DAMAGED - A Bad Boy Romance (34 page)

He stood up, took the teacups in the saucers to them, and handed each one a cup. This he followed with a towel.

“Sorry, I don’t waste good money on paper. I feel you should clean up the mess with a towel. Saves money and is less wasteful. But what do I understand about things? I spent my youth waited on by servants. I’ve had to learn to do many things on my own.”

Lilly and Dion took their cups and starred at him. Both had expected the transformation might have something to do with Edward; he tended to pop up at moments where he was needed, so it only made sense.

“Please, sit down,” he said motioning to the chairs on the right. There were three of them and they faced the fireplace. “We need to talk and figure out what to do next.”

Chapter 9

Lilly sat down between Dion and Edward. The chair was leather and upholstered with a fine layer of fabric. She felt the stuffing in it, but the chair wasn’t hard. She could feel the springs in the bottom as she sat down in it.

“In case you wanted to know,” Edward told them, “I had you brought here instead of going to see you. I managed to put in a request for your transportation when I saw those air elementals were about to do you some harm. I didn’t have enough time to make the trip to where you were and I’m running low on my time allotment. So I sent word to the right people of quality and you were pulled out of that nasty situation and sent to me. Sorry, I didn’t have time to explain it, but my time was short and I needed to get the both of you out of there.”

“Why didn’t you pull Emily and Sean out of there too?” Lilly asked him. How could Edward have saved them and left their friends to the elementals?

“I could only save two of you and they were lost already.” His glass was refilled and appeared on the table between him and Dion. Edward picked it up and took a big sip before placing it back on the table. “They had built a trap in their minds and took them away before I could do anything. It’s how you lost your map again, dear boy. They knew which one was the weakest link in the chain and they fixated on him. Emily was only a bit less weak, so they concentrated their power on her next. They would have had you, my dear girl, if your friend hadn’t pulled your eyes away from them. They knew, so long as Dion was focused on saving his friends, he would be vulnerable. All they had to do was show your friend Sean a mirror of his innermost desires and they had him. They did the same to Emily, but on a smaller scale. Had you looked in their eyes too, Lilly, they would have trapped your soul as well. But Dion held you away from them which allowed you to escape.”

“So how are we supposed to get them back?” Dion asked. “I have lost the map again and I can’t use it to find wherever they took them to. I suspect they’re inside the tower, but I have no way to find the entrance to it without the map.”

“They won’t be in the tower. That would be too obvious. I’m sure, given time, you could find a way into the tower on your own. They will take them somewhere else where you can’t reach. They know you need to get to them or you’ll never be able to achieve your abilities.”

“Can you send us to where they are now?” Lilly asked.

“I can have it done, yes. But you need to listen to me. The elementals who took your friends have trapped their minds in a cage of their own construction. It won’t do me much good to send you there to rescue them unless you have the key. Sean’s ego has been battered down since the day he was born. His mother had constantly told him he was worthless every time he did something that displeased her. The combined effects are not physical, but mental. A person can only take so much abuse and then they start to shatter every time a rock is thrown at their fragile shell. I don’t see a good future for him unless he gets away from the dominance of his mother. In some cases, the boy’s father could have stood up to her, but he’s become weakened too. I say this not as something you need to know, but as something, you have to do if you are truly going to help him.

And what happened to Emily is what happens when the child feels she is the cause of her parent’s breakup. She has built a cage of her own inner torment and she must be freed from it. It is again a cage of her own construction, but it’s as real as any made from steel. The elementals figured it out early on and realized there was a way to use them against you. They would have found some way to get at Lilly too, but she latched onto you. You were able to keep her from looking into their eyes and she was able to resist their power. I can’t say what might’ve happened had I not been able to pull you out in time. I fear they might’ve returned and taken her as well. They can’t touch you, but they don’t have to so long as they can strike at those around you.

I have a way to distract them, but if I give it to you, you must be ready to use it. And you must get your friends away as fast as you can. These elementals are dangerous and they will use all their power to trap them and you. They realize grabbing your parents was only a distraction.”

Lilly stood up and walked around the room while holding her cup. The tea was very good. She’d remembered to add a little milk to it to kill the effect of the leaves, but it was worth the effort. Lilly walked around and looked again at the paintings. Once more she thought the style seemed familiar and she seemed to recognize the artist. The colors on the painting seemed to leap out and trapped her eyes in a swirl of emotions. They seemed surrealist, but those were much older than anything she’d ever seen before.

“Do you like them?” Edward asked her.

“Very much. I don’t recognize the artist. They all seemed to be painted by the same person.”

“Yes, they were, and I know the artist very well. You might say he was a close personal friend.”

“What’s his name?”

“Edward. I’m the artist.”

“Really? You did all these? I’m impressed.”

“Unfortunately the critics were not,” Edward sighed. “I spent a year in Austria trying to be successful as a landscape painter, but no one took me seriously. Then I came back to England and tried to apply myself to literary ambitions. The literary critics were impressed even less. I was only able to do this because I inherited a large fortune from my family and I could afford to travel around the world. But I did learn one thing.” He paused.

“So what did you learn?” Lilly asked.

“I learned there was a reason in this world why we have rich people. Because without the great wealth I inherited to spend on trivial pursuits, none of this would have been possible.”

“You seemed to have a charmed life,” Dion said. “Did the silver spoon taste bad in your mouth?”

“My family was very religious,” Edward continued, “so I have some empathy for your friend Sean. I understand the horror of having your mother use higher forces as punishment. My mother passed on while I was still young and only in my later years was I able to get away from her dominion. I lived a life of debauchery and paid for it later on. When my literary and artistic pursuits failed to bring me solace, I went after baser desires. And now I am here to help you because of the mess I caused.”

Lilly looked around the dark room, the candles and the portraits on the walls. “Are we dead?” she asked. It was the only thing that made sense.

“No, I am afraid you are very much alive. You are in between worlds, which is why this place seems so familiar. I can’t keep you here much longer; there are always rules to be followed. And please don’t ask me about the meaning of existence or the purpose of life. I’m not allowed to answer those kinds of questions even if I did know the answers. Just bear with me long enough and I’ll take you to where the elementals have trapped your friends. Just remember, they have them in a mental cage. You will have to get them out, but they can only come out by their own free will.”

“And how will we free their bodies?” Dion asked him.

“With this one little object which will mesmerize the elementals to the point of stupidity,” Edward told him as he held up a ring. Attached to the ring was a series of keys, and an emblem dangled from it.

“Car keys?” Dion asked. “I can lure them away with car keys?”

“Note the logo on the car keys,” Edward said.

Dion took them from Edward and held the keys up to the light. The emblem attached to the keys was that of a 1953 Eldorado Cadillac Seville. It had a special emblem he’d never seen before on any car keys set.

“The 1953 Eldorado Cadillac,” Edward told him. “Considered to be the best model they ever created. The only people who would possess that key set are those who can drive one. The manufacturer was quite specific about which ones were allowed on the market. Show them the keys and all their power will evaporate. Just don’t let them make physical contact with the keys, and they will try to touch them, of that I can guarantee you. Once they see these keys, you must not let them out of their sight or it will ruin the effect. You must also take your friends away from the mall and let them rest until they have recovered from the mental trap where they have been imprisoned. Since you cannot leave the mall, I suggest finding a particular furniture store and letting them sleep off the effects of the mesmerization in the back room on a waterbed they keep there. You will find a place called Watermatts that sells those waterbed atrocities and I think they have one or two in the back for special customers. Tell them I sent you and they can sleep off the effects of the elementals. Then you can return to your quest.”

Edward gave them the name of the store manager and told them to memorize it.

“I’d like to spend some more time in this place,” Lilly said. She never knew Edward was so talented. “Perhaps when Dion has finished his quest, we can return?”

“When he finishes, I will be able to visit one more time. Perhaps longer, but the important thing is for him to rescue your friends. I don’t think it wise to send you to the same location he will be sent, but there is no arguing in this case. Both of you were taken from the last world, both of you must be returned to it as well and in the same general location. No, you will not be sent back to the mall, but very close to it. Dion, you know what you have to do. Lilly, you are not an elemental worker, I recommend staying close to Dion and learning from him, it might come in handy later. Also, do not look any of those women in the eyes or they will have control over you.”

“Alright,” Edward concluded. “Time for all of us to go. Dion, go join Lilly.”

Dion stood up and walked over to her, clasping Lilly by the hand. She looked up at him with her brown eyes and focused on his strong face. She was grateful to be sent back with him, but a little bit scared at the same time.

“You have the keys, Dion?” said Edward, who now stood in the center of the room. Lilly noticed he held a staff in one hand, but she hadn’t noticed one there before.

Dion held up the keys.

“Good. By the power of the rod!” Edward chanted and brought the end of the staff down on the floor three times. On the third rap, the two in front of him vanished.

“I just hope he listens to what I said,” Edward told himself as he left the room, the door closing behind him.

The scene faded back in and both Dion and Lilly felt the ground beneath their feet. Dion blinked and looked down at the blacktop beneath him. He could see the parking lot all around them and the white paint for the parking spaces. He glanced at his wristwatch and noted their actual time was three minutes difference from the moment they encountered the cheerleader elementals to their return. The sun was high in the heaven and he felt it on his back. Now he needed to locate Sean and Emily while he still had the time and ability to rescue them. Edward claimed the keys would work. It seemed silly, but Edward had never lied to them yet. And all of his advice was golden so far.

The cheerleaders were twenty yards in front of them. They were in the process of loading the dazed forms of Sean and Emily into the back of Emily’s car. Dion couldn’t tell from this distance if they had anything in mind or just wanted to get them out of the parking lot. What frightened him was the absolute look of serenity on Sean’s face and the calm face of Emily. He’d never seen them this way before and it told him something was definitely wrong. Now he understood the “cage of the mind” Edward had informed him about. These two were somewhere else entirely.

Dion counted twelve cheerleader elementals around the car. They would only need one to drive the car, one or two more could ride-along and the rest could transform into wind gusts. Edward was correct again; they didn’t plan to put them inside the clock tower where his parents were imprisoned. For some reason, the elementals had decided to take them off-site.

Dion had no way to know what they were up to, other than some other plan, which involved the abduction of his friends. It didn’t matter; they would use them as pawns again, pieces in the game to manipulate him.

They’d cornered him right outside the hobby store and used his need to make contact with the Air Elemental Grandmaster to trap his friends. He had to do something, but the only tool he understood he had was the Cadillac keys Edward handed to him before they were sent back to this world. It was a crazy idea, but the only one he could play right now. Whatever earth elementals he could summon would be useless against the ones from the air.

“Stay behind me and don’t look at them,” Dion told Lilly. “You heard what Edward said. They get inside your mind and make a cage out of it. Look what they’ve done to Sean and Emily. I can’t let them do it to you.” He dropped one hand down behind himself and let her clasp it gently.

The cheerleaders stopped what they were doing when they saw Dion approach them. The one called Randi was closing the door on the backseat where the smiling forms of Emily and Sean were seated. Another one of them nudged her and she turned around to face the advancing form of their nemesis.

Sean walked up to them slowly and continued to shield Emily behind him. In his fist, he held the Cadillac keys and made sure they could not see them. He had no intention of playing this right away. They might want to get Lilly too, but he wasn’t about to use her as bait.

“Hello, Dionnnn,” a line of four cheerleaders said at the same time. Their voices merged together and created a melody of venom.