, if perhaps she could drain Sek and Mot dry, but she didn’t get a chance to answer either of those questions as witho
ut warming the threads both disintegrated, in the same instance as the Golem collapsed into nothing but a large pile of inanimate sand covering her bare feet.
“What happened?” Erik gripped her by the upper arms, turning her to face him. “Did you kill them?”
Cara shook her head, taking a deep breath as her chaos magic frothed and bubbled deep inside her, whoa that was heady stuff. Calm down buddy, we can play later. And just like that her magic calmed and settled. “They got away. Just pulled the plug somehow.”
“Are you hurt?” Erik continued to study her closely.
“No.” She smiled up at him suddenly. “But they are. I gave them a very, very nasty scare.”
“Did you just.” Erik smiled as well. “So they’ll think twice about coming after you any time soon?”
“At least until they have Apep’s Chi in their possession and I don’t intend to let that happen. In fact I think I might have an idea on where to start looking.”
“Where?”
Cara shook her head. “Maat dropped a hint. She said something along the lines, in all the years Apep has been incarcerated in that sarcophagus, chaos never left the world… I think we need to start looking for any place in the world where chaos… disasters, regularly o… occur.” She stumbled over the last word as her teeth began to chatter. Now that her adrenalin levels had dropped she was suddenly aware of her frozen feet and the cool breeze nipping at her hair.
“It’s as good a plan as any Angel.” Erik pulled her in close, draping an arm over her shoulder. “Sounds like a job for Marcus and his tech team. Come on, we can call the beefcakes from the car while I take you home and heat you up. I can come back for my father’s car in the morning.”
“Oh no, your parents.” Cara was suddenly mortified with embarrassment. “What must they think of me?”
Erik laughed loudly. “I wouldn’t worry about that. You were a big hit with my Dad.”
“How could you tell?” Cara huddled in closer to Erik’s body for warmth, frowning down at her sand covered feet.
“Easy, he didn’t cuff me across the back of the head once tonight. And I’ve no doubt my mother is picking out wool as we speak.”
