by H. D. Gordon
I watched him retreat up the stairwell, his large figure ascending out of sight.
***
“You know me too well, Caleb Cross,” I said, jabbing a French fry across the table at him while shoving a chili cheeseburger into my face with my other hand. “I was worried you were going to take me somewhere fancy where it’d take four meals to fill me.”
Caleb grinned as he sipped some of his strawberry milkshake. “Can’t have my girl going hungry,” he said.
I paused, swallowing. “Is that what I am?” I asked. “Your girl?”
Caleb’s handsome face went a little red. “Do you want to be?”
“Things are complicated,” I said, the words just falling out. I may not believe in the social standards, but that didn’t make me a liar.
To my relief, Caleb nodded. “I know, which is why I’ve never really brought it up, but I want you to know, I’m not seeing anyone else.”
Suddenly the food was more difficult to swallow. “I… um… thank you.”
Caleb chuckled. “It’s that neighbor of yours, isn’t it? That old broody guy.”
My eyebrows were likely kissing the ceiling. “Who, Thomas?”
“Now who’s playing dumb, Aria Fae?”
I narrowed my eyes, the topic somewhat awkward but at least broached. “He’s not that old,” I said. “And I don’t think he feels that way about me, anyway.”
“He’s a fool if he doesn’t.”
I pointed another fry at him before shoving it in my mouth. “See? It’s that right there. You always know what to say to me. You’re like Don Juan, sweet-talking me. I hope you don’t think you’re going to get lucky.”
Caleb nearly choked on his milkshake. “I would never expect such a thing.”
His gentlemanly declaration only made me like him more, because I could see it was genuine. “I was joking,” I said. “Relax. You know I trust you.”
“Why does it sound like there’s a ‘but’ at the end of that?”
I chewed at my lip. “I have to ask you something.”
“Then ask.”
I looked around, making sure no one was close enough to overhear and keeping my voice low. “Sam and Matt think we should dig a little deeper into your father’s company… They think we should go in under the guise of you being… Well, you, and see what we can find.”
Caleb sat back, the shift in his aura immediate, and suddenly, I felt bad for tainting the evening. Being who he was, however, Caleb only let out a slow breath. “I knew this was coming,” he said. “I guess I’ve been considering it for a while, but needed a little push.”
Even for Caleb, I thought this was highly generous. “So that’s it?” I asked. “You agree we should go in and take a look around? See what we can find?”
This was not an easy thing for him, and I didn’t need my aura-reading skills to know it. “Can I decide after the dance if we should break into my family’s fortress?” he asked. “I kind of just wanted to spend the evening with you.”
Feeling like a major buttwipe, I sat back and nodded. For being an Empath, I sure could lack tact. “Of course,” I said, “and thank you for the dinner.”
His dimples reappeared. “Always a pleasure, beautiful girl.”
CHAPTER 19
“Just so you guys know,” I said, pointing my finger at Sam and Matt. “I felt like a real buttwipe asking Caleb to betray his father.”
Sam lifted a brow at me. “Well, no one told you to ask on the night of the dance, genius.”
I threw up my hands, about to defend this, but then we were stepping into the ballroom of the hotel where the Spring Fling was being held, and the words were snatched from me.
Crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling, their light soft and glittering. Some of the younger classmen in the school’s orchestra were set up in one corner, playing low music and wearing black gowns and tuxes. Waiters in suits presented trays of tiny portions of food along with champagne glasses filled with cider. Round tables with silk cloths were set up on the eastern side of the room, where a floor-to-ceiling window looked out onto the hotel’s immaculate gardens. Couples of our peers dressed in their finest swayed around the dance floor, while parent and teacher chaperones chatted around the edges.
I was snatching a tiny pig in a blanket off a tray when Caleb spoke behind me, making me jump. He’d told me to go on ahead while he valeted the car (apparently when your set of wheels is worth nearly a hundred grand, you have special instructions for whoever drives it) and I’d immediately found Sam and Matt.
“The look on your face right now,” Caleb said, “I imagine that’s what I look like every time I see you.”
I smiled and sipped some cider. “Caleb, don’t romance me while I’m shoving dough wrapped sausages in my mouth. It makes me self-conscious.”
This made him laugh, and he held a hand out to me, the other tucked behind his back. “Alright, my lady. Then how about a dance?”
I placed my hand in his and allowed him to twirl me around the dance floor. The rest of the company fell away, the music a gentle background to our private conversation. After a while, Caleb and I moved out onto the terrace, the warm evening air soft against my skin. It was like something out of a storybook, a scene from a dream I’d never dared dream of.
I was just beginning to relax, to settle into some kind of homeostasis, to enjoy the evening with the handsome young man at my side, when someone in the near distance let out a scream, reminding me that this was no fairytale.
Pun intended.
***
The scream made me cringe and cover my sensitive ears. Caleb and I, along with the handful of other people sharing the terrace, looked to the west, where the sun was just beginning to lower beneath the horizon.
There, a woman and a man were running, their shoulders bent and heads forward, charging forth as if their lives depended on it. “Run!” the woman shouted, and I watched as fear flickered out of her aura like a sparkler on Fourth of July. “It’s coming! Run!”
A flutter of mumbles commenced as the woman and man darted past us, breaking into the ballroom like wedding crashers, screaming their warning while plowing on.
“Oh my God,” Caleb said beside me, gripping my arm and dragging me toward the glass doors that led inside.
I didn’t have to ask what had caused this utterance, because I had seen it at the same time Caleb did. Less than a football field away, and standing just as tall and imposing as it had the first time I’d seen it, was the Blue Beast.
It slammed its large body into a parked mail truck, tipping it over onto its side and sending it skidding over the concrete with a scrape that tore at the night. Following this, it jumped twenty feet into the air and came crashing down on top of two cars, smashing them into useless hunks of metal. People were running away as fast as they could, like they do in all those zombie apocalypse movies while the hero stands at a distance in awe just before the brain-eaters come running around the bend. Those were the parts where I always screamed at the screen for the idiots to run.
Caleb tugged at my arm. “Aria, let’s go. We have to get out of here.”
I took a deep breath, feeling a phantom throb in my ribs, which were still healing from the last time I’d seen this creature, and pulled my hand from Caleb’s.
“I have to go,” I told him.
For what it was worth, real concern for me crossed over his handsome face. “How can I help?” he asked.
I shook my head, shoving him toward the doors. “Get everyone moving. It’s heading right for us.”
Caleb’s eyes flashed with indecision, but when I yelled at him to go, he did as I asked, rushing inside the ballroom and into the increasing panic of the people inside.
Once he was gone, I turned back toward the beast, and as its red-streaked eyes met mine over the decreasing distance, I corrected my previous statement in my head.
I don’t know how it knew me outside of my hood and mask, but it did. And it wasn’t heading right for us.
It was heading right for me.
***
I dashed behind the bushes and kicked off my high heels, my pulse racing like a prize pony. There was no time to go retrieve my super suit, so there would be no buffer between the beast and I were I to be struck, as there had been last time. It would be a lie to say this didn’t send a shiver of fear up my spine. If it could smash a mail truck to smithereens, I shuddered to think of what it could do to me.
I had just flicked off the heels and tossed them aside along with the pointlessly tiny clutch Sam had lent me (I mean, come on, I would hardly be able to smuggle out hors d’oeuvres in that small a purse) when the large bush I was standing behind was ripped up by its roots, the only thing cloaking me now the darkness of the rapidly descending night. Dirt and worms rained down on me from above as the beast held it over me, growling down at me in a way that lifted my hair off my shoulders, sending my silky dress into a flurry in a poor impression of Marilyn.
It was such a frightful thing, hulking over me like so, with its veined muscles, wiry black hair, and crazed red-streaked eyes.
“Easy, big guy,” I said, and took off running.
It gave chase, confirming my suspicion that the creature had come for me. It felt almost like a game, only the stakes were more than a trophy or bragging rights. I needed to lure the beast away from the population and grab my crossbow from the lair, then manage to shoot it and hope that Matt and Sam’s theory about the epinephrine was correct.
Easier said than done.
I pumped my legs as hard as I could, sprinting along in my bare feet. Luckily, the plot of yard housing the hotel was thick green grass, and I felt the earth beneath it shaking each time I took a step, the weight of the creature chasing me literally making the ground rumble. I didn’t dare look back. I didn’t need to. The beast was so much bigger, its strides so much longer, that I could feel it closing the distance between us with each pounding beat of my heart.
It growled again, its fury as loud as thunder, whipping the trees on the western side of the yard into frenzy. I felt the air change and dropped into a roll just in time to avoid being scooped up into the beast’s grasp the way a hawk scoops up a field mouse.
There was no question who was the predator and who was the prey here.
I juked left and right, my only advantage my speed, the creature becoming increasingly frustrated at every successful evasion. The city was a blur of noise and cacophony around me, the only object of my focus my own survival, which was questionable at best. How had I forgotten how powerful this thing was? Why had I thought I could do this on my own? And why did I seem to be the main object of its attention?
It was clear now that I would never be able to make it back to the lair to retrieve the materials I needed. It was hard enough just staying out of the way of its wildly swinging fists, its earth-shaking stomps and crushing jaws. I could only catch glimpses of it, blue flashes as I dipped and ducked and rolled. There wasn’t time enough to do much else.
A curse went through my head. I was in trouble. Serious, serious trouble.
I continued to move, but then my feet left the ground, and all I could do was flail as I watched the earth recede beneath me, my stomach rushing down while my body rushed up. Enormous blue fingers were wrapped around my waist the way a child carries a doll, and I felt my insides begin to crush into each other. My air was cut off. Panic reared up in me despite my years of training. Again, I felt as though I was a mouse, only now I was caught in the snapping trap, no chance at escape.
Then, bright white light cascaded down from above, and for a few indeterminable moments, I thought stupidly that the heavens had opened up and the Gods themselves were shining down light.
The beast also looked up, roaring in rage at the interruption with a sound that seemed to shatter the sky.
CHAPTER 20
Turned out not to be a light from heaven, but from a helicopter. It was a military-style machine, from what I could tell in my compromised position, and it hovered around the beast’s head like an oversized fly taunting an oversized bear.
From this helicopter a dozen men in black and grey camo spilled out, their faces concealed by identical black masks, weapons also of military grade clutched in their gloved hands. I felt the beast’s grip on me lessen in the slightest as it swatted at the chopper and swiped at the men.
In a burst of hope, I bit down as hard as I could on one of the beast’s fingers, its skin as thick and tough as overcooked meat. Its grip lessened a bit more still, and in my black silky dress, the release of pressure was enough to allow me to slip free. I thumped to the ground, landing in a crouch on my feet, my head spinning at this turn of events. The men in the camo were surrounding the creature in a loose circle, staying close enough to distract but just far enough back to keep from being snatched up.
It didn’t require much military know-how to see that these men were highly trained, this operation a carefully planned endeavor. When the beast would get too close to any one, the men on its backside would fire their weapons, which I realized with some confusion were not firing bullets, but rather beanbags that surely did little other than annoy the creature.
Before I could process too much more, I was scooped off my feet again, but this time, it was not by the beast but by one of the camo-clad men. I slammed my heel into his instep and heard him grunt, releasing me. I was only a second away from planting my fist in his mask-covered face when the sight of his aura stopped me in my tracks.
This little pause was all it took for the soldier to move past me, giving me a small shove so that I was behind him as he faced down the beast. I stood staring at his back as the helicopter above us threw out a huge metal net, which only served to tangle and annoy the beast. It roared out in rage, thrashing against the restraint, which didn’t slide off like metal, but rather stuck to the creature like spider web.
The realization that they were not trying to kill it, but rather make a live capture, crashed over me, and even though I was all for preserving life, I knew that there were times when the only way to do so was to destroy a life. If that’s even what one could call the beast. It seemed to me less alive and more so just living.
There was a difference between the two. There really was.
Had these thoughts not distracted me along with the revelation of who was behind one of those black masks, I might have been wise enough to take off running. As it was, I stood there in my now-ruined dress and dirty bare feet and stared at what was going on around me, like a moviegoer or an invisible observer.
The beast thrashed and roared at the attempt to restrain him, batting at the sticky net and bellowing sounds that made my gut clench. As it did so, the men in the black and gray camo tightened their circle, still firing their high-powered beanbags, which I thought were only serving to anger the creature rather than hurt or weaken it.
Its struggles did lessen, and I tilted my head as I watched its eyes narrow in calculation. The soldiers continued to constrict the circle, and when they got just close enough, the beast sprang to life again, fighting now with even more vigor than before.
Bending its large, powerful legs, it sprang up like a rocket, sticky metal net still attached to its back. It was a sight to see, unlike anything I’d ever witnessed, the way the beast blotted out the sky with its enormous form, jumping into the air and casting a shadow that fell over me and those on the ground around me like an eclipse of the sun.
The beast snatched the helicopter the men had arrived in out of the air like a receiver claiming a football, wrapping both net-entangled hands around it and crashing back down to the earth with the helicopter still in it’s grasp. It slammed the chopper onto the hard ground, pieces of metal and still-spinning propellers flying every which way. The soldiers and I could do little else but dive for cover and pray that debris didn’t take off our heads.
Fire exploded from the helicopter’s engine, making a rush of heat blow over me while simultaneously sending a shiver of fear up my spine. Seemed I wasn’t
the only fool who’d thought I could take on the beast.
After dispatching the chopper, the beast rolled onto its back, trying to shake free the net and only serving to get it further stuck in the line of thick black hair that ran down its spine like a never-ending Mohawk.
“Aria!” Thomas yelled, making me whip my head around and face him, his voice giving a confirmation that I didn’t need that he was indeed one of the men beneath the black masks. I’d recognize his aura anywhere.
Before I could think anything else, I was scooped off my feet once more, having been distracted by Thomas’s exclamation rather than warned. With this, I thought it was over, that my life had come to its end with the swiftness of a harsh wind, sweeping down upon me in the same inevitable manner. All the beast had to do was close his big blue fist, and I would likely resemble one of those rubber squeeze toys made for children, the ones that had eyes and tongues that popped out grotesquely when pressure was applied correctly.
For whatever reason, I found that I was still breathing as the beast stood up on its two legs and roared into the night with a sound that vibrated in my bones. Then the wind was whipping through my hair as the creature took off running, me clutched in its fist and the lights of the city blurring by around me.
As the hotel and the field with the still-burning pieces of helicopter faded behind us, I watched as Thomas and his team climbed to their feet, staring after me and knowing they would not be able to catch us.
I didn’t know where the beast was taking me, but one thing was certain; I had absolutely no choice in the matter.
CHAPTER 21
It was going to jump into the bay with me still in its grasp, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Each time I struggled in the slightest the beast would tighten its hold on me, making breathing just that much harder, like the lacing up of a corset.
As it leapt over the edge of the dock it had barreled out onto, all there was time for was one deep, big breath before we hit the cold black water, breaking its surface with a slapping impact and submerging with the speed of a sinking anchor.
