I grabbed a hold of their calm centers and pulled myself into their energies. To the naked eye, I just looked like a scared girl, huddled in the corner, holding on to my two best friends while I cried my shock away. I found their connections to me and to each other and pulled it inside of me, finding the cord of love they had for each other and for me and began to feed on it. It silenced the rushing emotions of the strangers and gave me the moment of peace I needed to start building my shields again. I felt Jodi’s power of air begin to swirl around me in a shimmering, electric vortex. Once it covered me from head to toe, I felt heat outside of it and knew that Steven was building a wall of flame around Jodi’s air. It was a power that was both offensive and defensive; he was giving me a shield that would burn anyone trying to break through my shields. Once I was encased in both of their powers, I was able to pull my natural shields back around me like a well-worn coat.
Every muscle in my body relaxed so suddenly I fell back and nearly pulled Steven and Jodi on top of me. Sound came back to me in a rush, deafening me in a whole new way. I blinked past it and felt the air cooling the tears on my cheeks. I wiped at my cheeks and pushed my hair back away from my face. It took Jodi a few tries for me to hear her clearly. “Shay, are you okay?” she asked again, in a tone that told me that she must’ve asked me more than once.
“Better, better,” I said, nodding. Steven stood up and reached for my hands to help me stand. “What’s going on? Is he down there?” I nodded towards the crowd of people still standing there.
“I don’t know, hold on,” Jodi said, breaking away from us and walking to the railing to look for herself. She turned back and looked at us, shrugging her shoulders and spreading her hands in front of her. She walked over to the crowd of people and started talking to them. We waited, me clutching at Steven’s shirt, pressing my face into his chest while he circled his arms around my shoulders. I often forgot how muscled and toned Steven was until I hugged him. He was so much one of the girls I rarely saw him physically as the man that he was. Right now, he was more comforting than anything in the world for me. Jodi came back, awe and disbelief clear on her face as she shook her head.
“What?” Steven asked from above me.
“He’s gone,” she said, looking from one of us to the other. I finally heard the distant wail of the ambulance sirens somewhere near the freeway.
“They already picked him up?” I asked, wondering why the paramedics hadn’t checked me out before they took off.
“No, they haven’t even gotten here yet,” Jodi said, looking back over her shoulder in the direction of the sirens. “He jumped and ran off…”
“What? How?” Steven asked, his voice loud enough to make me jump.
“I don’t know. I guess he landed in front of someone coming into the store and she said he just took off running.”
“That’s not possible,” Steven said, clutching me closer to his body, and I realized he was taking comfort as much as he was giving it, which was totally fine by me. I circled my arms around his waist and held him tighter to me. I was short enough that I could fit into the crook where his arm and chest made a hollow; that place on a man’s body that was just made for a woman to fit, it was just too goddamn bad that he was gay.
“Actually, I think it is,” I said. “I nearly got out of his grip when he rushed me, but just as I was about to, whatever those things are were suddenly swarming around me and my feet lifted off of the ground just enough so I couldn’t stop him.” Jodi looked at me, her eyes wide with fear and anger intermingling naturally.
The sirens were loud and close now. I could hear the horn of a fire truck blaring at the traffic light that controlled traffic at the entrance to the parking lot. The ambulance and fire truck pulled into the parking lot and in front of the store, stopping in the exact same place I had thought about parking when we first got here. The paramedics and EMTs came filing out of their vehicles like ants out of a hill and into the store. Men and women were on me in less than a minute. I let them do their tests and worry over me all they wanted, but firmly refused when they tried to get me to agree to go to the hospital. I knew I didn’t have a concussion; if I had, I couldn’t have put my shields back into place as quickly as I did. Blood in your brain kinda slows you down.
I finally had to resort to magical coercion on the officer in charge so he would tell the rest to leave me alone. It wasn’t something I liked to do and was very vocal about not using your abilities to control others, but this one time I thought it was okay. I flooded the uniformed man with feelings of respect and compassion and he put a stop to the insistences of the others, saying that I was a bright, mature girl who could decide if she needed to go to the hospital or not. I knew my back and side would be bruised, probably as quickly as tonight, but I also knew there were no broken bones and I didn’t have the luxury of health insurance and I didn’t want to bankrupt my parents with a trip to the ER over so minor an injury.
Jodi and I both had to give our statements three times before they were satisfied and let us leave. The cops wanted me to press charges and, when I hesitated, they told me they wouldn’t be able to pick him up if I didn’t. The damage to the store was minimal and they would be sending his parents a fine, but if he was going to be punished, I needed to press charges. Both Steven and Jodi wanted me to, but something told me it was a mistake. I needed to speak to Jeremy. We needed to know what he was up to and if he needed help or if he needed to be stopped. Either way, he wasn’t going to talk to me if he wasn’t forced to. In the end, I agreed to press charges. The officer told me they would call me when they found him so I could identify him and we’d go from there. They offered Jodi the same chance to press charges since he knocked her over too and they all knew who she was. Jodi didn’t hesitate at all.
“Why didn’t you want to press charges?” Jodi asked from behind the wheel of my car. Neither she, nor Steven thought I should be driving. Maybe I didn’t have a concussion or broken ribs, but I was shaken up and a car accident wouldn’t help anything.
“Because, you remember the Hobyah just after I tried to talk to him? I mean, it’s bad enough what just happened in the bookstore. How do you think he’s gonna react when he finds out that I’ve pressed charges?” I shuddered at the thought.
“Oh, I dare him,” Jodi started to say.
“Don’t finish that,” I said, cutting her off. “We’re dealing with fae folk now, don’t challenge them.” I shook my head.
“Well, if he does dare then we’ll go after him, give him a little lesson in the rule of three,” Steven said, anger clear in his voice. Anyone involved in the arts who believed in Karma lived by the rule of three. It was very much like The Golden Rule, except that it stated whatever you put out into the world, for good or ill, will come back to you threefold. If you did good, you would be rewarded threefold. If you did ill, well, you better be prepared for the consequences.
“Don’t say something like that lightly, Drake,” I said, using his elemental name to remind him of the severity of what he threatened.
“Oh, I’m not, Terra. I mean every word I say,” Steven said, looking me in the eye so directly that I thought he could see into my very soul. “Are you going to let him get away with these things?”
“No. No, I’m not.” I said, slumping down into the seat. “He’s clearly losing his mind or his hold on reality, but more than that, he was able to jump over twenty feet to the ground without so much as scraping his hands… He’s borrowing powers that no person should have and we’ve been told what he plans to do with those powers. We cannot let it lie.”
Chapter 8
To my horror, the police called my parents. I should have known this was going to happen, especially since Jodi was with me and, once they had my license information, they knew I was still technically a minor. Damn those four months. Jodi’s father called my parents personally to let them know what happened. My cell phone rang shrilly in the silence of the car, making all three of us jump before I fumbled with m
y purse, finally pulling it out.
“Hi, mom,” I said automatically, knowing it had to be her.
“Where are you?” she asked, her voice already at that level that she got when I was a child and she knew I had done something wrong and was lying to try to cover it up.
“I’m in the car with Jodi and Steven, near Main St. Why?” I realized my voice was dull and monotone, very close to the sound of someone in shock. I knew I wasn’t in shock, but I had to be careful not to let anyone think I was. Once people think something is wrong with you, it’s very hard to convince them otherwise.
“Jodi’s father just told us what happened in the bookstore!” She sounded frantic. I knew that the truth of what happened to me and what she was told was probably miles apart.
“Mom, I’m fine,” I said and automatically reached over to slap Jodi on the shoulder, as if her father calling my mother was her fault.
“Ow! What?” Jodi snapped at me in a whisper, but I had slumped farther in my seat and was covering my eyes with my free hand, ready for the argument with my mom.
“Oh, I’m sure being pushed over the banister on the second floor means you’re fine,” Ah, there it was.
“Mom, I was not pushed over. If I was, I would have landed on a book display downstairs and would be at the hospital right now.”
“He said you refused to go to the hospital, that the paramedics tried everything to get you into the ambulance except putting you into a straightjacket.” I could almost hear her foot tapping over the phone. I hit Jodi again, a little harder this time.
“Damnit, what?” She braked hard, having looked away from the road at me and not seen the car in front of us stopping.
“Dude, obviously your dad called her parents,” Steven said from the backseat.
“Get your butt home right now, young lady,” my mom said. Young lady. I nearly get killed and I’m in trouble for not wanting my parents to be saddled with a needless hospital bill.
“How do you know my dad called her parents?” Jodi asked Steven.
“Mom, everything is fine,” I pleaded into the phone.
“Because her mom obviously knows what happened and she’s hitting you, duh,” Steven explained to Jodi.
“I’m not asking you to come home, Shayna. I’m telling you. Now.” Her voice held the tone of finality all parents master the moment we come out of the womb. I didn’t really see any point in arguing since I didn’t know where we were going right now anyway.
“Fine. Fine, just calm down, I’ll be home in like ten minutes,” I said with a sigh, happy to be able to get off the phone.
“Dude, I did not tell my dad to call your mom,” Jodi said defensively.
“I know you didn’t, but it’s not like I’m going to hit your dad and you are right here in the line of fire,” I said and, as nonsensical as we both knew that was, Jodi accepted it, making the left turn that would lead us back to our neighborhood. And, just like I said, in less than ten minutes we were at my house. The amazing thing about our town is that it really is a little big town. It’s small enough to get everywhere within fifteen minutes, but the population is big enough that you never have to run into anyone you know when out in town. Strange, but kind of nice.
“Oh, honey, are you okay?” my mom asked, opening the door before I could grab the doorknob. She reached for me and pulled me into a hug that made my side hurt and I knew the bruise must already be blooming there.
“Yes, mom, I told you, I’m fine,” I said in the patent teenage monotone.
“We’ll see about that.” She pulled me inside towards my father and then turned automatically to Jodi and pulled her into a hug too. “And you? I’m sure you’re fine too, right?”
“Um… yes?” Jodi looked from my mom to me, uncertainty in her eyes.
“Mom, I’m sure whatever you were told was greatly exaggerated,” I said, pulling her off of Jodi.
“Honey,” my dad said, putting a hand on my shoulder to turn me towards him, “it’s enough that Jodi’s father agrees to the two of you pressing charges.”
“Yeah, I know, dad. I didn’t want to, though,” I said, shooting Jodi a look, letting her know I’d hit her again if my parents weren’t there.
“Dude, he did try to kill you,” Jodi said defensively, almost angrily.
“Hey, she’s right,” Steven said, stopping me from arguing back, just as I opened my mouth to.
“I wouldn’t have died,” I said, but even to me my voice sounded resigned.
“Okay, you’re going to upset your mother more. Explain what happened,” my dad said and from his tone, I knew it wasn’t just my mother who was starting to suffer from anxiety.
“Look, this kid we know from school was freaking out in an aisle next to us, yelling at this poor clerk that a book was mis-categorized. So we walked over to see what was wrong and if we could help,” I started explaining.
“Whoa, a guy was freaking out and you tried to intervene?” my dad asked.
“We knew the guy, dad,” I said, looking to Jodi and Steven for back up and they both nodded. “Anyway, when we got his attention, we tried to calm him down and tell him we’d help him with whatever was wrong and he just flipped out and lunged at me and knocked Jodi over when he did and he shoved me towards the banister. I hit the banister, but some other guy was there to catch me before anything bad happened and then he just ran off out of the store. That’s all that happened. That’s it.” I finished when my dad didn’t continue to argue with me. I know I left out a lot of details, but I told them enough that it satisfied them. I didn’t think they needed to know about the faeries helping shove me or the fact that I really did almost go over the banister or the fact that Jeremy practically flew off the balcony outside.
“That’s it? That’s it?” my mom said, her voice rising in pitch. “How can you say ‘That’s it’ like it’s no big deal?”
“Because we’re okay,” I said, letting my frustration be heard.
“Honey, can we see your side?” my dad asked, his voice more gentle than my mom’s, surprisingly.
“Um…” I hadn’t seen my side yet and until I knew how bad it was, I wasn’t sure I wanted them to see.
“Honey, we know you pressed charges. We need to see how badly hurt you are,” my dad said, still in that strangely calm voice. My dad was the kind of dad that scared all the little boys when I was young from ever picking on me outside of the usual name-calling. He was the kind of dad that just seeing him once kept my dates in line. My dad staying so rational while hearing a boy tried to hurt me reminded me of the calm before the storm.
I looked to Jodi and Steven for some help in getting out of this, but they both just looked at me like deer caught in headlights, no help at all. I chewed on my bottom lip again and tried to think of some way out of it, but there just wasn’t. I gathered the edge of my shirt in my hands and carefully lifted it up, tilting towards my left, making my body arc. I heard Jodi gasp and Steven hiss. From my awkward position, I tried to look down at my side, but the swell of my breast made it almost impossible to see it clearly. I turned and walked down the hallway, with my parents right behind me, to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. I caught my breath just as Jodi had done. Upon seeing the bruise, the pain started, a dull and heavy ache. It was the width of two hands on my stomach, curving to my back and up my ribcage, had blossomed like evil flowers in black, blue, and angry swollen red. I turned my torso so I could watch the progression of the bruise as it rounded to my back. I could understand now why the paramedics thought I had broken ribs, but I couldn’t explain to them how I knew I didn’t. More than that, I couldn’t go to a hospital. Beyond my parents not being able to afford it, if they had taken me to a hospital so soon after my shields had been ripped away from me, I probably would have gone into shock and lost my mind to the emotional turmoil contained therein.
I watched my dad’s face in the mirror and saw the flicker in his eye of suppressed rage. Anger was too mild a word. What raced over his face and flash
ed in his eye was the complete animalistic emotion of one’s home or family being threatened. “Dad,” I said carefully, drawing his attention back up to my face. “I’m really okay.”
“You’re pressing charges on this guy,” he said, his voice too controlled for the situation at hand.
“That’s right she is,” my mother said from my other side. Her voice had lost all its earlier worry and now sounded angry enough to match my dad’s face.
“Yes, mom.” I let go of the hem of my shirt and let it fall back over the bruising, hiding it away. “Both Jodi and I pressed charges and we’ll go down-”
“No,” my dad said, stopping me mid-sentence. “We spoke to Jodi’s father and he said because you’re still seventeen, we have to go with you. And we are. You are not going down there by yourself.”
“Dad,” I started to argue.
“Do not argue with us, Shayna Bridget,” my mother said, looking me straight in the eye. Over the last seventeen years, I had grown to hate my middle name. As pretty as I could’ve thought it was, only ever hearing your middle name when you were in trouble will taint your emotions that are evoked when you hear it.
“Fine, whatever,” I said, hearing the years of maturity slip away in my response. I pushed through the crowd of bodies out of the suddenly too small bathroom and made it down the hall and back into the kitchen. I got a glass of water and found the painkillers we kept in a cabinet and took a few. The pain in my side was growing more and more persistent with each passing moment now that I was aware of the damage done. It was going to be much harder to get to talk to Jeremy with my parents looming over my shoulder, if not impossible. I was pouring the rest of my water into the sink when the house phone rang and my mother rushed to answer it.
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