Shadow of Hope (10 page)

Chapter: Fourteen

Crystal and Daisy closed the closet door and put the chair in front of it. They whispered to Zoe before she heard their footsteps pad away. She hated to be closed in small spaces, but what really bothered her was that people she loved were in harm’s away and she was told to stay on the sidelines.

“This is ridiculous.” She turned the handle and pushed on the door. “I think they put the heaviest freaking chair in front of it.” She banged into the door, over and over until she could reach her arm through and push the chair away. She repeated this over and moving it a few inches at a time until she could slide out.

She glanced around the room, not sure why she was being cautious now; everyone within a block radius would have heard her, but she moved toward the door keeping to the walls. It made her feel better, thinking if someone was in the house maybe she would see them first.

She approached the door
, looked down the hall. No one was there. She made her way to the banister, peered down saw that the coast appeared to be clear. She stayed close to the wall and took each step one at a time, avoiding the areas she knew made noise when you stepped on them. She had been caught enough as a kid, trying to sneak down the stairs, that she was a pro at descending them without a sound.

She reached the bottom and released the breath she did not realize she held. She turned to the left and saw the front door was open.
Maybe they went out the front door.
Even as she thought it, she knew it was a lie, but at this point to keep her heart from jumping through her chest, she would tell herself whatever she needed to.

A few more
steps before she reached the kitchen and then she was home free. She stopped. She recognized that odor. The front door was open that meant…she ducked and turned.

The man was a little taller than her
, maybe five-foot-seven or so, dark brown hair and piercing blue eyes. He held a rag in his glove covered hand. It was soaked in chloroform. She recognized that scent anywhere. He reached out to grab her and she pulled back.

“Are you the asshole who set my barn on fire?”

He remained silent and that pissed her off even more.

He stalked toward her trying to back her into a corner, but she was not going to let that happen. The fire in her belly began to spread to her legs, then her arms. She could feel the heat emanating from her cheeks. This is the man who chased her, broke into her house, and stole her…she reached for her neck. Her necklace
. She glanced at him, but she couldn’t get a good look. She had to stay away from the rag and those massive hands.

She needed a distraction. She needed air
. As she thought about how good a nice breeze would feel against her skin,  which felt like it was on fire, a strong gust of air blew through the house. He turned for a moment, while Zoe gave thanks to Gaia, and ran toward the kitchen. He cut her off and reached for her. She moved to the left and edged toward the kitchen once more. She could hear her sisters and Evan calling out to each other. She could hear the fire crackling as it demolished the barn.

The man lunged for her and she raised her hands instinctively, she willed the flames to leave her beloved home
and come upon the man who brought them here.  Fire shot from her hands, catching the intruder off guard for a second, but he dropped and rolled out of their path. The flames dissipated leaving the house unharmed.

She collapsed to the ground, unsure whether that just happened
, or if it was something she imagined. She thought she heard him murmur something about her gift from Gaia, before the cloth covered her mouth.

****

Evan ran into the house, with Crystal and Daisy right behind. “Zoe!” He turned to the sisters. “Where is she?”

“Upstairs in the closet
, I’ll go get her,” Crystal said.

“She’s not there.” Evan bent down and wiped at the thin layer of soot on the floor.

Crystal ran for the stairs calling for Zoe.

“How do you know she’s not up there?” Daisy asked.

He pointed to the ground. “This wasn’t here when we left.” He stood and walked out the front door, searching the ground.

Crystal stepped outside. “She’s not there.”

He kicked the ground. This was his fault. He should have taken her outside with him. He could have protected her better if she was by his side. He paced back and forth, trying to figure out what to do next. He was wasting time; he needed to figure something out fast.

He stopped and glanced up at the sisters. “Did Zoe put the
barn fire out?”

“She didn’t have active powers
. I don’t see how she could’ve done it.”

“What are active powers?” he asked.

“The ability to do things, without a spell or potion. Like putting out the fire.” Daisy answered, wrapping her arms around Crystal.

Evan arched his brows. Normally he would quip it took the power of water, but he saw the immensity of the flames which threatened the barn. No ready source of water could compensate for it. The amount of water would need to be generated from a specially prepared source.

“She may have,” Crystal said.

“What?”
Evan and Daisy responded together.

Crystal sat on the step. “Her grandmother and mother both had active powers. They could call on all five elements. We’ve never seen Zoe do it, but it’s possible she has their gift.”

“What are the five elements?” Evan reached in his pocket and pulled out his phone.

“Air, Water, Fire, Earth and Spirit.” The women responded.

“Well she has the gift of spirit. She’s talked to her grandmother while I was in the other room.”

“She can communicate with her grandmother when she casts a circle like I did last night, but having the ability of spirit is something much more,” Crystal said.

“She didn’t cast a circle, the room was in shambles and I heard her speaking to her grandmother.” He dialed the phone.

“Why wouldn’t she tell us?” Daisy asked.

“I think she was trying to protect you, but if she has the ability to channel the other elements I don’t think she knows she can do it either. Or rather she didn’t know until tonight.” The phone rang and rang until someone answered. “Yeah Chris, they’ve got Zoe…they set fire to the barn…on my way.”

He ran upstairs, changed, and grabbed the sword. The sisters still sat on the step, holding each other. He almost left without saying a word, but he knew he owed them something. “I’ll bring her back, one way or another.”

Chapter: Fifteen

Aries turned as Lucian brought in Zoe’s limp form and laid it down on the stone altar he prepared for her. Aries walked over and shackled Zoe’s arms to the table with a special set of cuffs set to clasp over her shoulders and biceps. He needed her to have limited mobility from the elbows down. Her legs were completely shackled as well.

He moved towards Lucian, and caressed his cheek tenderly. “My dearest friend, Lucian. You have done well, and your reward shall be substantial.”

Lucian’s eyes lowered. “Yes, my Lord.”

He then raised them and looked straight at Aries. “How will we compel her to open the Gateway, My Lord?”

Aries interlaced his black gloved fingers and popped his knuckles systematically, one by one. “I have
many
ways of ‘compelling’ people to do my bidding, Lucian. You should know that by now.”

Lucian bowed his head. “Of course, my Lord.”

Aries held out his hand. “Locket.”

Lucian removed the locket from his coat breast pocket with a black gloved hand. He dropped it into Aries’ hand. Aries let the weight settle in his gloved palm. The Hope of Humanity was no Morningstar, flail, or whip. It was a fucking trinket and it had defied him for way too long.

He walked over to the still unconscious Zoe.

“My Lord, she doubtless cannot achieve anything while she’s still knocked out.”

Aries turned on Lucian with a sneer. “As the modern euphemism goes; no shit Sherlock. Now watch how a God of War gets results.”

He placed the locket in the cleft of Zoe’s breasts and smacked her on the chest…
hard.
Zoe took in a sharp gasp, her body bolted against her restraints. She struggled for several seconds before apparently coming to her senses. She glared at Aries. He smiled.

“I’ve returned your locket to you.”

She spat at him. He wiped the spittle off his face and watched as her eyes registered what he said.

“My Lord, this is quite unwise,” Lucian warned. “She has a connection with the locket-”

Aries raised his hand. He already knew that. He also knew it was likely a key to any power she might hold. Even if she did try to work that against them, she would fail. One did not simply become the God of War by being unprepared for a potential enemy assault.

Zoe’s hand reached towards her breast, unhindered by her bound biceps and shoulders…for the most part. Her fingers brushed the locket.
That’s it, my precious. Whether by instinct or knowledge, open that portal now.

She looked up at Aries. “Why did you give me this?”

He waved his hands in mock apology. “It belongs to you. Should I not have returned what is rightfully yours?”

She let out a sharp bark of a laugh. “After working so hard to take it from me,” she said, glaring at Lucian. “I’d assume the answer was no, you shouldn’t have.”

She grasped the locket and a blinding light burst forth. Aries shielded his eyes from the brunt of the burst. He felt a surge of heat approaching and waved the flame aside effortlessly. He strode towards Zoe, hand upheld. More bursts of flame cascaded off his hand like water shed off a duck’s back. He snatched the locket, irritated at the woman’s utter lack of common sense. “Give me that damn thing before you make a husk of yourself, woman.”

He turned to Lucian, waving the locket. “Lucian,
think man!
You served Gaia for a time. How would she have constructed this to access the Gateway?”

Lucian spread his hands in a gesture Aries took
to mean helplessness. “I was but an initiate newly passed when you recruited me, my Lord. I can only assume the secret to opening the Gateway lies with her,” he said, pointing at Zoe.

“But the only time she used it was against me when I attempted to kidnap her. It was treated as an offensive weapon at that ti
m-”

“
What the hell is this gateway everybody keeps mentioning,
” Zoe yelled in frustration.

Aries turned his attention back to her and dangled the locket in front of her, just out of reach. “Some time ago a stupid woman pissed me off by taking my toy and locking it in here. This tool is passed from generation to generation within your family. I’ve spent a good deal of time hunting you all down, but the secret somehow kept eluding me. Until
you.
”

He dropped the locket in his pocket and brushed his hands formally. “Given your ignorance in the matter, it is no small surprise I was able to get it from
you.
”

The woman glared pure hellfire at him. “Hunted them down? As in killed them?”

Aries bent down so he was face-to-face with her. “Every last one.”

She screamed her rage and lashed against her bindings. A blast of flame struck Aries in the face, singing his hair. He waved his hands quickly and engulfed Zoe’s hands in fluorescent blue energy bubbles. He turned on Lucian, irritated. “The locket is the key to her power, huh? She did fine just now without it!”

“Perhaps its proximity to her-”

Aries waved a hand, cutting him off.  “No more from you, dog.”

He paced the floor, rubbing his forehead in irritation. Without the means to open the Gateway, they were, for want of a better word,
fucked.
Which left him with very few options at present. Fewer still which were desirable. Destroy the Gateway, and hope it destroyed the urn and the Hope still inside it; or destroy the Gatekeeper and hope that this action would trigger the ability to destroy the Gateway itself.

He reached into his pocket and casually flung the locket into the air, suspending it there as he had before.  Out of the periphery of his vision, he saw Lucian’s eyebrows raised in confusion. “My Lord?”

Aries summoned a swath of energy into his hands. Nothing special, just the godly equivalent of steroids mixed with crack. “Back in my younger days, when I was far more given to idle endeavors, I wrestled with Hercules in Thebes for the honor of some simple peasant girl. When it was all said and done, I had left his body broken and battered in the mud. And by broken, I mean every single bone in his body. Tell me, Lucian, do you know how much force one must exert just to break Hercules’ pinky?”

Aries did. About a million and a half PSI, give or take. “You mean to destroy the locket, my Lord?”

Aries nodded. “Won’t that destroy your precious ‘toy’ also?”

He turned to Zoe. My, what fire this one had. He hoped destroying the locket would suffice. He’d hate to remove such a vivacious, potential concubine from this earth before she could service his needs more properly. He flashed her a crooked grin. “My toy was wasted by an asshole with an attitude problem long before the bitch with a Joan of Arc complex stole it from me. What I need is to destroy what
she
put in it.”

Zoe’s eyes narrowed. “What’s that? Surely an iron vibrator isn’t
that
hard to replace.”

Oh yes, Aries mused. He would have much enjoyment breaking
this
filly in. He walked over to the locket and closed his hand around it. He gave Zoe a pointed glance. “Hope. The hope of all mankind.”

He squeezed. At about seven hundred and fifty thousand PSI he stopped, and sighed. Why couldn’t anything be easy around here? He walked over to Lucian and held out his hand. “Dagger.”

Lucian reached under his duster and produced his ceremonial dagger from its sheath. Magic was a funny thing, Aries mused. A tool like this, which served to facilitate it, could also serve to sever it. He tested the weight in his hand. It felt good and balanced, like a weapon meant for war should be. He flipped it in his hand, catching it by the tip and threw it with all his might.

The knife arced gracefully through the air as it spun end-over-end at the velocity of a nitrous powered motorcycle. It hit the locket and caused the mirrored trinket to fly into the wall on the other side. Yet the knife dropped to the floor instead of sticking. When Aries walked over to where the locket remained suspended against the wall and examined it, the mirror remained without so much as a scratch.

He picked up the knife and tossed it to Lucian, who caught it with the able grace of one well familiar with their weapon. Aries noted and approved. Lucian sheathed the blade. Having expended almost all his options, Aries was left with but one recourse.

He wrapped a shield around the locket, a blue bubble much like the
ones securing Zoe’s hands. He reached into the bubble and unleashed an inferno of flame, registering at about nine thousand BTU’s. After five minutes, he stopped. The locket wasn’t even so much as singed.

Aries rubbed his hands and sighed. “I guess that settles it then.”

He dismissed the energy field, turned to Lucian, and motioned him over. Lucian came forward, standing next to Aries, bowing his head. “My Lord?” 

Aries pointed to Zoe. “Take her blood. Be quick about it.”

Lucian hesitated. “My Lord, I thought this was our last resort? If I kill her and the Gateway doesn’t-”

Aries grabbed Lucian’s dusters by the lapels. “I said do it.
Now.
”

Lucian approached Zoe. He unsheathed the knife and raised it over her head. Lucian’s hands trembled, Aries noted with disapproval. It shouldn’t be an issue. This woman’s blood was not the first he ever spilled, nor would it be the last. “Lucian. What’s one more soul on your damaged conscience? Kill her. Now.”

Zoe fixed her gaze on Aries. “Only a coward sends a puppet to do his dirty work.”

Aries shrugged. “Why get your hands dirty when-”

He dodged the flying knife at the last second. He glared at Lucian, who was now facing him, all submissive fear gone, replaced by a dark fire. Aries grinned. “I was wondering how many centuries it would take for your shriveled, hairless ball sacks to fill out. And here I thought your backbone was composed of gelatin.”

“It ends now, Aries. It’s over. You rolled the dice, and you lost. If you can’t see that now, you never will.”

“Tsk. Good help is so hard to find these days,” Aries said as he blasted a wave of force at Lucian. Lucian slammed into the altar, cracking the stonework. Aries strode over to him and picked up his limp body.

“Poor Lucian. Wayward pup lost in the woods. So good at underhanded tricks, but no teeth to speak of-”

Lucian’s head smashed into Aries’ forehead with a resounding crack. Aries’ eyes watered, and he dropped Lucian.
What the fuck? He can’t hit with that kind of for-

Aries dropped to the ground as Lucian swept his legs out from under him. Lucian was on top of Aries in a flash, hands around his throat. He started smashing Aries
’ head into the cement floor over and over. Aries took his hands and struck at each side of Lucian’s throat with the ridge of them.

Lucian rolled off Aries, grabbing his throat
, choking. Aries held his hand out to the wall above the altar, on which hung his trusted scimitar blade. It flew into his hands and he leapt to his feet, swinging the blade down at Lucian’s exposed neck.

Lucian whipped his legs around and caught Aries in the midsection, hurling him several feet away. Aries struggled to his feet.
This is impossible. He can’t generate such force on momentum alone! How is he-

He looked down at his own hands, the ones he had powered up to crush the locket. He smiled.
You sneaky little bastard. You watch and you learn. It seems I have underestimated you after all.

Lucian ran at Aries, ducking his
head down. Aries brought his sword low and swept up, attempting to lop Lucian’s head off his shoulders. Lucian threw himself into a baseball slide and popped Aries’ knees on the way in. Aries found himself unbalanced, and Lucian reached into one of his duster’s pockets. He threw something at Aries’ face, something Aries couldn’t get his hands up in time to blunt the effect of.

The substance was gritty
and set his eyes on fire. It was like sand mixed with chili powder. Aries was, effectively, blinded. He felt Lucian’s palms on his chest and he slammed into the wall again. He heard receding footsteps. Lucian was running away from him. He palmed one of his own hidden daggers and threw it in the direction of Lucian’s general position, as far as he could tell from his steps. He heard a satisfying grunt of pain.

When his vision cleared seconds later however
, he saw Lucian reach the far wall and grab the locket. Aries chuckled to himself.
It won’t help you anymore than-

He saw Lucian’s plan now. Lucian was running towards Zoe. Aries teleported behind him just as he arrived, pressing the locket into her hands. He ran Lucian through, and listened to Zoe’s startled gasp. “Your services, dear Lucian, are no longer required.”

Lucian sagged. “Thank-you, Mother for freeing me from this curse. I’m coming home.”

Aries stabbed Lucian over and over again.