A Time to Die (Elemental Rage Book 2)

by Jeanette Raleigh

  “Vampires?” Mindy asked. For her, vampires encompassed all things wrong with the world.

  “I hope not,” Raven said. She thought of the man inside that prison. Whatever gifts he had, he was powerful. She knew that outside of his prison, he could travel dimensions and at one time could control Time.

  They ate lumpy potatoes and overly wet meatloaf and contemplated their actions. They talked late into the night, throwing ideas around. Jade wasn’t there to remind them about school, and Aunt Bertha retired early, her final words on the subject a cop-out. Whatever you girls decide.

  Somewhere along the way, Bertha had passed over the running of the family. Raven wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Somehow it seemed that Bertha would be more interested in saving her niece, in the dire consequences of taking a wrong choice.

  As Aunt Bertha hobbled away from the table, Raven got another premonition. An icy chill snaked its way down her spine as a quiet thought rooted in her soul. Aunt Bertha won’t live to see the new year. Raven tried to shake the thought away, but it kept coming back. The image of the skeleton wouldn’t leave her mind. Raven wished she could turn it off, forget she had ever seen it. Aunt Bertha was dying.

  Chapter 11

  ~~ Jade ~~

  Jade curled the ends of her hair, watching it limply fall back to her shoulders. Raven hadn’t yet dressed…mostly because she was too busy with Jade. She stood behind Jade watching, “Here, you better let me. First, you’ve got to use product. Don’t you listen to hair dressers?”

  “They just want to sell stuff for commission.” Jade said, teasing at her hair with a comb. Her hair was in no mood to be teased.

  “Sure they do. And yet, my hair doesn’t fall,” Raven said. “Move over.”

  The bathroom wasn’t exactly huge. With a sigh, Jade realized that if she were ever going to finish dressing, she would have to let Raven have her way.

  Raven grabbed the curling iron. She sprayed Jade’s hair until it was stiff and then trapped it in the hot metal. Jade’s hair made a slight sizzling sound. She said, “I seriously don’t need all this attention.”

  “You so do. You have to look hot for Matt so he can make Danika jealous. He’s bringing you a forty dollar corsage,” Raven released the curling iron and a perfect curl dropped. With a light tease, it framed Jade’s face perfectly.

  “He is not.” Jade said. She was not at all comfortable with the path this conversation was taking.

  “He asked me what color to make it. I told him a spray of pink roses to offset the green of the dress,” Raven walked around Jade studying her like an artist studies his painting, “Matt bought it in town at our flower shop. I helped him pick it out. Hmm…yes, you need mascara.”

  “No, I don’t. It makes my eyes itch.” Jade protested. She could see where this was going. Soon she would be wearing a mask.

  “Am I putting it on or are you?” Raven handed her the mascara.

  Sighing, Jade grabbed it from her hands, “Fine.”

  “You’re not going to go all Carrie on Danika are you?” Raven studied Jade in the mirror as her sister lightly brushed the mascara on her lashes, a little too lightly, but Raven wouldn’t quibble. Her sister really did look one hundred percent better with that green dress against her milky skin, even with freckled arms, which Jade complained sorely about, and Jade’s hair set in an actual hair style rather than a pony tail that .

  “What are you talking about?” Jade applied the mascara to her second set of lashes as if it were made of poison ivy. She really knew what Raven meant, but it annoyed her enough to play innocent.

  “More,” Raven ordered pointing to Jade’s lashes. Raven grabbed the hair curler and started on her own hair. She said, “You are a Fire Elemental. I mean, you’re going to see Danika all hot for Zach, you’ll probably go crazy and start the school on fire or something. I just want to know when it’s going to happen so I’ll be near an exit.”

  Picking up the lip gloss, Jade said, “Ha. Ha. Very funny. I don’t really care what Zach is doing as long as he stays away from me.”

  Eventually Raven declared the girls beautiful and they moved to Jade’s room to put on their nylons and shoes. Raven said, “This would be a lot easier if we shared a room again, but I think Mindy and Claire are happier this way.”

  The doorbell rang.

  Jade and Raven exchanged a glance. Jade slipped into her shoes, “Guess it’s time.”

  Their dates arrived at the same time. Matt and Tim both played football. Although perhaps not best friends, they were friends enough to realize that it might be a good idea to pick the girls up at the same time. Strength in numbers or something. They had two cars. There was no way the dual arrival was coincidence.

  Jade smiled and thanked Matt when he handed her the corsage. She walked slowly and carefully across the sidewalk and then the gravel driveway, just as she had practiced. Raven didn’t need any practice. She was a half step behind, flirting with Tim and giggling, even while she navigated such things as sidewalks and bushes with ease.

  At first Jade was relieved that she and Raven were taking different cars. Then Matt started talking. Their conversation was limited to indie bands and football, neither of which Jade knew anything about. She smiled and nodded and said “Really?” and “I didn’t know that” so many times she thought her brain would develop a groove in those neurons.

  The ride to the gym was twenty minutes but felt like an hour. Still angry with Zach, Jade could only hope that he suffered the same fate; however, she didn’t believe that Danika could possible have a smaller range of topics with Zach as she did with Matt.

  As they approached the dance, Matt said, “Want to dance the first dance with me? We’ll make sure we swing in front of Danika and Zach.”

  Jade didn’t much want her junior year Homecoming Dance to be more about making someone jealous than enjoying the actual event. This was her first time to be asked, even if it was a sham. She agreed readily enough to Matt’s suggestion, but wondered if that was all there would be.

  She followed Matt in. They were more than fashionably late, which was fine by Jade. Raven actually made the suggestion to Tim yesterday. She said that no dance was ever really worth anything in the first half-hour.

  Matt led Jade out to the floor. Ugh. It was a slow song. She felt prickly and uncomfortable, unsure of herself except her two left feet. A few times, her face felt so hot she thought she was going to pass out. Even though she didn’t see Zach, Matt assured her that both Zach and Danika were watching from the sidelines.

  The song ended. Matt asked, “Would you like something to drink?”

  Smiling, Jade said, “That would be great. Thanks!”

  She wondered if this was how it was done. Did people just talk and ask and be close and then go back to talking again? How was it that she was the only one who felt like she was dying every time she walked onto the dance floor? Actually. No. It didn’t feel like dying. It was way worse. Dying was more like tripping on a rock and realizing you were sprawled on the ground. There was no angst. Just a shocking surprise. Hey…I’m dead. Yes, it was new and a little scary, but the Homecoming Dance was a thing that Jade dreaded.

  This. Dancing. The Horror!

  Jade took a seat on one of the folding chairs that lined the side of the gym and watched Matt thread his way among the crowds, slapping fellow football players on the shoulders or grinning at one of the especially pretty girls. The photographer was already taking pictures in the upstairs section above the gym where the weights and mats were used. It was too eclectic to actually be a weight room, although some of the guys would sometimes work out up there after school. Jade wondered if Matt was planning on photos. She’d frankly forgotten them until Raven reminded her to freshen up before pictures.

  Another song started. Jade was a little surprised when Matt and Tina Monroe started dancing. Matt danced with girl after girl. Jade realized that if she wanted a drink, she would have to get it herself. She felt so awkward. Most of the other
sidelined girls had bosom buddies to chat with.

  Jade had no one.

  Raven was swirling across the floor with Tim. No help there.

  A shrill and rather piercing laugh broke Jade’s thoughts. She turned and her heart sank. Hanging on Zach’s arm like it was a rope and she was dangling over the Grand Canyon, Danika sauntered toward Raven in a pathetically obvious move. Which worked because Jade was so jealous she almost forgot that she and Matt were trying to do the exact same thing.

  She wore a black low cut dress that sparkled and left very little to the imagination. As pretty as she thought she looked in the mirror two hours before, Jade now realized that she had just been fooling herself. She would never compare to the Danika’s of the world.

  Wrapping her arm around Zach, Danika leaned in and gave him a squeeze. She said, “I just don’t understand why someone would torture themselves by coming to a dance when they know they’re just going to sit on those fold-up chairs and watch the rest of us. Know what I mean?”

  Jade burned hot.

  Even Fire felt it.

  She said, Jade. They’re all combustible.

  Fire’s little side comment gave Jade the strength to smile and nod at Danika, pretending she didn’t just overhear her cruel comment.

  Zach disengaged himself from Danika, “Excuse me.”

  He was so close to Jade, she couldn’t leave to escape him. That would be rude, especially since he was just coming to talk to her out of pity after Danika’s snide remarks. Jade had no idea what to say, what to do. Zach took the seat next to Jade, leaving Danika to stand with a huge pout for Zach and an angry glare at Jade.

  “Are you having fun?” Zach asked casually. There was a catch in his voice, and Jade thought that maybe he was hoping she wasn’t. That he wanted her to have fun just with him.

  She said, “Yeah, it’s great.”

  Realizing that she had just become a third wheel, Danika called out to one of the nearby seniors. With a little flirt, she managed to ditch Zach and make it look like it was her idea.

  Zach didn’t seem to mind. Jade couldn’t believe he was sitting next to her as if nothing else mattered to him. He sat next to Jade until Danika was well and truly enthralled by her new partner. As a Taylor Swift song wound down, Zach held out his hand, “Wanna dance?”

  The logical side of Jade’s mind wanted to say no, to protest Death Keeper. The lonely part, the girl who cared for the Zach from her first date and longed to dance with him said, YES!!!!!

  Lonely girl won that round.

  She took his hand. This is Homecoming.

  Don’t Want to Miss a Thing by Aerosmith started.

  Zach led her to the dance floor and if there were anyone else in the gymnasium, Jade didn’t know it. His eyes were the most beautiful shade, reflecting blue storms from the deep blue shirt he wore under a black suit jacket.

  Her heart danced with excitement. Jade wanted so much for Zach to kiss her. She wrapped her arms around him and for the first time since they broke up, she felt happy. Feeling a little misty eyed, she followed his lead around the dance floor.

  Zach held her closer, closer than they had ever been when they were holding hands in the hall or walking along the sidewalk to the theater. She wanted him. She needed him. Jade forgot herself. She completely forgot that over three hundred of her classmates, people who might taunt and tease for the remainder of her days existed in the nooks and crannies of the gym watching everything she did. No one else mattered. She and Zach shared a moment entirely to themselves, alone in the universe.

  They kissed.

  His lips were made for hers. Soft and compelling on the approach until they pressed against hers and then those same lips were strong and masculine. He tasted like the punch. Her whole body sighed.

  When the song ended, Jade felt a keen disappointment. It was a shame there wasn’t a twenty minute slow song for moments like this. Jade realized that they had just kissed in front of the whole school and blushed furiously. Worse, at least one of the chaperones wove their way through the crowd toward Zach and Jade’s direction.

  “Shall we go outside?” Zach asked.

  He wasn’t at all sure of himself. As a matter of fact, he looked so pathetically nervous that Jade felt it a matter of honor to rescue him. She said, “Of course.”

  They escaped the chaperones. Raven would later tell Jade that she had too much of a guilty conscience. Even if they did stop Jade’s PDA, it wasn’t like they were going to expel her or anything. Not the first time anyway.

  The air was bitingly cold. Zach led Jade to his car.

  She stopped.

  “I’m…Zach, I don’t think I’m ready for…” Jade couldn’t even say the words. She didn’t want to have sex in his car outside the gym where anyone could walk by.

  First of all, Jade wanted to be in love. But not just love, LOVE. It had to be super-love, not sex. Second, she wanted a place of absolute privacy. There would be nothing worse than a rumor in school that she’d lost her virginity outside of Homecoming in a Ford Escort, especially if it were true, which it would be as her virginity was intact. Third, he was a Death Keeper and she was an Elemental. Elementals loved hard. They tended to find a person and stick to them like rubber cement. If she ever made love to Zach, that would be the end of it. She wouldn’t be capable of loving anyone else. If he hurt her, it would shatter her heart into a wretched powder that would never heal.

  “I just want to talk to you. Where no one can hear,” Zach said. He held the passenger door open for her. Jade had a flash of guilt when she remembered Matt holding the door open for her earlier, but quickly shook it off. Matt left her sitting for half an hour while he danced with every popular girl in the school. Sure, he made Danika jealous…at the cost of Jade’s well being.

  “Okay.” Jade said. She tried to be dainty when she sat down. Wearing a dress certainly made graceful movement difficult, which is probably why women who actually could walk gracefully in satin and heels were so prized. Sliding her legs into the car, Jade just felt awkward.

  As if he could read her thoughts, Zach said, “You’ll always be beautiful to me.”

  Jade murmured a quiet thanks. It was amazing how safe she felt in the car with him, not just safe. That wasn’t the right word. He gave her a warm feeling that filled her heart.

  Zach said, “Jade, I’ve never met anyone like you.”

  Jade didn’t know how to take that so she blushed. She said, “I feel the same way. It’s just that things are so complicated. What are we doing? Not just tonight, I mean in the long term. You’re a Death Keeper and I’m an Elemental. This can never work.”

  Zach leaned his head against the window. He seemed bereft. He said, “I didn’t ask to be anything. My gifts came from my family line, same as you. I’m committed to my parents and my brothers, but I don’t think much of Harold or the Order.”

  “You’ve met Harold?” Jade tilted her head, “Did he send you after us?”

  Zach took a deep breath. “He had to be honest. If he wanted a real relationship with Jade…and he did, it had to start here. He said, “Please hear me out before you make any judgments. Promise?”

  “Promise.” Jade said. The way he looked out the window reminded her of those nights on the volleyball bus when she sat in the front, just behind the coaches, and stared out the window daydreaming that she could fly, that she had an Element of her own. Her envy of Raven had always related to her sisters soaring out of the crib.

  She took his hand.

  “Harold is high up in the Death Keepers. I’m talking like president of the North American Chapter. Six months ago he requested support from the Midwest League and specifically requested my family. My Mom is still working her job in Chicago until Christmas, but the rest of us moved here while we waited. The Death Keepers paid for our home here and got my Dad his job. They said they’d found the Gift of Time. It’s kind of like the holy grail to a Death Keeper.”

  “And now?” Jade wouldn’t even give him the s
atisfaction of telling him she didn’t have Time. Heck, she barely had Fire.

  Hey.

  Oops. Fire overheard. Jade said, I just meant I found you late and I’m not very skilled yet.

  True enough. Fire said.

  Jade wondered if Fire would be there if she ever did decide to make love.

  If you want. I can make it super hot...and I’m not just talking energy.

  It was something to consider. The thought had Jade’s heart racing.

  Zach’s thumb moved in slow strokes across the top of her hand. It was hard to concentrate on what he was talking about between the sensation of his hand and Fire’s interjections. He said, “I wish I could go on that date with you as a normal person, that we could start over. Harold told me to get close to you. That’s why I first asked you out, but I was attracted to you on my own. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have done it.” Zach closed his eyes, “I lost my gift when I healed you. My role was to take you to the land of the dead. I broke faith with the Universe. I still don’t know what will happen to me.”

  “Did Harold tell you to save me?” Jade asked. She almost hadn’t. She couldn’t bear to hear that Zach’s rescue had been just one more orchestrated maneuver from the Death Keepers to figure out who carried their gift.

  “No. When I was called, I didn’t know who was dying. Even when I saw your house, I thought I was going to be taking Bertha. When I saw you, I couldn’t handle it. I abused my gift. Now it’s gone. Raven said she thought that you only needed a Death Keeper in the ritual to get your Mom back, not necessarily one with power. I’ll do anything I can to help you, even if you never want to see me again.”

  Jade definitely wanted to see him again.

  That kiss meant so much to her. It was her first. She didn’t dare ask if it was Zach’s first as well.

  “Can we take it slow? Maybe once Mom is free we can figure out what to do?” Jade asked. She sat stiffly, awkwardly, with her hand in Zach’s. She wondered what it would feel like to lean on him, to cuddle him the way she longed to.