by LK Kelley
Just as she reached home, and got out of the truck, it clicked, and she totally forgot about her terror and pain! She had it! Her story-line and plot for her Demon series! Gem threw up her hands, and wiggled around like Rocky while humming the tune.
“YES!!!!” she cried joyfully.
Unseen by her, a moving shadow disappeared into the night.
~ 2 ~
“What is it with the Storms?” ~ Gem
Gem stretched in her bed like the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. The sun was a dancing glow on the horizon, quickly heading below it as dusk hit. Brilliant, orange and pink fluffy clouds caused patterns in her room as she lay there for a while just looking out the window. Last night seemed a long time ago! She turned to look at the clock on the table beside her bed, and that’s when she felt the bruising all over her body. She had slept the day almost completely away! And, still, her body ached!
“Ouch!” she whined, and a tiny little body jumped on top of her stomach, causing more pain!
Licking her face, Lola had decided her pet had stayed in bed long enough! She really had to go outside, like, now! Using her teeth, Lola pulled the covers away trying to force Gem out of bed.
“Why, what’s the matter, Lola?” she grinned.
Lola looked at her.
“Want to eat?” she laughed.
Lola jumped off the bed, heading to the kitchen door.
“Ah! Potty time?” Gem laughed harder when Lola just stopped, sat down, and glared at her pet. Seriously? Her pet was laughing about it?
Finally, Lola couldn’t hold it any more, and barked loud. Gem laughed, got up, and padded to the kitchen to open the back door. Lola practically flew off the deck with Gem’s laughter following her. Gem just stood at the door waiting, and…opened the door again to allow the much relieved pug back into the house. Now, Lola had more energy as she ran in circles between her pet’s legs. Food! She was soooo hungry!
Gem scooped one-third of a cup of Lola’s weight controlled food, and waited for her opportunity to put the food into her tiny metal food dish. Seeing no opening, she bent down, and before she could empty it all into the bowl, Lola jumped, and knocked a lot of food from the cup. Gem wasn’t bothered, though. She knew that Lola would wolf down what did make it into the bowl, then she’d make sure she had every piece that fell on the floor.
While Lola swallowed her food, which took about a half a second, since she was more like a vacuum cleaner, Gem made a cup of coffee with the Keurig Taylor and Rick had given to her last Christmas. It was her favorite gift – ever! While her coffee was making, she placed her Fruit Loops in a bowl, then realized she had no milk! Damn! Oh, well. She reached for a snack for Lola, and tossed both of them out the back door so Lola could finish her regimen.
Gem traipsed to her computer, and began writing. She’d send her publisher an e-mail when she went into town later. She had a great idea, and that should pacify him for a few days. She hoped.
A noise at the door brought her out of her “in the zone” area. Realizing it was Lola, she opened the door, and let her into the house. Lola started bouncing around like she did for her food. It wasn’t time to be fed! Or…was it? She turned and looked at the clock, feeling her mouth drop. It was already nine o’clock? It sure didn’t seem like it could possibly be that time, but it was! It was way past time to feed Lola – an herself as well!
Gem realized her own stomach was growling, as she placed Lola’s food into her dish making sure she still had plenty of water.
“Well, there’s a shocker, Lola! Why do you think I’d be hungry? I had a couple of cups of dry Fruit Loops and coffee. I only missed lunch...and, snacking...and, dinner!” she muttered while raiding her refrigerator only to slam the door. “Fuck! There’s nothing in this place to eat!”
That meant a drive to town to get some groceries. She hated to shop at the place she worked, but she didn’t have any choice in a small town. Or, she could just run down to the convenience store to pick up something, and buy her groceries tomorrow either before or after work. Yes. That would do.
“Hey, Lola? Wanna go with Mommy to the store?”
She sure didn't have to ask Lola twice, because she started leap-frogging all over the place as Gem tried to put her harness around her! Lola always enjoyed it when she got to ride in the truck. Her pet was just so slow!
Gem looked down at her clothes. Oh, well. She had on her lounge pants and a black tank top, so she pulled on her flip flops and grabbed her purse picking Lola up in her arms.
“OK. Let’s run down to the Sip ‘N’ Stop, and I’ll pick up a treat for you, too. Shouldn’t take more than ten minutes,” Gem said to Lola.
It only took her about five minutes to drive to the Sip 'N' Stop, and she pulled into a parking space in front of it. Getting out of the truck, she heard a rumbling in the sky, and looked up into the sky. A small bolt of lightning crossed its way across. She looked into the truck at Lola.
“Lola. Looks like we have a storm brewing, so you wait here. Mommy won’t be long at all.”
Lola didn’t mind. She just loved to get away from the house sometimes. She put her paws upon the door pulling herself up to look out the window. A flash of lightning startled her for a moment, and she narrowed her eyes. That was never good. She was charged with taking care of her pet, and she couldn’t get to her. Now what? Something was odd about the lightning. She'd seen it before, but she sure hoped she was wrong!
Gem charged into the store quickly.
“Hey, Gem.”
Newton was the store manager, but was all by himself in the store.
“Hey, Newton. By yourself this evening?” she answered.
“Yeah. Tina couldn’t make it. So…whatcha doing?” he asked.
“Out of food. Well, except for Lola’s, that is. I’m out of human food. Just grabbing a couple of things.”
“How’s the pug?” he said.
“She’s in the truck. She really wanted to come with me.”
“Well, better hurry. Looks like it’s blowing up a storm.”
“Yeah. Just like last night,” she murmured with her head stuck inside the refrigerator, dragging out some soft drinks and milk.
“Last night?” Newton asked with a frown.
“Yep.” She shut the door, and went down the canned aisle first, then the snack aisle.
“What storm, Gem? Last night? There wasn’t a storm last night!” he told her.
Gem slapped her purchase down on the desk, and proceeded to swipe her debit card in the reader. It beeped at her reminding her that she had to use the chip in the card. It was a recent change by the government.
“What do you mean there wasn’t a storm? It was awful! Blew out the windows in the library, and I almost got sliced into beef tips by the glass!”
“No. There was no storm, Gem. We are not that far from the library. We would have heard it if there had been one.”
“Well, Taylor was there, and so was Profess….”
Wind whipped across the glass windows accompanied by massive rain. Lightning flashed without stopping, and thunder was so hard the entire building vibrated. Things flew off the shelves on the store, and a loud screech was heard outside. In horror, Gem watched as her old rust bucket of a truck was picked up, and thrown sideways. It disappeared somewhere outside, and they both heard it hit – hard. Gem was already to the door. Newton tackled her to keep her from going outside just before she reached for the handle on the door.
“LOLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Gem cried in the middle of her screaming. “LET ME GO! I HAVE TO GET TO HER. FUCK YOU! LET ME GO, Damnit!”
“You can’t go out there, Gem! It would be suicide!” Newton yelled, trying to hold her back.
Another huge wind gust hit the windows, and broke one side of the glass throwing tiny glass pieces into the store. Both Gem and Newton hit the floor. Then, suddenly, it was just as quiet.
“Fuck!” Newton cried, while standing. “Is that what you meant by a storm last night?”
&n
bsp; Gem shook Newton off of her when he tried to help her up, and sprinted toward the door. Tears were cascading down her cheeks as she thought about Lola in the truck. Why had she brought her? Why? Now, she could be hurt, or worse, dead. As she jerked open the door, she ran flat into Professor Hawkins, and fell on her ass. She didn’t stay, but jumped up to run past him. He caught her arm.
“Ms. Elwood. You can’t go out there. It’s a mess.”
That just made her angrier than she had been.
“Get the fuck out of my way, Professor! Lola is out there!” she screamed, and tried to push by him.
Suddenly, she heard something breathing hard. Something that sounded like Lola. Gem turned, and saw Professor Hawkins was holding Lola in his arms, and she looked just fine! Gem darted toward him, scooping Lola out of his arms, and hugging her tightly burying her face into her soft fur. After a few minutes, she looked up into the Professor’s dark brown eyes, and stared into gorgeous...red eyes? She blinked. No. Must have been her imagination. They were as brown with those blue flecks of glitter as ever.
“How? Where?” Gem stuttered.
“She was crawling out of a rusted truck, and ran toward me. It’s obvious she was trying to get to the store and to you,” he explained.
“The truck?” she asked while kissing Lola and holding her tightly in her arms.
“Well, what was left of a truck, anyway.”
Tears flowed down her face. Both men found her extremely attractive in her PJ bottoms and tank top. Holding Lola to her as if she would never let her go, Jaxx's eyes narrowed at her. This could be a problem.
“Look, Ms. Elwood, let me take you home. “You and… what’s her name?”
L-Lola she cried silently.
“Right. Lola. Let me take you both home. I’m assuming that rust bucket of bolts was yours?”
She nodded. Her truck was gone, and of course, it wasn’t insured, because it was not worth insuring. She turned her head up to him.
“I don’t want you to go out of your way, Professor. I can walk it. It’s only a mile up the mountain.”
Gem had never been one to be so emotional, but this was far too real. Lola could have been killed, and it was all her fault!
“Thank you so much for saving her, Professor! I will never forget it,” she told him, and moved to leave when Hawkins grabbed her arm. Electricity, or something that sure as hell felt like it, shot into her in mere seconds, and covered her body right down to her toes! Her eyes jerked upward seeing his eyes staring at her with…what was it? She shook her head. No she hadn’t seen anything on second thought. That would be way too weird! He was an older man!
“I don’t think so, Ms. Elwood. You’ve had a trauma, and you don’t need to walk in the dark alone. That would be extremely foolish.”
Even though his tone was usually rough, it wasn’t, now. The electric pulse that flowed from his body into her was completely unexpected. That was unusual, and he’d never felt it before. Not in his entire, long life! The pulse not only flowed from him into her, but he felt a pulse from her flood into him! What the hell was wrong with him? He felt…what? Sorry for her? Anger? No. Not anger. Irritation? No, that’s not it, either. He focused his eyes on her terrified ones. She had believed she had lost Lola, and the tears marking her beauty only made him want to hold her forever. To take her pain away. So, what is that called? He never stopped to consider humans before. At least not until now. She knew him only by his designation as Professor, and that’s the way it was. Shaking his head, Jaxx was here for one purpose, and one purpose only. Whatever this feeling was, he had to get rid of it. If he didn’t find what he was looking for, his entire mission would be a failure. Everything would be gone. And, so, frankly, would the human world. What he couldn’t figure out was why Lola was here. Listening to her soft words as Gem cuddled Lola was anathema to him. And, he wondered what Lola thought of it.
Jaxx's eyes held hers for what seemed like hours on end, when in truth, it had to be a few seconds if that long. But, it felt like an eternity. Then, he dropped his hand from her arm as if he had been shocked. Still they stood staring at each other.
Finally, Gem shook her head slightly as if to free cobwebs from her brain. For some reason, she didn’t want to be in a confined space with the Professor. This situation was way too weird.
“T-thank you, sir, but it’s OK. Really. I’ve walked from town, before when the weather was nice,” she said by way of an explanation.
He narrowed his eyes at her, then he said, “No. You will not. You will allow me to escort you to your destination. I will brook no argument on this.”
Surprise gripped her. She had never heard him say more than a short sentence here and there over the last six years. And, usually, he did not address her, but when he did, his statements were always blunt, and really mean! In fact, she had been certain that he didn’t talk much at all! Well, this incident sure blew that out of the water! And, did he really say he would “brook no argument”? What the hell kind of talk was that? Who actually said stuff like that any more. Well, he was an older man, so she’d give that to him. He had to be at least sixty-five. She really couldn’t tell. Give or take an inch, he had to be six-feet two inches. He always had that infernal hoodie on, just like now, and never took it off even in the library, so she couldn’t see the color of his hair. His eyes, though, were always mesmerizing. The reason she hadn’t been able to look away. But, those eyes pierced her as if he was trying to see through to her soul. She couldn’t move her eyes from his, and it appeared that he was having the very same problem. Oh! That’s just sooooo gross. Never gonna happen! Somehow, she found the strength to rip her eyes from his.
“Thank you, Professor, but…” she started to decline his offer again.
“Do not argue,” he ordered, and she found herself obeying him.
Jaxx turned to Newton.
“Insurance?” he asked.
“Yeah, man. I have it.”
“Good. If you need anything else, let me know,” and with a nod, he grabbed her elbow to lead her to his car, which amazingly, was still intact.
Opening the door, she remembered why she came in the first place.
“Oh! My food!”
Jaxx cocked his head, nodded once, and went back inside to retrieve her purchase.
It was a very short trip to her house, but as they rounded the corner, they saw a brilliant orange glow. Gem’s heart almost stopped. It was fire! As they drove closer, Gem gasped in horror as she realized her house was almost burned to the ground. It had obviously been struck by lightning. Despite the rain was falling hard, she stepped out of the car leaving Lola inside of it. All she could do was stand and stare as the rain erased the tears that were streaming down her face.
“Why?” she whispered almost to herself.
Jaxx turned to watch her. He had never felt the need to be attached to a person, place, pet, or thing, so he was having a difficult time processing why she was crying. She dropped to the mud on her knees. Her tank top was thin, and he could easily see through it. She wore no bra, but then, she’d probably been going to bed before she realized she was out of food. Her pants were muddied, and sagged enough to creep lower than her butt crack, so he got a good look at it! He felt a sudden rush of desire enter into him. Sex was fun, yes. He never felt desire, no. But, her nipples were easily seen through her top, and the sight of her crack made his cock swell with blood anticipating thrusting into her body. He had never felt physical desire for any woman – his kind or not. He also had a sudden burst of jealousy, knowing that Newton had seen her breasts as well! Shit! What the fuck was wrong with him? This woman was vulnerable. His entire existence was to protect the innocent. But, how would he protect her from him when he felt this way? Well, he couldn’t leave her kneeling in the mud, and there was no way she was going to move, so he picked her up in his arms, and putting her in the front seat of his car, got behind the wheel.
Again, the soft whisper, “Why?” came from her. Her soft, sexy voice
just increased the size of his cock. He had to take her somewhere, but where would she be safe?
“Gem?” he asked softly. No reaction. He asked louder, “Gem?” Still nothing. Finally, he raised his voice even louder.
“Gem!’ he yelled, and her head jerked toward him.
“I’m sorry, but you’re in shock. Is there someone I can leave you with?” he asked her, but his body was demanding that he take her home, and bury his body inside of hers. Fighting it was almost too hard.
“I-I guess you can take me to Taylor’s house, Professor,” she said quietly. Then, “What am I going to do?”
Everything was in that house. Everything she had in the world – including her job! She had no idea why everything had been taken from her. What had she done? And, she almost lost her best friend! She turned to see Lola was alive, and sound asleep in the backseat. At least she still had her.
“What did I do to deserve this?” she muttered so quietly that a normal person would never have heard it.
But, Jaxx did.
“Nothing, Gem. You did nothing wrong. There is always a reason behind everything. The fates will allow it to be seen when it is time,” he told her.
“Really?” she cried louder. “I don’t believe that! The ‘fates’ my ass! They can all go to hell!”
Cursing the fates? Did she just actually curse the fates? What was wrong with her?
“Cursing the fates is never a good idea, Gem,” he told her.
Without turning her head, she sneered.
“I don’t care! First of all, they aren’t real. Second of all, I don’t care, and I’ll curse them all I like, MR. Hawkins!”
Damn the man! Acting as if the Fates were real! Idiot!
“I’m a college graduate, and believe me…no one I know would ever treat them as ‘real’…because they are not real! Surely, you, a Professor, know that?”
