As I got in the car and pulled away from the curb, a sudden overwhelming urgency took over. I didn’t know why, but it was suddenly very important to find Jeremy and soon. I peeled down the street in a scream of rubber on asphalt and whispered a prayer that we would find him in time. But in time for what, I had no idea.
Chapter 7
We pulled into the parking lot in front of the bookstore in a squeal of tires. I had explained to Steven and Jodi that something was urging me to get here as fast as I could, but I had no idea why. Thankfully, after years of my intuition proving correct, they didn’t question me further. I was tempted to park against the curb in front of the store despite the red paint denoting it a fire lane, but I had that tiny voice in my head reminding me I wasn’t infallible and that maybe, just maybe, there wouldn’t be anything wrong when I got inside. So, I pulled into the first parking space I could find. We climbed out of the car and it took all of my self-control not to take off at a dead run for the door.
I walked stiff legged and straight-backed down the aisle clutching my purse in my hands until the blood vessels ran red against my pale skin. “Dude, are you okay?” Jodi asked almost in a whisper as she walked next to me.
“I don’t know, but I don’t want to go running in there like a maniac and find out nothing happened, you know?” I was surprised to hear how calm and level my voice was because my stomach was a riot of butterflies.
“What do you think’s going on in there?” Steven asked from my other side.
“No clue, I just know we needed to get here fast.” We were finally at the front doors; Steven reached over my head and pulled it open, holding it for Jodi and me. We stepped inside the first set of doors and I pulled open the interior door before Steven could reach for it and rushed inside, looking around.
“Everything seems fine…” Jodi said, looking in all directions with me.
“Yeah, it does…” I sounded almost disappointed. “Guess it’s a good thing I didn’t come running in here like an idiot.” I shrugged, trying to make light of the situation.
“Right, so, coffee?” Steven asked, visibly relaxing. He didn’t wait for us to answer, just started off towards the coffee counter by the magazine section. Jodi stood with me, waiting to see what I would do.
“I just don’t get it. I mean… I really thought something was going to happen,” I said, shaking my head.
“Don’t worry about it. I mean, it’s good that nothing’s wrong, right?” Jodi asked, watching my face carefully.
“Well yeah, obviously,” I said but even to me I didn’t sound convincing. I let Jodi take me by the arm and lead me to a table off in a corner, grabbing a third chair on her way for Steven. She pushed me into one of the chairs and set her purse down in another.
“Ice tea with lemonade?” Jodi asked me and I nodded. “Passion or Black?”
“Passion,” I said and she turned and walked to join Steven in line to order our drinks before Steven could pick for us. Knowing him, he’d come back with some fat-free, sugar-free, taste-free concoction no one in their right mind would spend money on. I settled back into the chair and dropped my purse to the floor, scooting it under the table with my foot. The bookstore was one of my favorite places to go. I knew the inventory of the three sections that I usually haunted better than any of the employees. It was two stories tall with the second floor open to the first all the way around like a large balcony. Up on that second floor was the Fantasy and Fiction section that I practically lived in when I was here. Just off to the left of that was the Occult section that I had searched through many times when I had exhausted Deb and Nancy’s books.
From where I was sitting I could see up through to the second floor and to the Fantasy section, though the Occult section was obstructed by the turn of the railing. I remembered that I was all out of new books and, now that school was nearly out for the year, our English teacher hadn’t bothered with any more assigned reading. I decided before we left I’d go up and pick out a new book for the start of summer. Just that thought made me feel a little better. It was times like these that I realized just how much of a nerd I was at seventeen, but at the same time, I just didn’t care.
“Dude you are terrible!” Jodi was saying as she came back to our table, two large plastic cups in her hands, handing one to me.
“What? He was cute!” Steven replied defensively.
“What about Anthony?” she asked.
“What about Anthony?” Steven asked back, shrugging his shoulders.
“What! He’s adorable and we like him!” Jodi pointed between the two of us as she took the seat next to me, leaving the one across from me for Steven.
“I like him too. What does it matter if you two like him?”
“What! You know we have to approve anyone you date!” Jodi said.
“Since when?”
“Since you had three boyfriends in a row last year that neither one of us liked even a little bit and each of them screwed you over royally,” Jodi said, smacking the table for emphasis.
“Oh come on, not all of them were bad. Ryan was nice,” Steven said, but the volume of his voice began to drop.
“Ryan was nice? Ryan was nice!?” Jodi’s voice rose higher in pitch. “Are you getting this?” she asked me.
“I’m hearing it, but not getting it. Ryan was not nice, Steven,” I said, looking at him as if he’d sprouted a second head.
“What was wrong with Ryan?” he asked.
“Well, he stole all your shoes and pawned them to buy body jewelry for one thing,” I said.
“Oh big deal…”
“And then he stole my horn and tried to pawn that,” Jodi said. Jodi was in our high school marching band.
“And the only thing that stopped the pawn shop guy from taking it was seeing Jodi’s name on the case and recognizing it because of her father,” I said. Her father was a County Sheriff and well-known in town.
“So he didn’t pawn it then. See, not all bad,” Steven said.
“Okay, how about the time that you drove him to San Diego for that concert and he left you for dead after slipping you that mickey and taking off with your mother’s car?” Jodi said frantically.
“You woke up a mile on the wrong side of the border in your underwear! We nearly didn’t get you back from the Federales,” I said, my voice rising to match Jodi’s.
“Okay, okay, okay! Shut up!” Steven said, putting his hands in surrender.
“Okay, so what’s this about? Steven flirting again? What’s the big deal?” I asked looking back and forth between them.
“Yes, there was some blonde haired cliché in line and he was flirting like a little girl!” Jodi said.
“So what?” he asked defensively.
“An-thon-y!” Jodi said, over-pronouncing every syllable.
“It’s not like we’re going steady,” he said.
“Going steady?” I said with a smirk. “You mean he hasn’t given you his pin yet?”
“Shut up,” Steven said, sticking his tongue out at me. “I don’t see you settling down with Jensen. Why should I be any different?”
“Okay, you two battle it out, I’m going to go get a book,” I said, laughing as I pushed away from the small table to stand up.
“Ooh, me too!” Jodi said, her voice changing completely. We left Steven to hold the table and made our way past the other tiny cluttered tables until we broke free of the coffee shop area and got to the escalators.
“Ugh! Doesn’t waste any time, does he?” I turned to look where Jodi was staring as we glided up the stairs and saw the blonde haired cliché she had spoken of already sitting in Jodi’s seat, smiling broadly at Steven.
“Oh well, what are you gonna do?” I said, stepping off of the moving stairs as we reached the top, Jodi right behind me.
“Nothing, I guess…” She followed me around the border of the second floor to the Fiction section. I turned into the first row of the fantasy books and started browsing slowly, Jodi started on the opposit
e side of the same row. I had started to reach for a book when I heard a voice that froze me.
“It’s not a work of fiction! It shouldn’t be in this section!” Jeremy’s cold, angry voice whined over the rows of books and struck me like a blow in the center of my back. I spun around and grabbed at Jodi, who had also clearly heard him and stopped dead in her tracks as well.
“I’m sorry, I don’t make those decisions. You wanted to know where it was, this is where it is…” I heard the familiar voice of a sales clerk that had helped me many times in the past, though now his voice sounded clipped and a little confused.
“That’s crap! You people always do this! Don’t look at me like that!” Jeremy was yelling now and I grabbed Jodi’s arm and started pulling her with me to hurry to find him.
“There’s no reason to raise your voice. If you can’t control yourself, I’ll have to ask you to leave,” the clerk said.
“I’d like to see you try!” Jeremy’s voice cracked as he nearly screamed at the poor man. I rounded the end of the aisle and nearly ran right into Jeremy’s back. I could see the clerk’s confused face just past his shoulder. His eyes darted to me for a second before going back to Jeremy, as if afraid to look away from him for too long.
“You don’t have to leave, but you do have to lower your voice.” He had put his hands up in front of him, like a man trying to talk another off of the ledge of a building.
“I don’t have to do anything! You people think you know everything! You mock people like me, but you don’t know!” Jeremy continued to scream and other customers had come closer to get a look at the scene he was causing, milling around the edges of both ends of the aisle.
The Manager is coming, Jodi thought at me, reminding me I still had a hold of her arm; if I had let go she would have had to touch me to open the channel between us to speak mind to mind.
Not just the Manager I hope…I thought back at her.
No, the escalator is full of all of the male employees.
I don’t know if that’s good or bad… I stepped forward, reaching out a hand to Jeremy. I could feel the rage rolling off of him in waves, nearly searing my skin. His raw emotions were churning my stomach and undoing my shields that I held in place naturally when out in public. It spoke volumes of how out of control he was. I thought about just pushing his emotions back and under a wave of calm and understanding, but his were so strong I knew I needed to be touching him for it to have a chance of working. He was like a feral cat that had never known the comfort of being a human’s pet.
Carefully… Jodi’s thoughts, always yellow to me, were bright and shining like a noonday sun in her anxiety. Suddenly I remembered an exercise Deb had taught me years ago when honing my empathy. I leaned forward a few inches until I could feel the edges of Jeremy’s aura on the skin of my face; it was thick and sluggish, unhealthy, like cancer in the lungs. My breath caught in my throat, but I pushed past it and the heat of Jeremy’s anger, and thought of cool, still waters, holding the image in my mind as I drew in a deep breath and blew it softly against his bare neck. I saw his skin tinge blue under the cool air and his whole body shivered and, just for a heartbeat. The rage pulled back, creating an opening for me.
I reached out quickly and grabbed his shoulder and spun him around to face me. His face was slack with ease, but in a flash confusion chased across his face, followed quickly by anger and recognition when he focused on my face. I gripped Jodi’s wrist tighter with my other hand and she stepped forward to slide her free hand up to the small of my back, sliding her fingers under the edge of my shirt until she met with bare skin. She was acting as my anchor. If things got out of control, she could help pull me out of the magic and back to reality. I opened a channel between Jeremy and myself and pushed at his rage with a gentle, but firm hand of compassion and calm understanding. I watched him waver under my power, emotions running over his face in a confused jumble.
Wings… oh God, wings…Jodi’s voice sounded farther away, but I knew that’s because I was focused on Jeremy’s energy and my mind was farther away. I heard them then, like a thousand birds coming in every direction. A wind came up and swirled around the three of us, teasing our hair up and away from our faces, I heard a few gasps in the crowd and knew that there were a few psychically sensitive people around us sensing the faeries he was summoning with his rage.
“You, it’s always you…” Jeremy hissed at me between his clenched teeth. “You need to learn to mind your own damn business,” he said, his eyes narrowing into a glare. I felt Jodi’s fingers dig into my skin painfully. I held onto that pain, knowing it was real.
“Jeremy, we just want to talk to you, help you. That’s all,” I spoke in soothing tones, letting my voice carry the power of my abilities, trying to get past the wall of his rage. I felt his resolve waver again and saw fear in his eyes, but he wasn’t afraid of me. It was the fear of being lied to again, rejected again. “Jeremy,” I whispered so only he and Jodi could hear me. “We’re not like everyone else, we don’t lie…” His eyes started to shimmer in the over-head lights. “Jeremy,” I whispered again and gave another rush of emotions, compassion and hope. I felt the press of bodies around us now. The men from the escalators were here now, but I was afraid of losing him again and reached out to them emotionally, urging them to wait and see if I could talk Jeremy down. They waited.
“Lies…” Jeremy whispered, shaking his head. I started to open my mouth to argue and I felt wings battering at my face suddenly, causing me to blink and break my eye contact with Jeremy. “Lies…” he said again, his voice stronger, and I felt him begin to turn his body out of my hand. I tried to grip tighter.
“No, Jeremy, we don’t lie…” I said, wanting desperately to free one of my hands to bat at the invisible things swirling around me. Then it hit me. They were invisible to me. I had invoked second sight this morning, but I still couldn’t see them. In the time it took to realize that, I had distracted myself and broken the connection I had started to form with Jeremy.
“Lies!” he screamed suddenly and rushed me, grabbing my shoulders and running full out into me, forcing me to stumble backwards in his momentum. Jodi screamed as he knocked her over to the ground, forcing her to let go of me. I heard the people around us yelling and screaming and felt hands reaching out to help me, but the swirling mass of faeries made them just miss me and helped Jeremy run faster. I knew the railing could only be a few more feet behind us so I tried to turn out of his grip, but whatever his little helpers were, they were strong. I felt my body lift subtly off of the floor so it felt like Jeremy was carrying me through the air. I struggled in his hands and watched the rage contort his face into some unrecognizable mask.
“No!” I heard Jodi scream loud, wrenching through the air and saw a flash of bright white light strike just next to Jeremy. It was so sudden that it stopped him momentarily, but not long enough for me to take advantage of the situation. The sound of wings became deafening and I watched as Jeremy nodded, answering something only he could hear. His body tensed and, in the next second, he shoved me with all his strength, letting me go.
Pain shot through my body as I collided with the wood railing and it splintered under the force of the impact. I flipped over it, twisting backwards and sideways. I could hear screaming and saw a mass of bodies rush towards me and the world turned upside down as I flipped over. I could see the people gathered on the first floor and the gleam of the marble of the floor like some menacing promise of pain and darkness. My head snapped backwards when a hand caught my ankle, suddenly stopping my fall. Instinctively I tightened my stomach muscles, pulling myself up just enough to keep from slapping my head against the edge of the balcony. The crowd let out a collective breath.
“Stop him!” someone in the crowd screamed. I turned to look and watched as the stranger pulled me carefully back over the railing as Jeremy darted out the doors on the second floor that led to the large balcony outside. People seemed frozen, like a movie on pause, and when they finally g
ot their wits about them and started rushing for the doors, Jeremy jumped from the balcony to the parking lot below. Another woman screamed before she fainted and the men that had rushed upstairs to help turned as one and ran for the escalators to get outside.
“He’ll break his legs!” someone yelled in disbelief.
“Or crack his head open!” someone else answered.
“Terra, Terra, are you okay?” Jodi asked, suddenly in front of me, holding my face in her hands, searching my eyes for something. I nodded, not trusting my voice yet; my heart was hammering against my ribs like a bird caught in a cage. I was vaguely aware of a dull pain somewhere in my body, promising worse for later.
“Oh my god!” I heard someone yell from the balcony, the doors left open under the press of so many bodies. I grabbed Jodi’s arm and hurried to the doors to see what had become of Jeremy. We got outside where I was overcome with the rush of so many people and their emotions of shock and fear. I nearly fell to my knees.
“Terra?” Jodi asked, grabbing my arm, trying to support my weight.
“Sorry… my shields…” I was choking on so many people’s emotions. Jeremy, or the things with him, or the combination of both, had stripped my defenses and I wasn’t holding out anyone’s emotions. They ran over me like angry, wild dogs tearing at me with teeth and claws. Fear is worse than any anger you can imagine. I was crying without even realizing when I had started. Jodi eased me to the floor and the cold of the cement balcony shocked me enough to give me a moment of peace from the wave of emotions.
“Tell me what to do,” Jodi said, her face schooled very carefully. I could tell she was trying desperately to keep all of her emotions back behind her own shields.
“Steven… I need… him… too…” I was gasping. They were suffocating me as more and more people rushed to the edge of the balcony to see what the others were looking at. Jodi let go of me and ran back inside, nearly running head first into Steven, who had tried to run to us but had been held back by the milling crowd. She grabbed him and pulled him outside, almost throwing them both to the ground in front of me. I reached out for both of them with my hands and they took hold. I could feel that they had already grounded and centered themselves; they could do it as easily and deftly as I could now, having practiced diligently after last fall.
Elemental Series Omnibus Edition Books 1-4 Page 36
