by John Conroe
We all turned and looked at Declan for this one.
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, which I noticed was trimmed and neat, no doubt due to Stacia’s influence. “How do I explain them?” he mused. “Candace, you’ve traveled all over the world… I’ve seen the news clips. Ever been at the base of a massive mountain, like Everest, or on the slopes of a dormant volcano? You’ve covered hurricanes and tornados, right?” he asked her.
She nodded.
“In any of those instances, did you feel anything? Awe? Maybe like you were insignificant in the face of immense power? Like standing next to Niagara Falls and feeling the vibration of millions of gallons of water pouring over the edge?”
“Of course,” she replied.
“Then you’ve felt the presence of elementals, because they are present in all of those things. Indigenous peoples around the world have always felt the presence of beings in nature. When we walk into a forest glade and feel peace and serenity, we are sensing, on some level, an elemental.”
“Okay, but what are they?”
“In essence, they’re power. Raw power that has organized itself over time.”
“That’s crazy,” she said.
“I know. Yet it’s the best I can do at describing them. They are older than man, some older than life on this planet.”
“And you command them?” Candace asked.
Declan laughed. “Oh, very funny. I can communicate with them and if they are willing to listen, I can ask to use a bit of their energy. That’s if they even deign to hear me.”
“That’s not reassuring, Declan,” she said.
“He’s being needlessly modest,” Stacia said. “They all listen to him and most will lend him crazy levels of power.”
“Crazy? Like how crazy?”
“Well, consider an average tornado, the kind that levels houses,” Stacia said. “Most of those have one or more air elementals riding them. I’ve seen Declan take some of that power and redirect it to move objects as big as a locomotive.”
“You can control a tornado?” Candace asked Declan.
Chapter 2
I felt Tanya’s instant tension without looking her way. Stacia’s face reflected her sudden concern at the direction of the question.
“You’re wondering if I could stop tornadoes from forming or redirect their paths around towns and cities, preventing people from dying,” Declan stated, his expression going cold and blank.
“Well… yes. Of course. Do you know how many people die from tornadoes every year?” Candace asked.
“Approximately sixty in the United States, about the same as are killed by hurricanes yearly,” he said in a very cold voice.
The experienced journalist pulled back and studied our young witch with the focused gaze of a raptor. Declan looked… stubborn. Maybe it was the clench of his jaw or the slight furrow between his eyes, but he looked like someone preparing to stand his ground at all costs.
Realization dawned on Candace’s face. “How many times have you been asked to intercede?”
She’d surprised him, although his only response was to shrug.
“Seventeen hundred and forty-six, at least by email—last month,” Omega supplied. “That’s just for tornadoes and hurricanes here in the United States. If you count in earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones, and other natural disaster events around the world, you can add an additional five thousand and eighty-two.”
“Those are direct requests, right?” Stacia asked the computer avatar. “It doesn’t include the insults and angry attacks at him for not modifying nature to prevent everyone everywhere from being hurt, killed, or even inconvenienced.”
“No, I have discounted all of those as meaningless,” Omega answered, waving one hand, but his wrist was too loose, and it looked more like he had broken it than a wave. All-knowing computer, my ass.
“Such an unfair burden,” Candace murmured, her expression turning from slightly puzzled by Omega’s gesture to thoughtful as she looked at our young witch. She succeeded in surprising Declan a second time, his mouth slightly open and his brows up.
“You actually mean that?” he asked her.
She nodded. “You said it yourself, Declan. I’ve been all over the world and covered all kinds of stories. I’m not at all surprised that people would ask you to make their lives easier; in fact, I’m only surprised at how low the numbers are. We talked about this already. As I already said, people are inherently greedy. I would have expected hundreds of thousands of pleas.”
He frowned and glanced at Stacia, who shrugged.
“Kind of makes you think that most people are pretty decent if only that tiny a percentage begged you for favors, doesn’t it?” Candace asked, tilting her head to one side.
I could tell that Declan was actually pretty stunned. He had been girding himself for a fight, at least a verbal one, and instead he had found a sympathetic ear, and a journalistic one at that.
“You didn’t expect that, I see,” Candace said with a chuckle.
“We don’t like doing these interviews for several reasons, Candace,” Tanya said. “The least of which is that more times than not, our interviewer tries to pump up their story by doing or saying something shocking, such as why don’t you stop all people from dying from disasters or why don’t you give everyone vampire serums to heal them from disease.”
“I know,” Candace said. “I’ve watched every interview any of you have ever done, especially the ones with Brystol Chatterjee. She, at least, hasn’t lost her journalistic integrity. I tried to emulate her approach.”
“But you still asked if I could control weather?” Declan asked.
“I did. It’s an obvious question to ask. Can you stop a tornado?”
“Stop it? Unlikely. Change its direction or reduce its destructive power? Possibly.”
“That seems like a pretty vague way of answering,” she noted.
“A single tornado is an awesomely complex thing. The variations in wind speed, direction, air temperatures, and air pressure are crazy. Can I harness some of its energy? Absolutely, but to what effect? I don’t know. Also, every tornado that forms might have one or more elementals riding it. In order for me to have any effect on it depends on if an elemental is with it, if that elemental will talk with me, and if they will let me disrupt the very thing they enjoy riding. A single big storm system in the Midwest can generate dozens of tornadoes across hundreds of miles. How do I even begin to get in front of all that? Oh yeah, and that’s while I’m trying to keep an eye out for aliens. You’re talking about natural weather systems that happen all over the world. I’m just one witch.”
“So how do you expect to defend this world against alien attack?”
“Very different concept,” Stacia said. “He just told you that weather is natural. The Vorsook attacking Earth is not. An Air Elemental that loves itself a cyclone won’t feel the same way about a space rock smashing into its world.”
“Then there’s the fact that weather is, in fact, natural,” Declan said. “I’m a witch. We protect nature, protect the balance.”
“What does that mean?” Candace said. “Oh. You’re wondering if you should even interfere in a natural event at all?”
“It’s tricky,” he said. “Weather exists for a reason. Who am I to decide which patterns to disrupt? What if I cool a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico and as a result, rain doesn’t make it to a drought-ridden country in Africa?”
“That sounds disturbingly like the butterfly flapping its wings here and causing deforestation in China,” she said.
He shrugged. “Something like that. I mean, even Omega can’t predict the results of tampering with weather systems like that.”
“You tampered with an undersea quake,” Candace pointed out.
“That I caused, even if indirectly.”
“And it almost killed him,” Stacia added.
“And ultimately it was the elemental that stopped it,” Declan said.
Candace paused
to take that in, turning her head to study each of us. “So… you all really believe we have a chance?”
We all nodded, almost in unison. “We do, Candace. We really do,” Omega said.
Personally, I had a few doubts but I kept them buried deep down, hidden even from my vampire.
“By the way,” Tanya said. “What was the top question your team got? You said elementals was second.”
“Oh yeah. That would be when? As in when are the Vorsook going to attack?”
We all exchanged a look. “They haven’t shared their plans with us,” I said. “But I get it. Every soldier, ever, asks that question while they wait to join battle.”
“The psychology of attack timing is a weapon in and of itself,” Omega said.
“As in, the waiting can drive us crazy?” Candace asked.
“And cause us to lose our focus, alertness, and preparation,” he replied.
“Yeah, I’ve covered a few front lines. You’re right, which is why I didn’t ask it,” she said.
Chapter 3
“Thanks again for the interview,” Candace said for possibly the fifth time as we headed for the studio door. “And I’m dead serious about getting that training footage.” She had expressed that wish even more than thanking us.
The rest of our on-air chat had gone smoothly and allowed us to press the case with the show’s viewers for preparation and alertness. Now we were getting ready to head out.
“By the way, Declan,” she said, turning his way. “I was admiring your bracelets, or are they watches? Fitness trackers? I’ve never seen their like before.”
He held up his hands, a matte gray band on each wrist. If she had been around him longer than an hour, she would have maybe noticed that their shape changed fairly constantly, looking like each of the three shapes she’d mentioned throughout a normal day. If she’d been around him for a few days, she’d likely see them transform far more radically than she could possibly imagine.
“Thanks,” he said. “They’re pretty unique. A gift from a friend.”
“Yes, they certainly are unusual. Their color seems to change with the lighting. Flat one moment and then shiny the next. Does your friend sell them?”
“Not at this time, but who knows, maybe in the future,” Declan said, his tone saying never.
“How do you get them on and off? They look like they’re fused on.”
“It’s a secret, and I promised him I wouldn’t share it yet. Proprietary stuff, you understand, right?”
“Oh, right. Well, tell your friend I’d be an interested customer if he starts to sell them,” she said.
“I will,” he said as we headed out of the studio.
Outside, Deckert was waiting by two of our armored SUVs, Demidova security people spread out and watching in all directions. A mix of Coven vampires, Stacia’s wolves, and Deckert’s ex-military, they were the best trained and armed individuals to ever wear the Demidova Security logo. Each carried a special sidearm, weapons built by Omega using Vorsook technology. They were also all redundant, as multiple orb-shaped drones hovered motionless in the air around the studio. There was more firepower around us than a squadron of F-22 Raptors.
We are tough, extremely hard to kill, extraordinarily dangerous targets, but we aren’t invincible, as we had learned all too well in China when we faced the Ancient. Omega deemed us too important to the survival of the world to take chances, especially his father, Declan, who was arguably both the weakest and most vulnerable physically while simultaneously maybe the strongest in raw power.
We were just starting to load into the cars when the call came in. “Chris, I have a call from the mayor of a small town in Connecticut,” Omega said suddenly through both cars’ speaker systems. “It concerns what sounds like an outbreak of Hellbourne,” he added.
“Put him on,” I said.
“Here she is,” he said, his tone managing to convey admonishment for my assumption.
“Hello?”
“Mr. Gordon? This is Estelle Woodbury. I’m the mayor of Canwich, Connecticut. We need your help. Desperately.”
“What’s the problem, Mayor?” I asked, exchanging looks with Tanya as I spoke.
“We are overrun with these… things. I think from Hell itself.”
“Can you describe them?” I asked.
“They’re people, people from right here, but they’re possessed. They’re attacking everyone, killing anyone they come across. They’re so fast and strong. It’s like a horror movie. Half of our police force is dead or wounded; they’ve blockaded the town. The state police sent a helicopter, but they swarmed it and killed everyone on board.”
One of the big Obliterator drones suddenly descended silently, hovering inches off the ground, the top half lifting open like a giant Pac-Man. I climbed in and turned to back to tell Tanya not to wait up, only to find her already inside the drone, with Stacia and Declan stepping in behind her. I briefly thought of protesting, but one look at their faces told me how that would go. Instead, I directed my words at the mayor while the drone clamshelled shut and took off.
“Mayor Woodbury, we’re on our way. Stay on the phone; we’ll be there shortly.”
“Mayor Woodbury, this is Omega. Chris and his team will be there in approximately five minutes and fifteen seconds. Hold on and prepare whatever information you can to brief them.”
“Oh, please hurry… Wait… Did you say five minutes?”
“Correct. I have located your call as originating from your office in the town’s municipal building.”
“That’s correct. I’m here with Police Chief Robbins and the town’s director of facilities, Jack Pagano.”
“Mayor, can you tell us when and how this all started?” I asked.
“Mr. Gordon, this is Max Robbins. I’m the chief of police. My officers started to get calls and complaints nine days ago. First it was a citizen complaining about strange sounds coming from a neighbor’s house. When my people responded, the homeowner assured them that all was fine, although both responding officers noted that there was something off about her. That was a Friday. Her children didn’t show up at school the following Monday, and her husband never appeared at work. We sent out another set of officers for a wellness check on Tuesday, and no one responded to the doorbell. Checking the windows on the ground floor, they spotted blood in the kitchen. They called for backup and then broke in. The woman, Janice Vine, was not in the house but we found the bodies of the two children and the husband. In the meantime, we had more complaints about strange screams and yelling from other houses, so we responded to those immediately. Each answered the door, each lived alone, and each did nothing that would give us cause to take them in. We couldn’t locate Mrs. Vine and forensics indicated that her husband and children were already dead when our first pair of officers visited her.”
“How many additional calls did you have, Chief Robbins?” Tanya asked.
“Two in the three days after, then seventeen in the last five days.”
“How many of these attackers do you have in Canwich?” Stacia asked.
“We don’t know. At least twenty to twenty-five,” the chief answered. “Two days ago, they started a crime spree, a simultaneous attack on the village, killing anyone they came across, including four of my officers. We called for state police backup but the roads into town had all been blocked off by the perpetrators.”
“Blocked off how?” Tanya asked.
“Tractor trailers crashed on two of them, cut down trees and power poles on three others. They attack anyone who attempts to clear those blockades. Bullets only work if you hit them in the head, like fucking zombies or something. The state police have flown over since the loss of their first chopper, but it’s difficult to know who is possessed and who isn’t. They can’t very well shoot everyone from the air.”
“We are arriving now, Madam Mayor, Chief,” Omega said.
I felt the Obliterator slow and stop. The walls of the drone suddenly went transparent, giving us a clea
r view of the outside. We were still fifteen feet off the ground, looking down on Hell on Earth.
It was like something from a Hollywood zombie movie: buildings burning, cars crashed on the street, bodies lying on the ground, a pall of smoke hovering over the town, and people—or what used to be people—racing toward us, teeth bared, their eyes reflecting red in the few lights that still worked.
The drone split open and both Tanya and I jumped out to meet our welcoming party.
Chapter 4
There were a lot more than twenty-five; closer to fifty by my best guess, although it was a little hard to get an accurate count while I was ripping demons out of Hellbourne bodies. Kirby, or maybe a whole slew of Kirbys, was keeping busy while I went on an accelerated rampage, plucking blobs of black slime from bodies that became instant corpses. Tanya indulged herself protecting my back, beating down Hellbourne as fast as they came. The trick, though, wasn’t for her to kill the bodies by smashing their heads or ripping out hearts, as that just released the demon to possess other humans. Instead, she needed to incapacitate them long enough for me to rip them free and feed them to the Kirbys.
She was more than happy to comply, engaging in a whirling blur of kicks, strikes, and throws that broke legs, spines, and pelvic girdles like dead tree branches. If I got too far behind, she purposely reduced her effectiveness by simply just tossing Hellbourne into walls, cars, light poles, or trees rather than breaking all their major bones. Our system was working well and the remaining Hellbourne were racing at us from every direction until suddenly every possessed person around us was smashed down to the ground by an invisible force. I glanced up to see Declan and Stacia looking down at us from the drone. The young witch wore a satisfied grin.
“Seemed like you had both had enough time to work off some stress. I’ll just hold these where they are until you’re ready for them,” Declan said.
“I’ll go see if I can help the wounded,” Stacia said, jumping out of the drone and landing easily on the pavement. She was carrying one of the professional-grade trauma kits that were kept in every drone.
