DAMAGED - A Bad Boy Romance (51 page)

“So far no sign of Karanzen or any of his thugs,” Dion said to the group. “I’m hoping this will be the one day we don’t have to put up with him.”

“Someone I should know about?” Captain Gabriel asked him. The captain remained standing. He knew Salacia would be here soon enough and wanted to be the first one to see her. Inside his heart, he missed her deeply and wished there was some way he could reconcile with her. But he would be an old man soon and she didn’t look much older than thirty, although she was well over two hundred years old. He wished at times that he’d never decided to renounce his immortality. Why hadn’t she told him she was an elemental worker when they first met?

“Officer Karanzen,” Dion told him. “He’s in charge of mall security. He has tried every day to keep me from reaching an elemental grandmaster. He’s not quite human anymore and thinks he can scare us with his little tricks. But he has security guards who work for him and you never know when they will get in the way. He tried to keep us from entering the mall this morning, but we entered with the water elementals when they mobbed the door. I haven’t seen him around since then, but it’s only a matter of time.”

“I’ll keep a watch for him,” the captain replied. “He won’t be able to do anything to me, even if I’m mortal. One of the advantages of being from the mountain is that we’re immune from any elemental action.”

James was busy talking his favorite subject over with Cynae: chess. She was listening intently to every world he said. Her light blond hair was over one shoulder as she leaned forward in her tracksuit to listen to him. James took a good half hour to describe his winning move at the last tournament where he played to her and she sat there transfixed on every word he said. This was a new experience to him.

Most of the time, the girls in school would look at their watch and find an excuse to leave if he tried to tell one of them about a game. It wasn’t as exciting as football or any other of the team sports the school pushed so hard. In fact, next year the chess club would be known as the chess ‘team’ and anyone who was a member would be able to get a letter for their jacket. They were even thinking of a name for the new team. The favored name was the ‘Kings’. It seemed to fit.

They sat in a small ice cream parlor, which was one of several in the mall. This one was part of a nation franchise. James remembered when it was a small place near his parents’ house where they would go on hot evenings in the summer. The line would grow long as the small town had few other places to go in the warmer months. Before the mall opened, if you wanted some adventure, you went downtown to Scipio.

“So you had him in a gambit and he didn’t even know?” Cynae asked him. “I would have taken out his rook a lot quicker than what you did, but you won the game, so it doesn’t matter.”

“How could you have taken out his rook?” he asked her. “He had it defended by the queen.”

“Oh, it’s not too hard if you plan ahead.” Cynae took the salt, peppershakers from the next table, and began to assemble a layout where she showed him how, with spoons and forks added, how easy it would have been to do it earlier. Every time he voiced an objection, she showed him a way it could be done even if his opponent had made some uncommon moves. By the end of an hour, he sat there stunned at her strategy and planning.

“You’ve played this game a lot,” he said to her.

“We all have,” she said. “Next to ‘go’, it’s popular with us.”

“You play go?” James asked. His ice cream had melted while he listened to Cynae and her descriptions of chess moves. Go was a game he knew a little bit about, just never had much of a chance to play.”

“Yes, we play it all the time on the rocks. You only need different colored stones to have a game and those are easy enough to find. I wish we had a board and I could play now.”

“I’m sure there would be a way we could sketch one out,” he told her.

Just that instant, James noticed three women enter the ice cream parlor. There was something strange about them, but he tried not to pay much attention to the trio. Each wore some kind of uniform and appeared to be searching for something. Ten seconds later their eyes and Cynae’s locked together as they made contact. Nothing was said, but James saw the anger build in Cynae’s face as she watched the trio walk over to them.

Chapter 11

“What do we have here?” the first said to the one next to her. “I think their profile matches the shoplifters we’ve been after the past two months.”

“Yes it does,” the second answered. “Guess you two kids will need to come with us.”

James noticed the name of the security company on their uniforms, which the mall employed to guard the place. It was the same one Karanzen and his men officially worked for in the mall. Dion lacked the opportunity to tell James about the security chief and why he wanted him out of the mall. They all appeared to be in their thirties and wore silver badges over their uniforms. Each had their black hair tied back. They wore dresses with their uniforms and high heels. The heels were a giveaway something was wrong with them, but James had no way to know about it.

“You have a lot of guts coming in here and acting this way,” Cynae said to the women in front of her. “If we were back on my rock the twelve of us would take care of you quick.”

“But you’re not on the rock or in your cave,” the second of the uniformed women said to her. “You’re some place where your powers have less effect. Furthermore, you sisters are wondering around with humans they’ve glamoured. Just like you put one on this young man. Since it works both ways, you have attraction to him as well. So why don’t you just shut up and come with us?”

“Do you know these women?” James said to Cynae. He had no idea what she talked about, but ever since meeting her this afternoon, his world was disrupted.

“I know who they are,” she said. Cynae turned back to the women. “All I have to do is release him and I can concentrate fully on you three.”

“You might be able to do that,” the first woman said. “But then what happens to your young man? He can’t stand up to us and we still outnumber you three to one.”

“You wouldn’t dream of hurting him in this place.”

“Would we? We work for the man who built it. I think he’s willing to do a lot so that we can carry our mission. So if you really want to free this young man, go ahead and see what happens. But you might want to consider the possibility what we will do.

While James stood there confused, Cynae resigned herself to leaving with them. There wasn’t much else she could do at this point. They had her exactly where she was the most vulnerable.

“Let’s go,” she said to James. They left the ice cream parlor with the three new water elementals disguised as security guards.

Floating around the top of the ice cream parlor was a small air elemental sylph. She had accidently blown into the blue water part of the mall earlier that day when a door opened on the outside and a rush of people sent her in with them. She wanted to get out and back into the fresh air where she could spend the day playing in the air currents. She’d been unnoticed by the water elementals down on the ground. Just as she thought it was time to leave and not attract attention, since she wasn’t supposed to be in this part of the mall, the sylph spotted the confrontation between James, Cynae, and the three uniformed elementals. She recognized him as part of the elemental worker’s group who was over in the hall.

It occurred to her she might be able to trade some favors for this bit of information. As soon as the door opened again to the parlor, she shot out into the main concourse of the mall in search of Dion. No one noticed her leave, other than another chess club guy and his elemental girlfriends. The elemental looked up and wondered why an air sylph was in the water part of the mall and why was it in such a hurry to get out. But she said nothing as her boyfriend was babbling about comic books and she was eager to learn more from him.

“Have you seen any of the chess club guys?” Dion spoke a few minutes later. “I know they’re wandering around the mall with their new girlfriends, but I thought some of them would have returned by now.”

“Not a one,” Dennis spoke. He was still in heaven with his elemental girl as they cuddled on the bench. Dion began to feel like a chaperone at a dance when he noticed Sean and Emily in their own state of nirvana. He felt something from behind and turned to see Lilly starring at him with her big brown eyes. What was it that these elemental possessed which caused such bliss to break out among people? Even the shoppers walking down the corridor started to make contact as they passed them. Husbands and wives who’s entered the mall angry at each other where touching for the first time in years.

“She should be around here soon,” the captain said as he consulted his watch. He wore a big mariner’s watch on his wrist. It was built sturdily to be used on ocean vessels. The watch was sealed in a special case so it could survive a sudden plunge underwater.

The captain paced back and forth. He seemed out of place in this mall. People in Ohio only thought about the sea when on vacation. It was too far away for even a weekend trip. With the Pacific Ocean far away across the Rocky Mountains on one end and the Atlantic separated by another mountain range, there wasn’t much of a casual opportunity to visit them. Even the gulf region was so far away it didn’t make a difference. When people spoke about the beach, it usually meant the one at a lake.

Sean had allowed himself to be a bystander most of the time today. He didn’t mind as it gave him some time with Emily. He wished they could talk alone, but the whole reason they came to the mall today was to support Dion. To leave would be dangerous, as he wouldn’t have the coverage he needed to protect himself against his uncle. Emily had enjoyed her day too, especially after seeing the couples emerge hand-in-hand from the pool store. Perhaps something good could happen at this mall. No idiotic security guards to bother them, which was a blessing after the initial confrontation they’d encountered this morning. Somehow, she didn’t think it would last all day and she enjoyed the brief reprieve.

Dion felt an air current and saw an air elemental sylph shoot into the corridor above him. It was one of the smaller ones, but he still could communicate with it. No one else, even the sea captain, could recognize the elemental. Even Dirce looked up and saw it only with great difficulty. She decided it wasn’t anything to be concerned about and returned her attention to Dennis.

The small air sylph didn’t talk as much as send impressions to Dion. All it could tell him was that three suspicious women had taken James and Cynae out with them. Dion asked it where they’d gone and it couldn’t remember. Then it had a second thought and sent him an impression of the group entering the aquarium store toward the entrance of the mall. Dion could visualize the name of the store, Amphitrite Tropical Fish, from it as he’d walked past the place earlier in the day. The sylph wanted to know if it could get something in return for the information and Dion told it of a cloud bank which was due to roll in this evening. As an Air Elemental Master, he had some advance knowledge of the weather patterns from the sylphs who rode the storms. Dion noticed a side exit door, walked over to it, and let the small elemental fly outside.

“We’ve got another problem,” Dion told his crew when he returned. “There is someone else in the mall working against us. I just had a small air elemental tell me three women pulled James and Cynae out of an ice cream parlor and took them over to the aquarium.”

“Any clue who it might be?” the captain asked.

“If they’re in this part of the mall, I would guess some kind of water elemental. It sounds like my uncle had a back-up plan and just initiated it.”

Dion closed his eyes and tried to get a visual on the three women the sylph had shown him by way of an impression before it left. What he could see wasn’t quite as clear as a photograph and it was filtered through the sylph’s sensations. They had uniforms on and left without much resistance from the couple. He felt something very strange about them and then the faces were clear.

“They’re the same three women who took care of me when I was little,” he said. “The same ones who tried to do me harm until the truck driver intervened. Now they’re back.”

When he saw the confused look on the captain’s face, he explained what happened with the elemental nannies that’d raised him until he was just about ready for school.

“Did you parents ever give you a reason for why they acted that way?” the captain asked him.

“Never,” Dion said. “They didn’t want to talk about it.”

“I walked past that aquarium store when I came into the mall,” the captain continued. “It seemed a little funny, but I didn’t stop long to check it out.”

“We can assume it’s where the rest of the chess club and other Naiads are right now,” Dion said. “I don’t want to storm the place, but we need to find out why they were taken there. Fortunately, I have the map.” He unrolled it on the bench and looked at the papyrus while the captain strained his head to get a look. “It’s a special map, it shows places you won’t find on the regular ones.”

Dion looked the map over and tried to make it out. The words became fuzzy, but he was able to find most of the landmarks near the mall entrance. However, no aquarium was listed on it. There were the usual mall stores and places not open to the general public, but he could not find a trace of the aquarium supply store he’s seen earlier in the day. It had to be there as the captain had noted it too.

As he looked at the map, the letters began to fade and slowly lose their coherence. The light faded from his background and he realized that he was being taken from the mall and sent somewhere else. He could’ve resisted the transfer, but at this time he needed all the information he could find and the person who was sending him elsewhere just might have a valuable piece he needed. He waited for the transfer to complete and closed his eyes until he felt the warm sun of a desert on his face.

Dion opened his eyes and found himself in the familiar Egyptian landscape. This time it was Mr. Jehuti alone who greeted him. Dion didn’t wear the robes of the old kingdom as he’d done before, but stood in the same jeans and jacket he’d worn before the transfer. This had to be very important for it to happen so fast without any time to adjust his appearance. He was alone this time, which meant he was transferred in the fastest way possible.

“Good afternoon, Dion,” Mr. Jehuti said. He was alone and wore the same suit and tie as the one he kept on at his newsstand. “I needed to speak to you right away and didn’t have time to make many adjustments. I hope you don’t mind. When you return, it will be at the same time you left, give or take a second. So you don’t have to worry about tarrying very long.”

“Why is the map unreadable?” he asked the newsstand owner. “And why can’t I see the aquarium store where my friends have been taken?”

“Your uncle has found a way to interfere again. He has many resources at his fingers because he built the mall over the abyss.”

“Who took my friends?”

“You uncle had another group of water elementals on stand-by in case he had some problems with his first plan. The second groups of elementals have used the same strategy with your friends who are wandering around the mall with the water elemental Naiads.”

“Why doesn’t the aquarium supply store appear on my map?” Dion demanded.

“Because it didn’t exist until yesterday. Your uncle was able to recruit these three water elementals at the last minute. He placed the store there just in case he needed them, but it didn’t go into operation until yesterday. There is a human owner of it, but she knows nothing of his plans. He’s managed to recruit all kinds of bad elementals from the water domain to stock it, so it’s not your ordinary fish supply store. I’m telling you this because you have to get in there and rescue your friends before it’s too late. He’s found a way to bind the Naiad sisters into the place so you can’t get them out as easily as you did the last time. Your uncle has become desperate and is turning to desperate measures to stop you from obtaining all your powers.”

Dion turned and looked up at the sky. The bug was still moving the sun across the heavens and the ship was still sailing behind it. Funny how nothing changed in this location. It was outside the circles of time and he didn’t have a clue where it was located. In the distance, he could see another pyramid under construction. The farmers were singing some work song as they hauled another block of stone on a sled across the sands. Hard to imagine they needed the sled and oxen to do it when it was possible to transfer him from his own time circle. What would they sing when the pyramid was finished? Would the farmers and engineers start on a bigger and more impressive pyramid than the last one?

“If you can send me here right in the middle of all the trouble we have in my time circle,” he asked, “why can’t you deal with my uncle for me and free my parents?”

“Because
you
have to do it. It’s in the rules. You have to find the four elemental grandmasters on your own and you need to overcome whatever adversity is in your path. I’m allowed to help, but not directly intervene. If we did that all the time, what good would this quest be?”

“What else is he planning to do when I rescue the chess club guys who are in the aquarium? I don’t think he uses the same stagey each time. My uncle didn’t get control of his father’s company by using the same plans for each market.”

“He’ll try to ambush you with Karanzen and the security guards when you leave. You can rest assured of that. Karanzen is desperate too, but I don’t think he is so stupid as to use firearms inside the mall. The first time a gun is discharged in the mall, no one will ever come back. One of the attractions of an indoor mall is that it provides a safe place for people to ship in a controlled environment. Lose that advantage and the mall no longer becomes a good shopping option.”