Chapter Seventy Six
I knew Eli had a ‘thing’ for my little girl from the moment he met her. Unfortunately I had forgotten that fact in my co-joined reverie with Ember. It was a miracle that I channeled the ‘stand back’ obliteration to him, given the status of my thought process, right then. I realize if I had been able to maintain my focus that what occurred in the ensuing moments might have been avoided completely. In my defense though, I was blinded by Ember’s euphoric mind vision.
I’ve always dreaded this day, but I knew it was coming whether I wanted it to or not – the day some guy braves me enough to ask my little girl out on a date. I even tried to mentally prepare myself for it – like there’s some way to do that, but still…
I had repeatedly practiced by saying, “Sorry there buddy boy, but Ember’s joining a convent tomorrow and I don’t think you’re up for that kind of competition…”
Nothing that I had rehearsed entered my mind though.
Sadly, Willow and I had just discussed this matter yesterday. We both believed that Eli would work up his courage to ask Ember out soon. We never considered that he would do it right here – in front of her friends, no less.
It takes unbelievable bravery to ask a girl out under the best circumstances. But to ask her while all of her gal pals stare on in gooey eyed wonder, beats anything I have ever witnessed. I would have given him his props on this move too – if, it were someone else’s little girl he was asking out on a date, and I wasn’t currently raging, mental…
Eli’s words trickled through my thoughts first and were immediately followed by Ember’s overwhelming despair. Suddenly my little girl went from out of this world pleasure to entirely grief stricken in less than a minute. She desperately tried to hold onto the fracturing dreamscape in her mind. Anguish clouded her every thought. It riddled my heart with what felt like tiny stab wounds. I was yanked violently from her dream state, right along with her.
Willow watched in astonishment. She would remain speechless as I reacted without warning to Ember’s internal screams. I was sitting beside Willow, the picture of calm contentment one second, and the next turned into a violent cobra’s strike.
I reacted without thinking…
Oh, please, please no – was all I heard her mind wail, and that’s all it took for me to respond with deadly force.
Her body stood immobile – a marble statue from shock. Her thoughts poured into me though, like raging waters from a broken floodgate. Her anguish rose up from the depths and consumed her. It swept like a tidal wave through my awareness, and my vision was instantly bloody red. I turned homicidal…
The scene played out like one of those cartoons on afternoon television. It defied all the laws of natural physics. It reminded me of the coyote that’s always chasing that bird around until he runs off the edge of a cliff…better not look down, Eli.
Willow told me later that she had tried to grab me and channel something useful, but she didn’t know what was happening. I was oh, so glad she didn’t get the chance to touch me though. I had turned predator and Eli Weston was my prey.
Ember’s spirit light seemed to bow before the internal blaze in complete surrender. Her internal incinerator raged with the destructive force of a firestorm against her ensuing heartbreak.
Thankfully, Willow’s cunning ribbon never broke from the pressure, because I swear that is the one and only reason Eli lived to breathe another day. I sprang to my feet and my ‘stand back’ obliteration dropped for just a few, but critical seconds. Eli approached Ember with an outstretched hand. He intended to ask her to dance, because another love song started to play through the speakers. In my internal furious rampage, I perceived his action as a dangerous threat against her.
His back was to me. So I grabbed the first thing I could get my hands on in order to stop him from touching her. I jerked Eli up by his shirt right before he made physical contact with her hand. I lifted him up over my head by only his shirt – it looked crazy.
Normally, fabric can’t withstand this type of punishment. On any other day, this action would have simply ripped his shirt right off his back. In this case however, the shirt didn’t have enough time to tear. His buttons ricocheted off the ceiling before spraying down on the onlookers. It looked like shiny round rocks raining down from heaven. I prepared to sling Eli Weston with every ounce of strength I had.
That would have resulted in an Eli-shaped cartoon outline…
“NO – TRAY – NO…” Ember shouted to me in her mind.
She was still filled with sorrow and I couldn’t seem to stop the tidal wave of insanity that currently consumed me! My body refused my mind’s direction. I felt my strength as it seemed to build to a newfound ungodly force. Ember’s inner fire blazed through me, hot and furious. It was prepared to assist me with tossing Eli Weston into the next county over! I lowered my arm slightly to get more distance from my throw…
“CALM DOWN…I CAN’T STOP THE FEELINGS, BUT THEY’LL PASS… I PROMISE! CHANNEL AN OBLITERATION TO THE CROWD…PLEASE, DO IT NOW…” Ember thought to me, urgently.
I channeled my obliteration again before anyone could react with more than a quick gasp. The heat sizzled through my channel. It burst from the cunning ribbon. I watched in wide eyed amazement as the burst looked like a wind storm sweeping through the crowd.
Unsure of what to do next, I still held Eli suspended above my head. I was panting from the surging heat and from unspent rage. Willow walked over to me and lightly stroked my flexed arm. Then, she channeled and her calming aura surrounded me as I lowered Eli back to the floor – a good distance away from Ember, but still in front of her.
“Well, just let me know where you’d like to go on our date. Well, we’ll go if it’s okay with you, that is, Tray?” Eli asked tentatively and looked extremely confused.
His button-less shirt was open, exposing his chest. I fought back a hysterical bout of laughter because he looked so ridiculous. The crowd looked on at the now unseen spectacle and stared at both Eli and Ember with hopeful, doe-eyed looks of budding teenage romance.
Not with my little girl, buddy…
“Use your skill on him, nicely,” Ember thought.
I channeled and Eli walked away from her convinced that he didn’t even get a chance to ask Ember out yet.
He’s thinking ‘Monday’…I’m thinking ‘fat flipping chance Button Boy’…
Ember’s heart then swayed from astonishment back to distress. Her emotions flooded through me like another angry tidal wave. Her spirit light reasserted its position and its spiritual power doubled in force as it rapidly descended, downward. It needed a way to escape. It struck against the tattoo containments around her ankles. I caught her just before her legs gave way. The light rocketed back through her system and desperately searched for a way to be released. It couldn’t be contained any longer…
Ember’s going to implode if I don’t do something!
I lifted her up as gently as I could and bolted toward the north hallway in all out panic mode. Willow followed my mad dash and knew immediately what was wrong. She yelled “turn left” from behind me. We were headed to the channeling circle that had been prepared outside so Ember could release the incredible energy from inside her body.
She went limp in my arms and the door exploded off its hinges as I rushed into the room where Celeste was waiting with Boo. I slammed through the next door that led outside. Then, I ran to the awaiting channeling ring and stood there like a moron. I couldn’t remember what I was supposed to do.
Celeste ran around the edge of the circle. She shouted for me to tear off the vestment and place her on the ground. In one swift motion, I ripped the thin dress from Ember’s body and tossed it aside. They somehow managed to open the power circle, although we weren’t currently in our ring positions.
“Put her down now…” Celeste screamed the command to me.
“Tray, she has to be in the Apex…�
� Willow shouted.
My mind registered the demand, but I couldn’t seem to obey it. My little girl was unconscious. I wasn’t about to just toss her body on the ground inside the Apex or anywhere else for that matter. Her spirit light careened around inside of me – trying unsuccessfully to escape through my body. I saw a thousand explosions behind my eyes, because it couldn’t find any way to break away from me. I was blinded. I refused to drop my little girl, so I stepped forward into the Apex position with her.
“NO! Only Ember can stand in the Apex…” someone shouted.
The Apex recoiled violently from my intrusive presence. It felt like I just ran into a cinder block wall. I used one fist and punched forward through the invisible barrier, but it stayed firmly in place. Then, Ember’s spirit light zigzagged through my body and into my fist. I pounded the barrier between us and the Apex and it finally surrendered to the force of her spirit light.
My vision returned the instant her spirit light had flowed into my arm. Next, I quickly turned Ember around so she would be facing outward. I prepared to walk us inside the spinning vortex where she would normally stand alone. I crushed her body against my chest and held on for dear life. Right before I stepped inside the epicenter, I grabbed the bracelets from her arms. The storm appeared to reach for them in righteous fury. The bracelets went wildly sailing through the air.
Once we were standing inside the Apex, Ember woke up terrified from the mind blowing chaos. She shouted, “Take the light!” Every spectacular color of the rainbow rocketed toward the sky. The energy began to channel upward seemingly on a journey to knock the moon out of its orbit. The moon swelled with the arrival of the powerful rainbow.
It seemed to demand more and more of the spiritual energy. The celestial body was bent on trying to rip it from her body as if she wasn’t giving the power away fast enough to suit it. I felt my feet start to drag across the ground as though they had been lassoed by a moon beam.
I defiantly dug my heels into the earth and fought against the celestial tugging. I held onto Ember as tightly as I dared. I didn’t want to crush her to death. Even with all my extra strength, I couldn’t stem the overwhelming tide. We were both drawn into the center of the circle and I said a quick prayer. If we had still been at Sunridge we would have been torched by the bonfire because we landed in the middle.
Ember’s spirit light was channeling through my arms because they were locked firmly around her chest. The light pushed against my embrace with the velocity of a torrential hurricane. The moon was trying to force me to surrender my little girl. The celestial body in the heavens wanted to steal her away…
My back was pressed against the surface of the earth through some unseen source. I held her in a bear hug, but suddenly her right arm broke free. It was being yanked upward. Extra energy exploded from her finger tips even though the volcano continued to channel through her chest and my arms.
The moon responded with a demand for more raw energy and we were both being pulled toward the sky in reply to its command. I felt my back inching off the ground as the heavy hand of gravity seemed to give up its fight.
“Give the light to the earth Ember!” Willow shouted through the massive pandemonium of the war between the moon and her spirit light.
Ember immediately complied and turned her palm downward toward the ground. The energy appeared to rebound from the earth’s surface. It pushed her hand skyward once again. It was total bedlam as she struggled against the surging release of power. The moon and earth’s gravity were playing a game of celestial tug-o-war – insane-space-flight-style…
“Earth – take the Light!” Ember shouted the order hysterically, but the earth refused to obey her command.
I felt my back starting to inch off of the ground. The moon was going to take us both. I locked my legs around her waist and used every ounce of strength in them to hold on to her body. Releasing my bear hug out of necessity, I gripped her forearms. I pushed against the force of her spirit light as it struggled to send her hands toward the sky. Her palms finally started to inch downward as I used all of my remaining strength to push them toward the ground. The instant her fingers touched the earth, we were snapped back down by what felt like a giant chain – pulled tight. Then, we were bolted firmly to the surface as gravity won the battle.
Ember’s spirit light rocketed through the dirt like lightning and struck the edge of the channeling circle. The circle refused to give the light free passage. It lit ablaze in a brilliant ring of pure blue fire. The light seemed to channel endlessly – releasing its power through her chest to the moon and through the palms of her hands to the earth. The incredible and unreal fire grew hotter and blazed higher as the minutes ticked into infinity.
Gradually, the celestial power started to expend itself and the moon finally seemed to be satisfied. Her spirit light faded into what looked like a shimmering moonbeam and then, disappeared like vapor into the dark night. The raging blue inferno on the ground defied all logic and retreated into the earth instantly. It left only a charred, thin line where the firewall had blazed just a few seconds ago – not even smoke was left behind…
I watched all of this in absolute amazement. Willow and Celeste fell to their knees in obvious exhaustion and awe. They both appeared unharmed. I felt the weight of Ember’s body fully relax against my chest. I exhaled in relief and it made my head swim a little. It felt like I had been holding my breath the entire time.
We continued to lie on the ground together although I did ease up on my grip. I couldn’t bring myself to actually let her go. My little girl didn’t move a muscle and, after a while, I thought she might have fallen asleep.
“Ya’ know Tray I never thought we’d end up as a gimonsterous pot of gold at the end of the rainbow…” Ember pondered out loud while she was still lying on my chest.
I burst out laughing, hysterically.
“Florida, you realize that makes you the biggest leprechaun in history!” Willow exclaimed and her comment made us all breathless with laughter.
Ember Rising Light (Book One) Page 80
