A Time to Die (Elemental Rage Book 2) (3 page)

“I’ll take care of
it. Don’t be too hard on her when we get home.  This is the first time she’s
actually called home after sneaking out.”

Aunt Bertha
nodded.  When she spoke, Jade wasn’t sure whether she was speaking to herself
or to Jade. Aunt Bertha said, “Yes. It’s time for a Spirit Walk. She needs a
bonding moment.”

“Good night, Aunt
Bertha.” Jade said, tiptoeing out and closing the door behind her.

“Night.” Aunt
Bertha rolled over and fell immediately asleep.     

Jade sighed and
wandered back to the room she shared with Raven to pull on some sweats and her
coat.  Taking Aunt Bertha’s keys from the hook next to the door, Jade stepped
outside.  The woods were quiet.  She had the eerie feeling that someone was with
her in the darkness.

Shaking her head
and walking firmly to the car, her feet crunching on the gravel while a cool
breeze touched her cheek, Jade said, “Calm down, now. There are no monsters
here.”

Starting the car,
Jade slowly pulled away from the house, driving down the long gravel driveway. 
A shadow in the forest separated from a tree and took to the air.  It flew above
the car as Jade drove to pick up Raven, but Jade didn’t see.

The drive wasn’t
really that long, all things considered.  After forty-five minutes Jade was
passing the 35 MPH sign on the side of the road. She slowed down, trying not to
think angry or annoyed thoughts. 

Raven was her
sister.  Who else could Raven call in the middle of the night?  But Jade had an
out-of-town volleyball game and had to be on the bus at eight. Just because
Raven sloughed off her studies and quit her extracurricular activities didn’t
mean she should put Jade in a position to neglect hers. 

Jade sighed,
burying the frustration that she felt.  That was how they lost their
relationship before. 
I chose to drive the car to Barton and pick her up. 
That was my choice.  I could have left her.
 

The address was already
plugged into her phone.  After a fifteen minute drive through town, Jade found
the park. It was dark and deserted with street lamps dotted along the pathway.

Raven was not there.

Jade parked the
car.  A huge sign read, “Park closed at Dusk” with “No Overnight Parking” signs
nearby next to Authorized towing signs.  Jade felt a little like screaming. At
least she’d put on a pair of jeans.  The idea of wearing sweats had occurred to
Jade.  It’s not like anyone would see her driving back and forth.  She was glad
now for her jeans.

Jade grabbed her
phone and called Raven.  Of course, there was no answer.

After the
voicemail message, Jade tried to be at least somewhat calm when she said, “Hey,
I’m standing in the park now.  You’re not here.  Call me ASAP.”

Jade walked around
the car.  The lights in the park cast dim shadows. Under the trees there were
places so dark you could hide a whale inside them.  Jade didn’t relish the idea
of wandering the park in the wee hours of the morning.  It wasn’t a huge park,
not like some that spanned acres and had gorgeous fountains and gardens
everywhere, but it was big enough. 

Clicking the
flashlight app on her phone, Jade hoped she didn’t get mugged or worse
wandering around in the dark.  Raven was supposed to be here.  Her sister might
be wild, but if she said she would be somewhere, you could count on it.

Jade walked the
park, checking each and every park bench, walking the periphery.  At the far
edge of the parking lot toward the cross-street, Jade heard the steady thumping
of music.  She was wondering how they could get away with it at this hour.  Raven
was nowhere to be found. 

Deciding to try
plan B, Jade followed the sound of the music.  Drunk kids were everywhere. 
Walking up to the door, she blocked a pair of partygoers on their way out,
“Excuse me?  I’m looking for Raven or Shelly?  Do you know either of them? 
Raven has long black hair and green eyes.”

One of the guys
leaned against the door, “Yeah, that was one hot chick, but she left hours
ago.  Her friend is upstairs getting wasted if you want to talk to her.”

“Thanks,” Jade
said and stepped back out of their way.

Jade rarely communicated
with the Elements, even Fire who apparently had chosen her.  But Air whispered
in her ear, “Sirens. Run.”

Jade turned and
double-stepped down the stairs, crossing the lawn in a run and then hurrying
across the street.  She ran to the car, deciding to pull out and park in front
of one of the houses on the other side of the park away from the party.

As she pulled in
front of a colonial with frosty blue globes that gave the yard a magical aura,
Jade caught the first flashing lights in the rear view mirror.  She turned off
the car and watched in the darkness.

Kids were
scattering like cockroaches, a dozen sprinting across the park.  Jade made sure
the doors were locked, then crawled to the back seat and grabbed Mindy’s
blanket.  She covered her head and waited in the silence. 

From the car she
heard the yells of kids one to another.  She heard the voices of the police. 
An ambulance was called at one point.  Jade couldn’t see it, but heard the
distinctive siren.

Jade squeezed her
eyes shut and tried to contact Air.  The problem with her Elemental skills was
mostly that she had none.  Fire spoke with her at a whim, usually when Jade was
in a position to agree to something destructive.  Otherwise, it was quiet. 
Jade supposed that she didn’t exactly have a lot of situations in which Fire
was available, not like Water and Air who surrounded the world.  If she lived
on the sun, maybe being a Fire Elemental would be useful.

Air’s voice was
barely a whisper.  Jade couldn’t quite hear.

Jade asked,
“Where’s Raven?”

Scared.

“Where is she?”

You have to
help her. The Void tracks her even now.

“Why don’t you
just tell her I’m here and can pick her up? Then she’ll come back.”  It seemed
so logical.  Jade wondered that Air didn’t think of it.

Hurry!

Jade no longer
heard the sounds of police or party-goers.  That didn’t mean the police
wouldn’t keep a presence nearby or that it was safe to lift her head. Still,
she didn’t exactly want to hide in the backseat all night wondering if she was
going to be detained.

Raven needed her. 
Police or not, Jade threw the blanket off and crawled to the front seat,
peering through the rear view mirror to see the continuing flashing lights of
several police cars and now an ambulance.

Jade turned the
key, thinking how strange it was.  In a way her fear of society and fear of
vampires was the same.  She always did the
right
thing.  Even though she
hadn’t been drinking, wasn’t interested in the party and was completely
innocent and sober, she was afraid of getting caught. 

As she pressed the
gas pedal, pulling out from the street even before turning on the headlights,
Jade listened for Air’s directions.  The Elemental was a bare whisper in Jade’s
mind.  Air and Fire often worked together.  Jade followed Air’s guidance, glad
when the flashing lights were out of her line of sight.

She turned down a
quiet university road, the kind that loops around a university to protect the
campus.  Turning down a street with rows of three-story brick buildings
interspersed with hedges and walkways, Jade wondered if she would go to
university.  She had the brochure and catalog from the University of Washington,
her first choice.  But as long as Mom was missing, Jade had to hold things
together.

Jade’s daydream
came to a sudden and abrupt end. She found Raven who was under attack. A chill
swept over Jade’s shoulders and settled in the pit of her stomach when she saw
the shadow on top of her sister. Raven was on the ground staring at the sky.
Her mouth was open in a scream that made no sound. 

Jade tumbled out
of the car, hitting her knee on the pavement.  She didn’t even feel it.  With
no plan in mind, she ran at the creature, calling like a banshee for Fire to
come.  Fire cheered.

Let me strike.

“Just don’t hit
Raven,” Jade said as she sprinted across the grass with absolutely no idea what
to do when she got to the creature.

She tackled the
shadow, sparks flying from her hands.   

Her hands went
numb from the contact with the creature.  The Servant of the Void swirled in
midair.  Jade had pushed him from behind, but she was now on
her
back
and the Servant hovered over her, his eerily blank features hidden by the hood.

Three bursts of
lightening struck.  The hair on Jade’s arms stood on end, and she felt a
strange electrical feeling running up and down her legs.  Fire’s energy failed
utterly.  The creature sent the bursts back into the air without missing a beat.
Jade stared into the darkness.

Frosty fingers
touched her temples, and Jade thought her heart would burst from terror.

She felt the
creature creep into her mind.  There was no other word for it.  A slithering presence
joined her, a dark menace that sifted through her thoughts and emotions. 
Time.  Jade knew that it was looking for the gift of Time. The gift that had
supposedly been passed down to the Gray Family through countless generations,
though Jade had yet to see it herself. At seventeen, Jade figured if it existed
she would have known about it by now.

That was all the
Void Servant wanted from Jade. The creature departed, lifting itself away.

Every breath she
took was forced.  She felt like the creature was still sitting on her. 
Groaning, Jade rolled onto all fours.  “Raven?” she croaked.

Raven didn’t
answer.

Jade crept over to
her sister’s side.  Raven was still lying on her back, staring at the sky with
her mouth open and a sheer look of horror in her eyes.

~~ Raven ~~

Once Raven knew
something was stalking her, she ran with all her might.  The party shoes didn’t
help. By the time she reached the campus she was barefoot.  One of her shoes
had been dropped at the side of the road near the park, the other when she
stepped onto the curb near the Education building.

The shadow filled
her with icy cold fear.  She felt it coming, felt its force growing behind her
even as she ran, as if icy tendrils snaked out to dance along her arms.  When
she raced through the grass, she was surprised when the Void servant suddenly
appeared before her.  Slamming into him, she fell to her knees. He put his
hands on her head and ice crystals fell on her hair.

She felt so cold
in its presence, a bitter chill that made her bones ache and her teeth chatter. 
The grass near her bare legs frosted over and withered where she knelt.  The
Servant of the Void held her head between his hands, his fingers on her
temples.  Raven cried out when she felt the cold seep into her brain.

He captured her
spirit, pulling her from her body and into space.  The stars passed like grains
of sand and then they were gone while she sped through the universe, dragged by
an unseen force.  The Void Creature was no longer beside her, but she felt the
same presence.  During their travels he had lost form.

He took her into a
place of utter darkness and formlessness.  She felt so small, like the tiny
speck of sand at the edge of a giant sea.  The Void spoke to her.  She couldn’t
understand what it was saying.  She knew it was trying to communicate, to tell
her something.

She was sent back
across the span of darkness, passed a multitude of galaxies and back to her own
little world.  Raven felt tears of relief form in the corners of her eyes.  She
realized that she was staring at the sky and couldn’t move a muscle.

Jade was standing
over her, “Raven?  Are you okay? Can you hear me?”

Raven’s entire
body felt like it had been dunked in the Arctic Ocean for an hour.  Finally she
forced out a quiet, “Yes.”

She wasn’t okay,
not in the least.  Raven felt like something had come back with her from the
ends of the universe.  She felt something foreign inside, a coldness that
seeped into her mind.

Air prodded her
into sitting up. Raven’s body felt dead, the same way her arm felt that time
she fell asleep resting back on her hands and the blood supply was cut off. Her
hands had flopped like dead fish. This time, it was her whole entire body. 

Raven didn’t know
how long she lay there, staring at the stars.  Jade pulled her up.  Her arm
still around Raven’s shoulders, Jade asked, “What happened?”

Raven stumbled
with Jade to the car. She said, “I swear I didn’t drink anything. There was
something else there,”

“I know. It’s
okay. I know you were being chased.” Jade opened the door for Raven.

Raven realized
that her favorite silk blouse was missing a button and she was walking around
with her bra showing.  That missing button disturbed her in a way that flying
across the universe couldn’t. She pulled the two sides of her blouse together. 
Fighting back tears, Raven asked, “Did that thing touch me?”

Seeing the way she
held the blouse, Jade said, “No. No. Not like that.  I don’t know what he did
to us.  I know he was looking for something.  My mind feels violated, though. 
And I’d like to kill that thing for the way it made me feel.”

Raven sank down
into the passenger seat, letting Jade shut the door.  For years they had just
been sisters.  Now they were friends.  Once Jade had settled in the seat next
to hers, Raven said, “Thanks.  I…I was stupid for coming.  Before last summer I
could drink and push Air away and not care, but she’s done so much to help me
that I couldn’t let myself go numb.”

“I’m glad you
didn’t stay.  The cops showed and busted the party,”

As Jade started
the car and pulled away, Raven realized that she couldn’t feel Air.  When she
talked about going numb before, that had always happened with alcohol and
medicine.  But she skipped the drinking today.  Where was Air?