by R G Peterson
Nick stepped over to where the second guard knelt trying hard to cradle his shattered elbow with his dislocated arm, crying out in pain with every movement he made. As Nick approached, the Element looked up and begged, “Help me, please.”
Nick touched the guard’s head and his heart. The light seemed to go out of the guard’s eyes, as if his essence had departed his body. The guard looked around the grounds in bewilderment and then down at his broken limbs. Nick noted the man’s confusion and smiled. It looks like it does work.
He turned to Red and said, “Done. Let’s go, the others will be waiting.”
Red shot Nick a look of incomprehension.
Seeing it, Nick said, “Just a little something we found in the Minoan book in the prophecies section.”
Red still looked confused, but shook it off and jogged after Nick as they headed for the rear entrance. Nick threw open the door and sprinted to the great hall leaving the out of shape Red far behind.
“Wait, Nick,” Red called after him.
Nick slid to a stop in the center of the room. The Inner Circle members, still loyal to Thanatos, as well as a more than a dozen of his other followers, stepped forward to surround him.
“You’re late,” Police Chief Bourbon said and laughed haughtily. “We’ve been waiting.”
Chapter 64
“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll move away from my grandson”
Nick closed his eyes and willed his visions to take over as commotion from the back of the hall drew the attention of Thanatos’ minions. GG, Henry, Daniel Clearwater, Calvin Robinson and Mei Huang trailed an out of breath Red into the Great Hall.
“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll move away from my grandson,” GG announced.
Bourbon rushed forward and grabbed Nick from behind. “Stop or I’ll cause all of the tissue in his body to dry...”
Nick sent an electrical charge racing through his body and into Bourbon’s hands and arms. She toppled straight backward, unconscious before she could finish her speech. As her body spasmed, Nick nonchalantly reached down and touched her forehead, as he had done with the guards outside. Bourbon stiffened. He touched her chest above her heart. Her body went limp. It conjured an image in Nick’s mind of a rag doll discarded by a child who no longer had any use for it.
Bent on avenging Chief Bourbon, Charles Baker morphed into a bear and charged Nick. He reared up on his hind legs and raised his powerful arm, its claws fully extended, preparing to take a swipe at Nick. When Red saw Nick continue to stare at the motionless body of Bourbon, seemingly unaware of his imminent danger, he morphed into a wildcat and leapt at the bear’s throat.
“No!” cried Nick, but it was too late. The bear threw Red off with the swipe of a backhand and sent him sailing across the room, crashing head first into the wall beneath the staircase.
As the bear glimpsed the wildcat’s flight, Nick stepped into him and lightly touched the bear on the forehead with one hand and on the chest with the other.
“You won’t be doing anything like that anymore,” Nick told him, his voice as cold as a Wisconsin winter morning.
Charles Baker transmuted back into his human form. An icy smile creased Nick’s lips as he watched Baker unsuccessfully attempt to morph once more. Baker looked down at his hands, horror stricken, then backup at Nick in shock and awe. He scurried out of Nick’s reach and stomped on the ground, attempting to make the floor shake. Nothing came of it.
“That’s right. I’ve taken away your power,” Nick said menacingly. “And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll…” The one time Element turned and ran as fast as his old legs could carry him out of the mansion. Seeing him lumber, Nick mumbled the rest of his statement, “get out of here, fast.”
The rest of the Clan had entered the hall from various areas of the mansion as Nick was in the process of dispatching Bourbon and Baker. Terry and Grace appeared at the head of the balcony overlooking the curved stairway. Anthony and Miriam entered the great hall from the library, while AJ and Maddy came from the back where the Guardians had a moment before. Everyone, friend and foe alike, stared at Nick, not bothering to hide their astonishment.
As Nick watched the terrified Baker sprint from the mansion, Four of Thanatos’ minions – as if reacting to some unspoken command – rushed Nick from different directions in an attempt to overwhelm him.
Without conscious thought, Nick’s mind split into four entities, as if four movies were playing in his head at the same time, each showing a different film, each focused on what it needed to do to defeat its oncoming adversary.
The four Elements reached Nick as one.
To those watching, what happened next took but a few seconds. To Nick, everything played out as if it was in super-slow motion, frame by frame by frame. Adversary and ally alike looked on in amazement as Nick made short work of his attackers in what appeared as one single, fluid motion.
The Wind Element came at Nick from in front, Water from his right, Earth from behind and Fire from his left.
Wind reached out his hand to touch Nick on his chest to drain all the oxygen from his lungs; Water attempted to grab hold of Nick’s arm with the intent of turning the blood in his veins into a boiling mass; Earth morphed into a lion and sprang at Nick, determined to sink his teeth into his neck and rip his body apart with his sharp claws; while Fire clapped his hands together and rubbed them back and forth to create friction. He would then threw his hands apart and direct a huge ball of fire at Nick, reducing him to a pile of ashes.
Nick never flinched. Simultaneously: he built up an electrical charge in his chest; turned his head in Water’s direction as he released a tiny breath of air as if shooing away a pesky insect; stepped slightly back with his right foot, reached over his right shoulder and touched one of the lion’s extended paws; while placing most of his weight on his left foot, leaning toward the Fire Element.
As Wind’s hand made contact with Nick’s chest over one hundred milliamps of electricity passed through him. He was lifted out of his shoes and socks and flung twenty-feet across the room. He landed on his tailbone and slid, coming to rest at the base of a wall. His charred body began to shake. Smoke wafted from his blackened hands and feet before he crumbled sideways.
Nick’s tiny breath of air thrust the startled Water Element off his feet. He tumbled head over heels through the air as if caught in one-hundred-fifty-mile-an-hour, straight-line winds. He smashed into the opposite wall and crashed to the floor, his body bent and broken as if a puppeteer had cut his strings.
The lion, mere inches away from sinking his teeth and claws into Nick’s back, shriveled up in mid-air at Nick’s touch. Every last drop of moisture in its body evaporated into a mist that curled toward the ceiling. The shell of the lion drifted downward, swaying back and forth as if it were a piece of discarded paper floating on the wind. He turned back into its human form before coming to rest on the marble floor. It’s last roar dying in its dehydrated throat.
Fire released the ball of flame and watched as the inferno engulfed Nick, making him momentarily disappear from view. The white-hot flames danced off of Nick’s body and died away. Nick stepped through the firestorm unharmed, not a single bead of sweat dotting his forehead. He took advantage of Fire’s shock and grasped one of his outstretched arms. The Earth aspect of Nick concentrated on the hard calcium he could feel beneath the muscle and sinew in the Element’s arm. Fire screamed out in pain as his appendage lost all form and began to sag as if made of Silly Putty. Nick let go and Fire collapsed to the floor cradling his boneless limb.
After making short work of his attackers, Nick reached down and touched the heads and chests of Fire and Earth. Fire’s body went limp and motionless, his spirit and elemental nature drained from him.
Nick touched Earth a second time and returned the moisture to his body. He wasn’t sure if it would do much good, but he took comfort in the knowledge that at least he tried.
Every single person in the room was
spellbound by Nick’s unlimited powers and the speed and ease with which he had dispatched the four threats. A silence fell heavily over the mansion.
Five seconds later, as if someone had flipped a switch, all chaos broke loose. Realizing they would be unable to incapacitate Nick and that his mere touch could remove their power, Thanatos’ followers attempted to escape the mansion unharmed, their powers still intact. The Guardians and their followers stepped forward to challenge them. Dozens of people squared off without any thought given to what type of Element they were fighting.
Nick scanned the great hall and watched as ally and adversary went toe-to-toe.
He saw Maddy and AJ (wielding a wooden baseball bat he had brought with him) take on an Element. Maddy realized within seconds it was Fire and backed away. Emboldened by seeing her retreat, Fire stepped forward and reached out to shock her. AJ used the bat like an ax and chopped at Fire’s outstretched arm. The Element tried to pull his hand back, but the bat caught the tips of his fingers. As Fire shook his smarting appendages, AJ took a swing at his head. Fire leaned backward. The blow narrowly missed his face. AJ used the bat as a blunt sword and poked the Fire Element in his chest, moving him farther back. AJ alternated between poking him in the chest and swinging at his head, until he was in a corner, with no place to run. AJ faked another poke to Fire’s chest, then swung the bat up in the air and clipped Fire along side his head, dropping him to the floor. The Element curled into a ball and covered his head with his arms.
Nick swung his attention to Grandpa Henry and Grandma Gayle. They stood beside the great staircase, back-to-back, locked in a fierce fight with two Elements. Not knowing what element each possessed, the four of them felt each other out. Grandpa Henry cautiously reached out to take hold of the Element’s arm and boil his blood. But the Element turned out to be Wind, impervious to his touch. Knowing Henry was incapable of stopping him, Wind reached out and poked Henry’s chest, sucking all of the air out of his lungs. When Henry gasped, GG reached behind her and laid her hand on Henry, allowing him to breathe.
Henry was caught between the two – Wind trying to suffocate him, GG partially counteracting Wind’s efforts. It was as if Henry had a weight pressing against his chest. He could breathe, but it hurt to do so.
The Element across from GG uncapped a bottle of water and it came shooting out toward GG. Having revealed his nature as Water, GG exhaled and sent the Element summersaulting through the air, much like Nick had. He smashed into a pedestal holding a Greek bust. It toppled over, crashed onto his head and stunned the Element into inaction as blood flowed into his eyes from his wound.
Nick started to race forward to help his grandfather, but GG swung around in front of Henry and took his place. The Wind Element and GG exchanged blow after blow, neither inflicting any damage on the other.
As they continued to battle, an Earth Element, standing on the winding staircase above them, touched the banister and sent a section of it falling toward his grandparents. Nick exhaled in the direction of the falling debris and redirected its path. It crashed onto Wind, driving him to his knees, bleeding and groggy, immobilized.
Sensing his grandparents were safe, Nick turned his attention to other areas of the battlefield. He saw Anthony and his father battling two of Thanatos’ people – one Water, one Fire. They easily defeated the Water Element by catching him in a vortex of wind, tossing him high into the air. They timed it so that when the Water Element was upside down they abruptly stopped the whirlwind. Water fell head first, crashing to the floor, knocked unconscious.
They turned their attention on the other Element. Unfortunately he possessed fire. Calvin jumped in front of Anthony as he reached out to shock him and took the charge on his left arm. He screamed out in pain and his arm went limp.
Nick stomped on the ground, directing a shockwave at the Fire Element’s feet. It propelled him into the air. As he came back down, Nick flicked his wrist causing the Fire Element to tumble in midair and land on his face and chest, knocking all of the wind out of him along with a few teeth. As he lay gasping for breath and holding his bleeding mouth, Nick raced over, reached down and relieved him of his power.
In the ongoing confusion, like Elements often battled each other, while others confronted the very Element they were anxious to avoid. The Guardians and Clan had a distinct advantage. They could concentrate all of their energies and resources on those they were engaged with in battle, while Thanatos’ army had to divide their attention between their foe and Nick’s whereabouts in the great hall.
Through the smoke and dust swirling in the hall, Nick saw parts of the marble staircase’s banister tumble away. People fell twenty-feet or more to the granite floor. A chandelier was wrenched free from the ceiling and dropped toward Nick. He nonchalantly reached overhead and moved it effortlessly to the side. It made a discordant sound as it hit the floor sending glass and metal in every direction.
He heard GG shriek and looked back to where they had been a few minutes earlier, but they were no longer there. Her voice bounced off the walls and the ceiling, making it impossible to determine where her cry had originated.
As he searched for GG, he came upon other Elements. He had never seen a good many of the people. Some were Thanatos’ followers while others were Elements Red had recruited to aid their cause. As Nick would come upon a strange Element, he would wait and gauge the person’s reaction to him. When an Element appeared frightened by his presence, he would reach out and remove their power before continuing on in his search for his grandmother.
The battle raged on for what felt like hours, although Nick knew it couldn’t have been more than twenty minutes.
All at once the world fell apart. Up was down. The air in the room seemed to come and go, making breathing difficult. Water floated through the air as if it had been loosed on a space station orbiting the earth. Noises and sounds came and went, making everyone feel as if they were going deaf. The Great Hall was rent with smoke and fire and a whirlwind of debris from books and chairs to marble statues and busts and everything else that wasn’t fixed in place. The floor trembled violently, knocking Elements off their feet. Many of the columns around the Great Hall swayed and fell, as large chunks of the ceiling cracked and plunged down around everyone, forcing people to break off the fight and seek shelter. From the screams and cries that reached his ears, Nick knew that not everyone had been successful in finding cover.
With a thunderous crash, everything returned to normal.
“ENOUGH!” a forceful, resounding voice called out. It came from somewhere above the fray. In a much calmer voice Thanatos next said, “We can come to some kind of an understanding. Let us all be reasonable.”
Chapter 65
Why did it have to be this way?
Nick moved toward Thanatos’ voice. He stumbled on a piece of the banister from the stairway and almost went down when he stepped on a chunk of marble and caught himself before he rolled his ankle. He moved forward determined to find Thanatos and bring everything to an end.
He heard a jangling sound coming from his left and saw two people who had been fighting stop and stare at the voice coming from above. One had kicked part of the metal from the chandelier in his haste to move farther away from Nick.
As Nick continued to look to where he thought Thanatos to be, his foot caught on something. He looked down to see Police Chief Bourbon crushed under the weight of fallen debris. Her eyes stared wide in horror at the place where the ceiling had torn apart as if she saw what was about to happen, but realized she was helpless to prevent it. He swept the area to see if he could find his friends. His eyes lit upon Anthony’s dad. He cradled his burnt arm, in great pain.
As he continued to move forward he saw people from both sides scattered around the floor. Some dead, others alive. Some friend, others foe. No matter who he saw, it saddened Nick. Why did it have to be this way?
He looked for Ligeia. When he couldn’t find her, he became anxious and even more frantic. She was the on
e person associated with Thanatos who had always helped them. The one he felt a bond with. A kindred spirit? Yes, but even more than that. The one older woman, other than GG, who he felt cared deeply about him, almost matronly. The one who, in the end, he was certain would help him defeat Thanatos. His anxiety grew as he failed to find her as he wound his way through the rubble toward the staircase.
He hurried forward, easily kicking objects out of his way. Then he saw AJ and Maddy. AJ lay flat on the floor his eyes closed. Maddy laid next to him, her ear pressed against his chest, listening for a heartbeat. When she heard the scraping of concrete across the marble floor, she looked up. Her eyes showed a split second of fear, but, seeing Nick, it was replaced by hope.
“Oh Nick, help him, I think his heart stopped. One o’ the Fire Elements shocked him. I’ve been giving him CPR but…”
Nick placed his ear against AJ’s chest and knelt upright. “Okay, you’d better move,” he said to Maddy. When she was clear he placed his hands on either side of AJ’s chest and shocked him again. AJ’s chest heaved and he swallowed a great gulp of air. His eyes flew open and he gasped.
“Whoa, why’d you do that?”
Nick gave him a bewildered look before AJ went on to explain, “I was having this great dream. There was this door and bright light and, and…”
Maddy placed her finger on his lips to stop him from talking and kissed him passionately. After she stopped, AJ placed his head on Maddy’s lap and closed his eyes. A very contented smile crossed his face.
With a tremendous sigh of relief Nick moved forward. He called out seeking other members of the Clan, “Grace, Terry, Anthony, Miriam, where are you?” It sounded as if he were back in the Manitowoc library. The silence, however, wasn’t comforting. “Hey, Anthony. You here?”
“Yeah, I’m kinda trapped under this stone. I think my ankle’s broken.” As Nick stepped through the haze suspended around the hall, he saw Anthony lying face down, trying to reach for a column to pull himself forward and out from under the rubble. Nick hurried over and picked up the heavy concrete as if it were made of Styrofoam.
