Hurricane (The Charmed) (16 page)

“Chase, we’ll put Lyla in jeopardy, calm your anger!”

Chase covered his face and knelt on the ground. The air calmed down and the buzzing went away. Mr. M was visibly shaken but the fact that Chase could stop the anger said something. Power might not overtake him.

“Let’s get a room. You four stay here. I’m going to check in to the hotel. With any luck we’ll find out what room they have her in.”

They were in room 216. The hotel was frayed and old. All the rooms opened up to the outside, the pool was green and the soda machine was right outside their door making a loud humming noise. Chase walked in and sat in the only chair. He was exhausted. The pain of Lyla being ripped from him was overwhelming. He hoped they could locate her fast and get the heck out of here.

Brendan sat on one of the beds, Kayla on the other with Jaden. Mr. M stood by the window, pulled the curtain back an inch and peeked out. Harley leaned against the door, clearly avoiding Brendan.

“So what’s the story, Mr. M?” Harley spoke up.

“First of all, I want to ask you all to not judge me until I’ve finished with the story. I’ll try and get through it quickly so we can get the hell out of here.”

“When I was a senior in high school I became obsessed with Occlusion.” He stared at his hands not wanting to look up. “I had a best friend in those days that shared my geeky love of it. His name was James McGillicuddy.” He looked up at Harley at the same moment she gasped.

“We studied it, asked questions, learned everything we needed to know about it. We graduated and started Polk Community College together. It wasn’t a four year college back then.” He added as a side note. “He paced away from the window, feeling trapped by everyone’s eyes. “Soon we asked too many questions and it brought other people to us.” He waited a beat. “Emily and Ted Fountaine. They were already married and done with college. James and I were so excited to meet people with the same affinity as us. It gave our academic take on it some merit. I met Veronica, James met Hailey. Harley, you were named for her.” He stopped for a moment and looked around the room. Everyone’s eyes were fixed on him.

“Pretty soon Emily had you, Chase, Harley and Jaden came along right after. We were all such good friends. We had barbecues and pool parties. I found a job teaching and James worked at the power plant. But things started to change. Emily and Ted kept pushing to locate the next heir who would be in two-thousand thirteen. All of us realized our children would be of age that year. Hailey started to get nervous. James bowed out of the group first, telling us it wasn’t fun anymore. I continued for a while longer…I regret that to this day. My studies found all the lines joined here in Lakeland. I made the discovery with Ted in the room. He was obsessed, mad even. Veronica and I had fights about my work on it. I told her I would try to get out but it wasn’t as easy as that...Hailey had the first accident a car veered off the road and hit her. Veronica died two weeks later. Both Jaden and Harley were six.” He stopped for a moment lost in thought.

“Anyway, we received a note sealed with an ancient rune of secrecy telling us our children were next if we moved, which made us realize that our wives were victims of murder. Harley, your father blamed himself for her death, that’s why he continued to say he killed your mother. He didn’t. James started drinking and I became a recluse. Working and staying home, never leaving except to shop late at night in obscure grocery stores. I didn’t want to be anywhere close to the group if I didn’t have to.

“Do you think my parents were involved?”

“No, Chase. But I think the people they know and are in their circles, which are a bunch of fanatics, might have. People would do anything for power or to control power. Your gifts, if shaped correctly, could possibly rule the world. I never told your parents one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“That the power very well could change to a boy this time. Everything was pointing to a change-up. They must think Lyla is the receiver like all the others were.”

Chase stood. “They had no idea the receiver was with them the whole time. My god. That’s why you made me keep it a secret.”

“Yep.”

“What are they going to do to Lyla?”

“I don’t know. I left that group years ago, I don’t know what their plans are. My guess is, they’re headed to meet another group.”

Chase glanced at the mirror over the dresser. A figure was emerging. He moved closer. Lyla was in the mirror. She was in the bathroom. She held up a paper.

“Someone get me some paper!” Brendan handed him the phone book off the nightstand.

Chase said the spell, words appeared:
I’m in room 210.

She put her hand to her head, moved it to the right listening for a noise it seemed. Chase could see blood all over the left side of her scalp. A collective gasp went through the room. When her face came forward he could see bruising starting on her cheek and a gash just above her right eye.

We’ll be there, erase this Lyla. I love you.

Lyla put her hands to her mouth and a tear fell down her cheek. She wiped the paper clean. They made eye contact, Chase mouthed to stay in the bathroom.

She shook her head. The mirror was wiped to black. Chase ran to the door but Mr. M, figuring he would go to the room without thinking, had Brendan bar the door.

“Let me through.” Chase said through clenched teeth.

“Chase, think about it, if we just go barreling in there, they would knock us off one at a time.”

“They’re hurting her!”

“Yes, we know. If we work on a plan, we can all get out alive and with her, got it?” Brendan wasn’t budging, at two-hundred and sixty five pounds and six foot five; Chase was in no position to move him.

“I could move you like I did Jaden.”

Mr. M stepped forward. “If you do that while you’re emotionally compromised, you could kill him.”

Chase walked over to the bed and sat down, head in his hands and screamed.

“So we draw them out.” Kayla spoke up for the first time. “We gather together, create an explosion that makes them come out of the room to look.”

Everyone stared at Kayla.

Jaden joined in. “Yeah, when they run out, one of us runs in to get her and we bring her here. They won’t know she’s gone until she’s safe.” He looked over at Kayla, “Where are we going to get the explosion?”

“I’ve been working on a little trick. Something I picked up while sulking. I can cut something with my mind, like a pipe of a gas tank. Say Harley just happened to have her fireball handy she could throw at it?”

“You’re talking about their car?

“Why not? If it was someone else’s they wouldn’t care. We would debilitate their ability to get away and make them come out of the room all at the same time.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Mr. M was shaking his head. “Let’s give it a shot, and the sooner the better.”

They stood and walked out of the room. Jaden held Kayla back. “What did you originally plan to do with that trick?”

Kayla looked away.

He held her by the arms. “Kayla, when are you going to realize there are other people in the world who care about you?” A hint of sadness and anger were mixed together.

She snapped her head around. “I don’t need anyone to care about me.”

Jaden shrugged and let go of her. “Everyone needs someone.” He walked out after the others.

Kayla slumped to the bed and sobbed.

The room Lyla was in was at the opposite end of the complex from where they were. Harley scooted ahead dodging around halls and windows as stealthy as she could while the rest held back. Harley was back quickly. “Their car is a good twenty feet away from the room. I think Chase may need to push it with that crazy force he has as soon as the explosion starts.”

Mr. M started walking. “That’s a great plan, let’s go.” He checked his watch.

Jaden sidled up next to his Dad. “What aren’t you telling us?”

“There’s probably more either on their way or already here. I want to get her before they show up. This was one of their plans. Basically annihilation of the whole hotel while forcing the power out of the host. Their goal had been to get the power and kill the person. Power like this doesn’t come along too often.”

“Is it really possible to do that?”

Mr. M stopped and stared at Jaden, the others were a good two hundred feet back. “Yes. Yes it is. It’s not pretty to witness either. Other’s with a lot less have it done to them they’re reduced to nothing, even death. This group is fast and swift and I’m embarrassed to have been associated with them.”

Harley and Jaden caught up. Brendan was lagging behind with Kayla. Two wounded souls coming up the rear. Chase stopped just short of the office and hid behind a soda machine. The rest of them continued to the far side of the street. Chase was grateful they were on the ground floor. He watched the car, the gas began to flow and the fireball was centered exactly to its target. Harley was good. The car went up in a ball of fire. The explosion was loud. Chase held up his hand and concentrated force in waves toward the heat.

The rooms all opened. Chases’ parents ran out of their room. Chase waited until they were distracted and running toward the car and he ran into the room. Lyla was sitting in a chair gagged and tied up. He picked her up in his arms and ran out the door. He turned right to dodge behind the wall but a familiar man was there, the janitor from school. He ran around the office and bolted for the street.

Kayla put her hands out and swirled dirt in a cyclone to obscure their vision. Chase made it to the others and laid Lyla on the grass. He untied her arms and undid the tie for her mouth.

“I can’t help. They drugged me.”

“Drugged you? Not a spell?”

“No. They said it would be too easy for me to break.” Lyla slumped back down on the grass. “I’m so tired.” Her left eye had swollen shut.

Chase stood and turned. He was really pissed. He threw a force of energy at the crowd of onlookers. He could see a group of people gathering. The re-enforcements for his parents had showed up. He was angry beyond reason. Chase threw a force of power at the crowd so strong it shattered all the hotel windows. Most were thrown against the building. By throwing his energy, Chase blew away the dust storm as well. They were exposed. Kayla moved the smoke between them. Harley gathered a fireball and hurled it toward the group.

Kayla reached behind her and a quiver of arrows appeared. Chase made a tree topple in front of them, Jaden flicked his fingers forward and a ring of blades few from his hands. Brendan drew a blade out of the air, circled it in an ark over his head. It broke apart into four section and small daggers flew at the crowd.

Kayla aimed an arrow at a woman advancing on Harley, the arrow struck the woman’s leg and she went down. A man dressed in black came at Brendan with a long sword. Brendan’s arm was sliced but just a little. Harley threw a fireball at the man in black, his chest erupted with fire. Brendan stood up and nodded at Harley as a thank you.

Jaden threw a blade ring at a woman advancing through the fog of smoke. It was Emily Fountaine. She dropped, her arm had been hit. Jaden stopped and stared at Mr. Fountaine. He ran to his wife’s side.

“You have no idea what you’re up against Jaden. We’re just a small group, there are thousands more, and they’re all headed here for her.”

Chase stopped hurling objects and stared at his father. “How could you?”

“Don’t be so melodramatic, Chase. We have big plans for….” He stopped talking and stared at Chase’s arm. “What?”

“Yeah, I was under your nose the whole time.” Before he could react to Chase’s words, Chase threw energy at them so hard it blew them past the hotel. While Chase had been distracted by his parents, the large group had doubled. Harley couldn’t throw fireballs fast enough, Brendan was standing guard in front of her making no progress with his sword. Mr. M was kneeling next to Jaden, who had been struck in the arm and Kayla was firing arrow after arrow but missed as many as she landed.

Just behind Chase, Lyla had gathered enough energy to stand. Chase turned just in time to see a lethal spell in the form of a bolt of energy hit her square in the chest. Chase lowered his hand and ducked. The area looked to be in slow motion. Everyone ran for Lyla. Chase didn’t remember moving his feet but somehow he ended up at Lyla first. Chase scooped her up off the ground and her head fell back, hair grazing the ground.

“Lyla!” Chase screamed. The others stood guard, forming a semi-circle in front of the two. Jaden wielding his blades, blood dripping down his arm. Harley throwing flames out as fast as she could, Brendan threw daggers. The assault came at them more fierce than before. More of the opposition was gathering. Chase buried his face into Lyla’s hair, he felt her power draining and used it, he thought of a chain broken then mended. At the bottom of the chain was a heart, her heart. He filled it with power, emotion and need. The need he had for her to live. It was a spell older than the heavens. Chase held Lyla tight. A beam of light shot out of him like a sonic boom. Everyone was knocked off their feet.

The area was silent. Leaves fell from the trees, dust came down and settled. Harley stood up. She had hit her head against Brendan’s. “Christ you have a hard head.” She rubbed where they hit each other.

“You okay?” Brendan sat up a few feet away from where he had been. Harley was draped across him. He looked around. Jaden was standing, Kayla was on her knees, Brendan followed Jaden’s gaze. Chase and Lyla were gone.

Jaden ran over to where they had been. A black scorch mark made a perfect outline of their bodies. Jaden looked around, the opposition was leaving. Jaden looked at Brendan and walked back to him. “They’re gone. Brendan, they’re gone.” He rubbed his eyes. Tears ran down his face. “Where did they go? They’re gone!”

Brendan, Harley and Kayla joined Jaden at the spot. Harley bent down and inspected the ground. “No sign of their death Jaden, I don’t think they’re dead.”

“Then where are they? How did he do that?”

“How did he throw you a few months ago? How did he read our mind? How did he feel Lyla? Chase has gifts dude. We all underestimated how powerful he’s become.”