Something Wanton (Mystics & Mayhem) (47 page)

“Jordan!” he roared, never taking his eyes off me.

“What’s the matter, big boy?” I taunted, ignoring the fact that Kim was pulling on my arm like she was trying to remove it.  “You’re looking a little upset.  Now, what has your panties in a twist, I wonder.”

He reached for me, and I reacted on instinct.  I was tired, stressed out, and fed up with arrogant jerk-offs thinking they were better than me.  Kim jumped back away from me just before I burst into flames.  Only, there was something wrong with them.  Instead of the beautiful golden flames I was used to, they were pearly white and had the same irid
escent shimmer as the aura around Tyler—and they were twice as hot. 

The paint on the wall behind me bubbled immediately and started running down the walls in thick glops.  Ryan jumped back like I was about to explode.
  And, for all I knew, I just might.

“Em!  What the hell…?”  I turned to find Tyler standing a few feet away, his eyes wide and his jaw slack with shock.

“You tell me!” I yelled, waving my hands around.  The archangels backed up quickly, apparently afraid of me.   “What happened to my pretty gold flames?  I want them back, Tyler!  Right now!”

“That’s the least of your problems,” Kim snorted, choking on a laugh.

“What?”

Just then I caught sight of myself in the mirror across the hall and felt my temper move out of the human realm and right into the astral plane.  Not only were my
flames all pearly white, I had a beautiful, gossamer-looking pair of
wings
.

I looked like a damn psychotic fairy!  I was going to
kill Tyler Jordan with my bare hands!

When I turned back to look at him, Tyler started backing up quick…really quick.

Like, angel warp speed quick.

“Now, Em,” he said, still running backwards as I started toward him. “Em, you have to calm down, beautiful.”

“Calm down?  I have
wings
, Tyler!” I shrieked hysterically.

We were drawing quite a crowd as I stalked him down the hall.  People were sticking their head
s out of doors and over the stair banister, and the end of the hall was filling up fast.  Most of them were staring at me in rapt fascination.  One girl, one of the survivors from the blitz, even snapped a picture of me with her cell phone.  I gave her less than five minutes before I would be posted all over Facebook, and, if she was getting video, YouTube.

I could already see the caption:  Psycho fairy kills angel in fit of rage.

Sanity started to return when I saw a group of Mikhail’s people had started to gather at the end of the hall, and I wanted to groan when I saw how they were all staring at me.  Kellum was standing at the front of the group, a panicked expression on his handsome face, shaking his head frantically at me. 

I immediately called my ghosts to me, hoping to mask myself from Mikhail himself, but it was too late for that.  Our eyes met as Mikhail shoved Kellum out of his way so he could get a good look at me and I felt my chest tighten in dread.  When he tore his eyes from mine and let them sweep over me from head to toe, I knew my collectible status had just been upgraded.  I wasn’t vintage Barbie material anymore. 

I had just become the winged version of the Hope diamond.

“I didn’t know that was going to happen, beautiful,” Tyler said, changing tactics suddenly and stopping in the middle of the hall.  Not smart.  I was so busy staring over his shoulder at the hungry look on Mikhail’s face that I almost ran into him.  “I told you it wasn’t an exact science, Em.  If it makes you feel any better, they’re
really
spectacular!”

“I
hate
you, Tyler Jordan!” I hissed, glaring at him.

To my surprise, he just smiled at me and nodded to someone over
my
shoulder.  I was immediately doused in water so cold that I gasped as my lungs froze in mid-motion.  The flames around me went out and I turned, soaking wet and furious, to find Grams and Mrs. Val standing behind me with buckets.  At Grams’ warning look, I immediately clamped my lips shut against the words on my tongue that were just dying to come out.

“That
does
seem to be effective,” Grams said casually to Mrs. Val.  “We really must speak to Skipper about his lack of fire extinguishers, though.  That would have been a much more efficient way of handling the situation.”

“Or you
could
just dispose of the life-sucking, fire-breathing little fairy,” Ryan grumbled.  When Kim called up a ball of brilliant white Witch Fire and started bouncing it from hand to hand, he backed up again.  “It was just a suggestion!  Jeez!  You witches are so
sensitive
.”

Without even thinking about what I was doing, I whirled around and hit him as hard as I could.  I was just as shocked as everyone else when he flew through the kitchen doorway and all the way across the room.  He smashed into the
stone fireplace with enough impact to shake the whole building, leaving a crater the exact shape of his body in the cinderblock.

Breathing hard, I turned to face the silently watching crowd.  No one even seemed to be breathing.  I didn’t care.  I was done.  If they wanted to be afraid of me, they could.  If they wanted to take Goldilocks’ advice, they could try.  No matter what, though, I was completely and totally finished putting up with other people’s crap, be they angel, witch, demon, vampire or human.

“Wonderful,” Lark sighed, breaking the silence, as he watched his fellow angel moan and groan.  “What am I supposed to do with
him
now?”

“You
could
scrape up the hotheaded, steroid-popping pansy and put him where he belongs,” I grumbled.

Ryan tried to get to his feet and fell back with another groan, making the hole in the
fireplace even bigger.  I smiled smugly.  Skippy was going to have my head, but it had been worth it to put a couple of holes in Ryan’s over inflated ego.

“And where might that be?” Lark asked, grinning like he was looking forward to hearing my answer.

“I assume Skippy has a dumpster around here somewhere,” I suggested as I walked away.  “I’m sure he’ll feel right at home.”

Lark’s deep, rich laughter followed me down the hall, and I found myself really smiling for a second.

It wasn’t until I started shivering again that I realized I hadn’t dismissed my ghosts.  I decided in the end to keep them around a little longer, just until I was sure I wasn’t going to flip out again.  By the time I reached the room Kim and I were sharing, I was regretting that decision.  My teeth were chattering like a pair of windup teeth in a toy store.  My nose was frozen again, and my clothes felt like they were forming a permanent frozen bond to my skin.

I stripped out of my wet clothes and changed into warm, dry ones.  I considered calling Nathan, but then decided that was just another fight in the making.  When he
found out about the show I’d just put on in front of Mikhail and his entire team, he was probably going to strangle me.  And there wasn’t a chance in hell that he wasn’t going to hear about that spectacle.  In fact, it seemed like the only people who
hadn’t
seen me go all psycho-fairy were Nathan, Skippy, and Blaire.

Once I was dry again, I forced myself to walk over to the
bed.  I was so drained that just pulling back the blankets took all the energy I had left.  Crawling under them, I curled up in a little, shivering ball and tried to focus myself. 

I had almost found my happy place when I heard the door open behind me.  Assuming it was Kim coming to check on me, I started to turn over, forcing myself to smile.  A smile that froze on my face when, with a little whoosh of air, a dart embedded itself in the side of my neck. It was followed in quick succession by three more; one in my thigh, one in my shoulder, and one between my shoulder blades.  I pulled the dart out of my neck and looked at it, my vision starting to blur.  It was similar to a tranquilizer dart, but the substance inside was acid green rather than clear.

I tried to roll over so I could see who had shot me, but it was too late.  All I saw was a blurry figure in a hooded cloak before the gray fog that had been steadily spreading across my vision finally blinded me completely.   I felt a sensation like I was falling and tried to catch myself, but there was nothing there to hold on to.  And then, I felt nothing.  I saw nothing.  I heard nothing. 

And finally, as I’m sure you can guess, there
was
nothing.

They don’t have a classification for you,
a deep, wonderfully comforting voice whispered in the back of my mind.

I groaned, wishing it would shut up.  Oh, my head hurt!  I felt like somebody was stomping on it in a steady rhythm that would either kill me or leave me with permanent brain damage.  I couldn’t think through it.  All I could do was lay there and wait—hope, actually—to die.

“Ember?  Ember, are you awake, child?”

I knew that voice, but I couldn’t reach it through the sickening pounding.  I tried to crack my eyes open just a little, just to see if getting a visual would help me put a name to the voice, but I immediately closed them again when bright light hit my pupils and ratcheted up the pounding to a sickening level.

Bastian and Tyler,
that other voice whispered again. 
Tyler…messing with your DNA…

“Miss Blaylock!” the voice outside of my head snapped, her voice full of authority.  “Pull yourself together!  We’re in very serious trouble here!”

I recognized
that
voice immediately as it lashed over me.  There was a reason I should have been angry at her, but I couldn’t remember what it was.  She had done something, something terrible.  No.  No, it hadn’t been her.  Or was it?  And did it really matter?  No, all that mattered was the pain.

“Please, Ember,” Ms. Cantrell whispered, sounding close to tears.  “I know it hurts, but you have to try to push through it.  The sooner you get up and move, the faster it will wear off.  Come on, dear.  You can do it.  If anyone can, it’s you.”

No, I really didn’t think I wanted to.  It was better if I just laid there and died.  Yeah, that would be so much better.   

Power could be limitless.

I focused on that gentle voice, letting it take the edge off the pain. My father’s voice.  How could I have not known my own father’s voice?  What the hell had they shot me with?

I moaned and tried to pull away when a shaking hand latched onto my arm and tried to tug me to a sitting position.  I was too weak, though, and she finally got me up and propped against something cold and hard behind me.  The movement caused my stomach to lurch, and I clenched my teeth against the flood of nausea that followed.

“Up we go,” Ms. Cantrell said, her voice soft and yet hard at the same time.  Only the Dragon Lady could have pulled that off.

Oh, please, no!
I groaned, silently, as she put her arm around my shoulder and helped me stand up.  Another vicious thud and another wave of nausea.  I grabbed her arm and heard her gasp, reminding me that I had to be careful.  I could hurt her.  I
would
hurt her.  Had to be careful.  Very careful.

“You have to walk it off,” she whispered, her voice trembling.  “We don’t have much time before they come back.  You have to be alert before that happens.  Come on, darling.  You can do it.”

My first sign of brain damage: auditory hallucinations.  Had Constance Cantrell really just called me
darling
? 

We walked five steps—I counted every agonizing one—and then she turned me around slowly and we walked seven more excruciating, nauseating steps.  Turn, seven steps.  Turn, seven steps.  After the fourth trip, the pounding in my head
started to ease up.  After the ninth, I could open my eyes a little.  By the twelfth, I was standing up a little straighter.  By the time we had traced the same path two dozen times, I was feeling more like me.

“That’s my girl,” Ms. Cantrell said proudly when I pulled away from her and attempted to make the trip on my own.  Seven steps, turn.

Scream.

“No!  No!  No!” she cried softly, rushing forward to clap her hand over my mouth.  “No, Ember!  If you scream, they will come for
you.  Remain calm, child.  It’s not as bad as it looks.”

I sincerely hoped she was right, because it looked
really
bad.  Her lip was busted and there was another cut near her hairline that had bled quite a lot.  Her left eye was swollen completely shut and her nose was broken.  There were also bruises forming on her chest and arms and, judging by the way she winced when she moved, I kind of thought a few of her ribs might be broken.  If that wasn’t bad, what was?

You could move mountains with the power they’ve given you,
Dad whispered again in the back of my mind as I stared at Ms. Cantrell.  When I saw the pentagram branded just above her mark, I knew my goals weren’t that high.  I didn’t want to move anything.  My only goal was to
re
move Hamilton and all of the sickos who followed him.  Permanently.

Only, I wasn’t sure quite how I was going to do that. 
Hamilton wasn’t stupid.  He wouldn’t have kidnapped me without binding me first.  He was afraid of me, and he should be.  But Ms. Cantrell had been bound too, and she had managed to hex her guard.  If she could do it, I could, too.

“How did you get out?” I asked Ms. Cantrell.  “Did the chemical they gave you wear off?”

“No, as far as I know I’m still powerless,” she said sadly.  “It was Amelia.  She hexed my guard, untied me, and told me to run.  She said you were planning to use me as an example, that you were going to…” She stopped, then closed her eyes and shook her head.  “I should have known better.  We connected, you and I.  I felt it.”

I tried not to see the truth, but I couldn’t ignore it.  Five Class A witches, one traitor.  Not my Grams or Mrs. Val.  Not the hermit.  Not Ms. Cantrell, who was standing before me, beaten but still not broken.  It had been Mrs. Amelia the whole time.

I vaguely remembered the figure I had seen when I’d been taken—a small figure in a hooded cloak.  It was the exact figure that Blake had described to me the night Hamilton had burned Kim. 

Oh, how she must have laughed when no one was looking.  The girl she was trying to kill had defended her.  I had even suggested we hide her with the rest of the injured.  The irony wasn’t lost on me.

“How many others are here?” I asked, unable to hide the anger in my voice.

“There are only four,” Ms. Cantrell said with a sad shake of her head.  “I saw them when they brought me in.  They’re in pretty bad shape.  Two of them won’t make it out of here, and the other two are so beaten they may never recover even if they do.”

I swallowed down my rage and tried to figure out a way to get those poor women out of those cells before they burned.  Unfortunately, I came up blank.  Without my powers, I couldn’t help them. 

Before I could come up with a non-magical means of escape, w
e heard a door open in the distance and Mrs. Cantrell paled visibly, her hands beginning to shake even more.

“
Lie down, Ember!” she whispered frantically.  “They want you awake.  It will buy us some more time!  Hurry, child!”

She led me back to where I had been lying when I woke up and I
lay down quickly.  With shaking hands, she arranged my arms, one over my head and one across my stomach, and then her footsteps were hurrying away.  I heard the slip of silk against the stone wall only seconds before heavy booted footsteps rounded the corner.

“Let me go, you dick!” a sneering, familiar voice hissed.  “Just wait.  You’re going to be sorry you touched me.”

I had to fight to remain still as I heard the sound of a fist hitting flesh and Ainsley’s soft groan.  The door to our cell opened and a body hit the floor near me, hard, followed by a man’s soft laughter.  Before I could decide if I wanted to blow my cover and kill him, a hand gripped my shirt and lifted me up, shaking me.  I forced myself to remain limp, like I was still unconscious.  I didn’t even flinch when he dropped me, causing my head to bounce against the cold concrete beneath me.

Prick.

“Damn, I guess we overdosed her,” he muttered, sounding disappointed.  “Your brother is going to be pissed, Ainsley.  Trey was really looking forward to burning this one…right after you and the other witches.”

“Keep dreaming, Harvey,” Ainsley spat acidly.  “Do you honestly believe they won’t come looking for me?  For
them
?  Think again, asshole!  It won’t take Zan long to find me again.  And when he does…”

Her sentence died with another grunt of pain.  From the sound of it, he had kicked her this time.  Harvey and I were going to have a very unpleasant meeting soon.  Unpleasant for him, that is.  Personally, I was looking forward to it.

I waited, holding my breath, for him to grab Ms. Cantrell for another round of abuse.  I wouldn’t be able to lie still for that.  I was afraid for her as it was.  With her broken ribs, another beating would probably kill her.  I almost made the mistake of breathing a sigh of relief when I heard the door clang shut behind him and the rattle of a key in the lock.

I counted his footsteps, listening to them moving further away.  Twenty-one steps, another lock turning, another door opening and closing.  I stored the information for later use and then opened my eyes.  To my surprise, Ainsley grinned at me and winked.

“You’re in about ten different kinds of shit, buddy,” she said cheerfully.  “Nate is on the warpath.  He said if you hadn’t decided to use your dead pals as a shield, he would have known you were gone long before he did.  Of course, he didn’t say it like that.  There were quite a lot of other descriptive words thrown in for effect when he said it.  Personally, I still think it would have taken him a while.  He’s been sticking to Mikhail like glue to make sure he stays away from you.

“Anyway,” she said, standing up and kicking her shoes off, “I’m here to bust you out.  Well, me and a couple of friends.”

“You
let
them catch you?” I whispered, horrified, sitting up and watching with a wary look as she reached for the button on her jeans.  “Are you
on
something, you idiot?  They could have killed you on sight!”

“They wouldn’t dare,” she said, rolling her eyes.  “My
brother is a showman, Ember.  He
wants
to burn me.  If they had killed me on sight, he probably would have killed
them
.  Besides, how else was I supposed to get in?”

Ms. Cantrell and I shared a look that clearly said we shared the same concerns about her sanity when Ainsley slipped her jeans off and started turning them inside out.  When she started ripping the seam out of them, I wondered if the person I needed to be scared of was Ainsley, not her
brother.

Seeing my worried look, she grinned and held up
two syringes filled with bright gold fluid.  She had sewn the antidote into her jeans?  That was just…brilliant!  Of course, if they had patted her down for weapons she would have been screwed, but it was still brilliant.

“Wait a second!  They shot you with the green stuff?” I asked, frowning, remembering that she was holding
two syringes—and I seriously doubted she’d been planning on rescuing Ms. Cantrell along with me.  “Why the hell are you so cheerful then?  I woke up feeling like someone was trying to jackhammer through my skull!”

“Been drinking the crap for years in small doses to build up an immunity,” she said, shrugging and jabbing one of the syringes into her bare thigh.  “It still binds my powers, b
ut I don’t get the painful side effects.”

“Your turn, Em,” she said, tossing me the
second syringe.  She arched an eyebrow when I just held it, staring at her.  “Oh, please! You give yourself injections of Nexus three times a day!”

Yeah, good point.

I started to jab the needle into my thigh, but stopped just as suddenly. Very slowly, I got up and walked toward Ms. Cantrell.  She looked at me, confused, when I knelt down beside her and reached for the hem of her gown.  Just before I plunged the syringe into her leg, she reached out and grabbed my hand, stopping me.

“No, child,” she said with a gentle smile.  “You have to take it.  Only you can get us out of here, Ember.”

“Well, not exactly,” Ainsley said, looking uncomfortable.  “Actually, we already have an exit strategy in place.  You still need to take the damn shot, though, Ember.  And fast, because we need to get out of here
now
.”

Though it didn’t feel right to do it, I did as they asked.  The second I depressed the plunger on the syringe, I felt an awesome wave of power crash through me in a rush so intense that
I could hardly contain it. 

“Better?” Ainsley asked with a smile.

“Loads,” I told her, returning her smile.  “Thanks, Ainsley.”

“Anytime,” she chirped.
 

We helped Ms. Cantrell to her feet carefully.  I offered to heal her and she thanked me for the offer but said she would rather wait for Grams.  I
could have sworn I heard her mutter the words ‘purple elephant’ when she turned away and couldn’t really blame her for not wanting to chance it.

“All right, boys!” Ainsley yelled out, making me and Ms. Cantrell jump about a foot.  “Let’s go!  Move your asses!  We don’t have all night!”

I closed my eyes as a warm wind blew around us.  I knew even before they materialized in front of me, wings tucked close to their bodies, who our rescue squad was.  Lark grinned at me when his wings drew away and retracted behind him automatically.  Ryan gave me a curt nod, but he looked a tad bit more respectful than he had before I had imprinted his cute little angel derriere in Skippy’s wall.  The last to arrive wasn’t Erin, as I had thought it would be, but Tyler.