Deadly to Love (16 page)

By the looks of it, the E.Ks had cleared all of the air Elementals and there were only a few fire ones left. Due to all the chaos, and killing though they had become increasingly wary of the E.Ks and their attention was focused more on them, than the elements they were controlling. The houses were obstructing my view slightly as the E.Ks pushed them further back, forcing the Elementals into one group. From what I could make out there were three left, but they were using the fire to shield themselves by obstructing the E.Ks’ view and keep them at bay because of the heat.

A sign that I must have missed signalled all the E.Ks to move at once and within seconds, each gun rang out. The energy that consumed all three fire Elementals as they died was blinding when it was combined. I saw Kai shield his face, as he stayed to make sure they were all gone. The other man and woman were already walking away from the scene to meet up, holstering their guns as they went, yet Kai stayed where he was for a little longer.

The fire was still burning as Kai finally moved, but the tornadoes had vanished with the Elementals that were controlling them. It wasn’t the E.Ks job to deal with the damage after though, that was left up to the emergency services; the E.Ks were only around to make sure the Elementals were destroyed and therefore allowed the services to do their job.

Kai was finally walking towards the other E.Ks, only unlike the others he kept his gun drawn and his stance alert. The chat was as brief as before, Kai hugged the woman, and shook hands with the guy before they all went their separate ways, Kai heading back towards me.

As he drew nearer I could see his face was a mixture of anger, disgust and annoyance. He took long, powerful strides and only when he reached the car door did he release the frightening grip he had on his gun. When he got in the car and exhaled heavily, I was unsure as to what I was meant to do or say, so just stayed silent. Instead I just watched him. Kai was covered in black smudges from the fire and his shirt had a slight rip in it. Sweat was dripping from his face and body, but surprisingly he still looked like a super model. The whole ordeal had only taken a matter of minutes but it seemed to go on forever as I sat there watching the events like a movie.

“Are you OK?” I asked tentatively, unable to stand the silence anymore. He didn’t move or respond for a second but then he turned his head to look at me finally. The rage that was present on his face before had diminished and a smile now replaced it as he watched me.

“Of course. Alanah was lucky though, I was almost too late to get it. How you holding up with all this though? It must have been quite a shock seeing all of that. I’m surprised you haven’t fainted on me again.”

I just nodded as I couldn’t find the words to describe how I was feeling.

“What would have happened if the Elemental had reached her?”

His face turned grim at something he was thinking.

“I’ll explain that when we get somewhere safe, now is not the time.”

I sighed, getting used to him delaying the answers to my questions.

“So what now?” I asked as he put the guns back in his bag and leaned in to start the engine.

“I have a place we can lay low at for a while in Rinsk. I haven’t been there in awhile so we’ll need to get some supplies but we should be safe there until we figure out what we want to do next. Does that sound okay?” He pulled the car away from the pavement and onto the road as he spoke.

“Don’t know why you’re checking with me, I don’t have a better idea or anywhere else to stay. Plus you’re not a very good kidnapper if one; you tell me where you are taking me and two; then ask me if that is okay.”

He laughed at me, and my half serious joke broke the slight tension that hung between us after what had just happened. “Yeah yeah, why can’t you just admit you like being with me? You could have gone home remember, you just refused to part with the necklace. Plus I never actually forced you to stay, you just never left.”

He had a point there so I shut up, frustrated that he had won, yet again.

“OK so are we going to buy supplies?” At the mention of money, I remembered I was still holding the wad of notes and the identity badge he had given to me. “Oh here, you probably want these back too.” I reached out to hand him the items but he only took his badges back.

“Keep the money, you might need it at some point and I’d feel more comfortable if you had it in case of an emergency.”

“Kai... there’s like three hundred pounds here, I can’t keep this.”

He shook his head, cutting me off.

“No, keep it, you might need it.”

Reluctantly I put the money into my bag, just as we pulled up to another shop. Kai was about to get out of the car when I grabbed the back of his shirt, pulling him back into his seat.

“You can’t go in there looking like that.”

He looked slightly insulted by my comment. “Why not? I look good.” His eyes creased slightly as he smiled at me.

“That’s not the point. People are going to stare at you if you walk in there covered in dirt, coal and with rips in your clothes.”

He laughed.

“So what? I’ll just tell them I got caught in the fire if they ask, which they won’t.”

I grumbled in response, not keen on the idea of having to walk around with him looking like that.

“I don’t have a spare shirt with me at the moment, I threw the last one away after the encounter at the beach.” He shrugged and I stepped out of the car, muttering under my breath about him being an embarrassment.

We strolled into the shop hand in hand and I was thankful Kai hadn’t put up a fuss about me staying in the car like last time.

“So what do we need, besides clothes for you?” I asked.

“Food mostly. We still have the toiletries from the service station so unless you want anything that’s it.”

In my head I was trying to figure out how we were going to fit everything in the Lamborghini and when I questioned Kai about this he just laughed at me.

“We’re only getting some basic essentials today. Once we get settled in Rinsk I have a four by four there so I’ll go back out and pick up some more supplies so we can stay holed up for a bit longer.” He had dropped my hand and had wound his arm around my waist as we walked down the aisles, pulling out random items we wanted.

We had only been in the shop for a few minutes and already we were attracting weird glances and murmurs from other people in the store.

“Do you mind if I wait in the car?”

He didn’t say anything, just pulled the keys out of his jean pocket and handed them to me, probably guessing that I was embarrassed.

I hadn’t been sat in the car long when my phone started to vibrate.

“Hello.” I answered before checking the caller ID

“Rea?”

Oh my god, why can’t I just learn to use caller ID, it would save me so many awkward calls?
I thought as I heard Ian’s voice on the other end of the phone.

“Um what do you want Ian? I’m a little busy right now.”

“Busy doing what?”

I sighed at the intonation in his voice, suspiciously accusing me of something.

“It doesn’t matter what I’m doing. Why did you phone?” I looked at my fingernails as I waited for him to reply.

“I just wanted to apologise for what happened the other day and was hoping it wouldn’t ruin the chances of us staying mates.”

Mentally I groaned. This was the last conversation I wanted to be having right now. My silence must have gone on too long as he spoke again. “So, what do you think?”

“Yeah sure, whatever,” I said dismissively, my attention caught by something at the other end of the car park.

Forgetting I still held the mobile to my ear I screamed as I realised what I was staring at.

“Shit that hurt Rea. What’s wrong?”

I couldn’t answer him. The Elemental that I had seen was now facing me, obviously attracted by my scream.

“Rea what’s going on?” Ian sounded panicked by my sudden scream and silence.

“Sorry...I have...I have to go,” I stuttered, while not taking my eyes off the being. Hanging up on Ian I dialled Kai’s number and he picked up on the second ring.

“Rea what is it?” His voice was wary and alert instantly.

“There’s an Elemental outside and it’s sort of staring at me. I think it’s an earth one,” I whispered, afraid it would hear me.

“OK, I’ve just paid, I’ll be there now.” As he spoke I watched the Elemental move closer towards me. It got so close that I could clearly see its features. The top half of its body definitely appeared to look like a human woman’s figure and it had long sleek hair, cascading over its shoulders.

When my eyes saw its face I gasped. It was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. Every inch of its complexion was flawless and perfectly in proportion. The beauty was unnerving, especially as I had seen the creatures in action.

As it came closer towards me I looked more at its body. Green tendrils that looked like flames, entwined with ivy immersed the being’s body, surrounding it with its elements energy. The colour became more pronounced at the base of it where its feet should have been if it were human.

The being looked so delicate, dressed in its ivy gown, as it drew nearer. I found it impossible to look away and it kept staring at me too. It was like the rest of the world didn’t exist and it was just me and her. Then suddenly her face changed into an ugly mask of pain. The Elemental began to shake uncontrollably before the green flames that surrounded it started to tighten around its body, engulfing it.

There was a sudden flash of light which caused my arm to instinctively rise to shield my face and then nothing. When my eyes had adjusted I saw Kai stood on the other side of the car park, near the shop’s entrance, holstering a gun. He picked up the few bags he had and broke out into a run before hurriedly packing the shopping away and getting into the driver’s seat.

For the first time since I’d known him, Kai acted like he was scared or at least really worried.

“We have to get to my house in Rinsk,” he stated, pulling out of the car park too quickly.

“Kai what’s wrong?” I asked, freaked out by his reaction. I mean he had just gone up against at least twelve Elementals a few hours ago and he hadn’t looked like that.

“That Elemental saw you. It got so close it could see every detail about you so I’m guessing it also saw the necklace.” I gasped at the realisation. I had forgotten all about the necklace when staring at the Elemental.

“Why does that matter though? You killed it, it’s not like it can tell any more of its kind.”

“It has told them already.”

I gave him a confused look, as I was not sure what he was saying.

“The Elementals are all connected. They are the heart of this island and were the first inhabitants before us, or your ancestors to be exact. This is sort of like their island and they can communicate with each other. We are not sure how but we guess it’s like telepathy. Anyway that Elemental would have already told them about you and the necklace and its death will have been recorded because of the loss of energy.”

He sighed before continuing. “Which means, they know you are in possession of the necklace and your last position on Mavera. They also know you are either dangerous and can kill them or you are with someone possessing the knowledge to kill their kind, neither of which are good things. They’ll really be looking for you now.”

I was scared out of my mind by his statement but there was a small part of me that couldn’t quite believe something so beautiful, pure and perfect could be so harmful.

“So we have to get to Rinsk quickly to try and avoid them following or finding us.”

I muttered an okay nervously, as we sped down the motorway, with Kai driving way over the speed limit everywhere.

The drive to Kai’s house seemed surprisingly short to me. Although that was probably due to the fact that I fell asleep more than once on the journey. However I awoke more frequently as the road increased in roughness and I ended up being thrown about more often, so I soon gave up on trying to sleep after hitting my head on the door a few times.

“How can you stay awake for so long?” I asked my voice groggy from tiredness. I stretched to try and ease the ache in my muscles but it was undoubtedly difficult in the cramped, confined space of the car.

“I’m used to going long periods of time without sleep. Being an E.K on call twenty-four, seven does have some consequences. I only get about three hours maximum, four if it’s a good night.” He shrugged off the comment like it was no big deal but all I could think of was that I had trouble staying awake after getting nine hours.

Who knows what I’d be like if I only got three hours.

“How long have we got left until we arrive?” He glanced at the glowing, red clock on the dashboard that read 7:08pm, meaning that we had been in the car for two and a half hours.

“Only about another twenty minutes. It’s taking longer because I had to slow down. This car isn’t built to drive on roads like this.”

As he spoke I checked out the surroundings. It was just starting to get dark outside but I could still see the black outlines of the trees that surrounded us on either side of the narrow road.

“Why are we in a forest?” I asked, a slight hint of fear creeping into my voice as I was unnerved by the fact that we were in a place where Elementals were most likely to inhabit.

“Because the house is located in the forest. Don’t worry we’ll be safe there, I’ve hardly had any Elemental sightings when I’ve stayed here,” he said, but something about it didn’t sound very encouraging.

“And how often do you stay here?” I said slowly, my tone wary.

“Whenever I’m in the area.” His avoidance of a definite answer unnerved me even more as I knew what he was going on to say.

“I have to say, that isn’t very often, but the four times I’ve been here since buying the place have been peacefully silent.”

I was dumbfounded by his statement and my eyes were wide in shock as I watched him to see if he was joking. I saw nothing that led me to believe that or to make me doubt his words though.