Blown (Elemental Series Book 2) (22 page)

Once he got eyes on his brothers’ vehicles, Nate flew a short distance ahead. He wanted to be sure to see anyone—or anything—that might be coming at them, but he didn’t want to completely lose sight of them, either. So he flew slow enough to keep pace with them as they drove up the slightly curving road, and as they closed in on the location their enemies had chosen his nerves grew. He hadn’t seen a flicker of motion ahead of them—not even a startled bird.
Is it too late to decide this is a bad idea?
They were steadily getting closer, and the closer they got to the small clearing that was their destination the larger the pit in Nate’s stomach became.

He had pretended not to notice the occasional tears as they had dropped onto his chest the night before while he’d held Madison close to his heart. But every warm droplet had gone through him like a knife. He’d wanted to roll her beneath him again and kiss each tear away. To softly tell her she didn’t need to cry, because it would be all right. But all he had been able to manage were murmured words of affection and slow, gentle caresses with his thumbs. He hated having to worry and upset her, but there was nothing he could do. Until their enemies were dealt with none of them would be able to live safe, comfortable lives.

So we’ll do what we have to,
Nate told himself, wishing he could send the words to Madison one last time. He could see the clearing now, just beyond the trees ahead of him. The sun was glinting off of something dark and metallic, not quite at the right angle to blind him. His stomach clenched tighter with anticipation.
We’ll fight them, and we’ll beat them, in order to protect our family. Because if we fail … everyone we love could die.

All at once Nate returned to his backyard, late at night, in time to see Victor throwing a bolt of lightning into Madison’s living room window. He remembered the fear and panic that had gripped his heart, and he reminded himself that if they lost this fight there would be no one to stop Victor from attacking her again. Attacking her, or Angie, or anyone else.

That was enough. That was all he needed to gather his focus and bury his anxiety.

Behind him, Logan and Dean were slowing down. They were nearly upon the clearing, so Nate altered his course a bit and flew to the side. He needed to canvas the area, to make sure their enemies weren’t spread out around the clearing instead of gathered within. So he did a half circle, reassuring himself that their backs weren’t being targeted, and then he doubled back and let his feet touch down beside the road. He nodded once to Blake as Logan drove by, and Dean slowed down enough for Nate to jump again into the passenger seat.

“All clear?” Dean asked rhetorically.

Nate understood his brother’s desire for one last calm conversation, so he replied, “Yeah.” He lifted his eyes up, angling his head enough to see out the windshield, and added, “Some clouds rolling in, though.”

Lips lifting with a humor he didn’t feel, Dean said, “Gee, you know, those weathermen never get it right.”

Nate allowed a low chuckle to pass his lips as Dean followed Logan into the clearing and pulled just out of the dirt road. The forced joviality fled as their eyes landed on the group patiently waiting for them on the other side of the clearing.

Only two cars were parked to the side—an older Crown Victoria and Emma’s Bentley. And, to their relief, four at least slightly familiar people were gathered near the hood of the Crown Vic. The man they knew as Jacob stood ramrod straight, arms at his sides and a fierce scowl curving his lips as he watched them park. Beside him, head tilted ever-so-slightly and a faint, amused smirk tipping his lips, stood the father, Victor. Emma was standing on Victor’s other side, her arms crossed over her chest and her long brown hair pulled back in a messy bun. And Eric stood beside his sister, across from Jacob, his hands in his pockets and a cocky look shining in his eyes. He was the only one among them who didn’t have dark hair, but standing alongside his family the resemblance in his eyes was blatantly apparent.

Dean and Nate silently joined their brothers near the center of the clearing, keeping their eyes on the group gathered across from them. A cold, faint breeze was beginning to kick up around them that had nothing to do with Nate’s mood and the air smelled like rain.

“Well,” Victor called, calmly stepping in front of Jacob and Eric. “I must say, I’m impressed. I thought for sure the lot of you would turn cowardly over the weekend.”

“Funny,” Nate returned before he could think better of it, “we were sort of afraid that face full of pepper spray you got the other day might’ve scared you off.” Now that he wasn’t angry about it, it was actually kind of funny.

Victor’s expression darkened for a second, and he replied, “Yes, well … I quite admire a woman with some fire in her; it’s a shame she’s tethered herself to you.”

“Enough talk, Father,” Jacob growled, keeping his glare on them as he stepped forward. “Let’s simply destroy them and be done with it.”

“Yes,” Dean began mockingly, a smirk tugging his lips, “let’s.”

“Everyone remember their dance partner?” Blake asked quietly as Emma and Eric stepped up to Victor’s other side.

“I believe we’ll make the first move,” Victor declared as a booming clap of thunder suddenly echoed overhead.

The ground rolled almost immediately, knocking the Matthews family off their feet as it dipped and spiked unpredictably. And as soon as the last one had stumbled, the dirt waves shifted, spreading out and carrying Victor and his children apart.

“What the hell?” Eric cried as he attempted to roll to his knees.

Jacob’s angry voice cried out next as he exclaimed, “You think separating us will save you?”

Blake jolted forward, keeping Jacob in his sights even as Logan propelled him away. Dean had already launched into motion, the ground singeing beneath his feet as he burned through his shoes and chased after Eric.

Victor looked around as he realized that his children had been dragged away from him, and Logan had gone as well, leaving him alone with Nate. He cocked an eyebrow at Nate and asked, “Should I take it this means you’ve got a bone to pick with me?”

“You could say that,” Nate replied as the cold breeze suddenly rushed in, swirling around them and easing Nate off the ground.

“Then tell me,” Victor quipped as his eyes sparked, “are you upset over the uncles you’ll never know—the ones my brother and I killed? Or are you upset over the uncle who’s living out his life in a wheelchair in Texas? Or perhaps it’s the one who can’t stand to look at you?” His eyes narrowed, the sparking electricity now dancing down his arms, and he taunted, “Or are you upset over what you know I’ll do to your lover as soon as you’re dead?”

Nate met Victor’s glare fearlessly, the wind now whipping around them, and he snapped, “You won’t do anything to Madison or any of my family!”

“We’ll see about that!” Victor challenged. The sky overhead crashed again, loud enough this time to shake the trees, and a bolt of lightning shot out of the dark clouds at the same time as Victor lifted his arms, firing the pent-up energy he’d gathered. Both beams of electricity arched toward Nate’s hovering form, so Nate did the only thing he could. He dropped to the ground and rolled forward, ignoring the stirring in his stomach as he passed beneath Victor’s lightning. When he popped back to his feet a violent gust of air surged with him, slamming into the older man and sending him flying.

Victor cried out, first as his feet were ripped from the ground and his body began rolling—up and backwards—at a rapid, uncontrolled pace. And then he cried out again as his back slammed into the thick trunk of a tall, sturdy tree. He was held aloft for a second before he began to fall, managing to catch hold of a branch and temporarily stall his descent. He gritted his teeth, forcing his feet back to brace himself as best he could against the trunk of the tree, and directed his glare toward Nate.

Thunder boomed again overhead, loud and angry, and then the hail started to fall. Rounded pieces of ice plummeted from the sky, pelting anything and everything between them and the ground. And then the lightning struck a nearby tree, a frightening
snap!
filling the air mere moments before a large branch crashed to the ground, narrowly missing Dean’s car. The tree itself smoldered, smoke drifting up to the sky, but didn’t quite catch fire.

Nate swallowed, holding himself aloft and using tight swirls of air around his body to avoid the heavy hail as he did his best not to show the lingering moment of discomfort that the lightning had caused. His enemy was on the ground now, having used the distraction of the changing weather to his advantage, but he wasn’t actually moving away from the tree. In fact, he was keeping one hand braced firmly on the sturdy trunk.
I think I hurt him.
And he had a fleeting moment, God help him, of almost feeling guilty. It went against his nature to actively try to harm another person.

But he had to remember that this man, despite being only a handful of years older than his own parents, was not the kind of person that deserved mercy. This man was a murderer.

“I have to admit,” Victor began, easily projecting his voice over the storm that he’d summoned, “from the story I heard, your predecessor didn’t put up nearly so much of a fight.”

Nate frowned. “So it wasn’t you who killed my uncle?”

“If you’re referring to Trevor,” Victor replied, “no, it wasn’t me. That was my brother.” His lips lifted in a true sneer and he added, “But it
will
be me who kills you!” Another spear of lightning fell from the sky, aimed straight at Nate, as if to emphasize Victor’s words.

Nate threw himself to the side, surrendering his hail-shield in favor of speed, and only barely managed to dodge the deadly attack. He was breathing heavily as a result of the electrically-charged air, and now he was having to squint just to see past the continuous deluge of ice. But it didn’t matter, because Victor hadn’t moved.

Projecting his own voice to be heard over the storm, Nate called, “I should really thank you! You’ve made the conditions just about perfect!”

Victor looked appropriately taken aback and demanded, “What do you mean?”

Nate’s lips lifted in a smirk and he deliberately held his arms out as he asked, “Did you ever see
Twister
?”

Victor’s eyes widened even as the air around them began whipping fiercely. The hail no longer fell straight and the twigs and branches that had fallen loose were quickly pulled back into the air. His footing became less than stable as the air suddenly sucked on him and the heavy branches above him began shaking and groaning. The branch that had nearly crushed Dean’s car rolled—first once, then twice, then rapidly forward until it slammed against a large boulder. But the rock only stopped it for a minute, before the air used the new angle to get beneath the wood and tug, and then the branch was airborne.

Turning his wide eyes back toward Nate, who was holding steady as the air whipped at his hair and clothes, Victor cried, “You can’t summon a tornado here! Think of your brothers!”

“My brothers will be fine,” Nate returned, entirely undaunted by Victor’s ploy. His smirk broadened and he added, “And as for ‘can’t summon a tornado here’ … we’ll just see about that!”

The truth was, he hadn’t tried creating a tornado since he was fifteen. Back then, he’d only gone out to the center of his parents’ backyard, and he’d only bothered at all because he’d been incredibly bored and he thought it’d be fun. He’d been grounded for nearly a month, and the neighbor never did figure out why his parents insisted on paying for the destroyed fence. But this time he doubted he’d get in trouble for the effort, and this time he knew exactly how dangerous it was to do what he was doing.

“Hold still a little longer,” Victor called, reaching back with his free hand now and grabbing hold of the tree trunk behind him, “and I’ll strike you down!”

Nate heard the thunder crash over the screaming of the wind, and he felt the air charging again a split second before the lighting tore free from the clouds and raced toward him. He was making too big a target by holding his position, but he needed as much of his concentration as he could manage or else he risked creating a tornado that he couldn’t control.

He reacted on instinct.

The lightning tore through Nate’s suddenly unoccupied t-shirt as it flapped around in the gale. The shirt caught fire for an instant, but the fire blew out a beat later, and the tattered remains of the shirt continued spiraling along with the rest of Nate’s clothes.

“You fool!” Victor cried, looking all around as though he’d be able to spot him. “You can’t hold that form forever!”

An extra gust of wind yanked at Victor, nearly tearing him from the ground and the tree he’d rooted himself on.

Victor’s head snapped around and another bolt of lightning struck the ground immediately beside him. But the wind didn’t stop. And as he looked forward again, still searching for any signs of Nate, the tree behind him began to shift and creak. The wind was tightening in on him, spiraling closer. It had started to form the funnel of the tornado Nate had threatened. His eyes lifted higher, in time to see the clouds that he himself had helped to summon swirl and pull toward the growing funnel. And the funnel was nearly touching the ground.

“Are you willing to sacrifice your life just to end mine?” Victor shouted, his words almost immediately getting lost on the wind. “Who’s to say your brothers will be as successful? Who will protect your family after you’re all dead?” His throat was going dry as he screamed into the wind, trying to be heard over the howling. But it was pointless. Even as he watched, the funnel merged with the clouds. The wind immediately increased.