Ryder on the Storm: Emerald Seer I (21 page)

“Ah, you are awake. Good.” Jasper moved into Ryder’s line of vision, a smug look on his face. “There is more than one way to get what I want. You all worried so much about protecting my daughter that you were careless in protecting yourselves.”

“She does not need protection.” Ryder glared at his captor. “What good am I? You cannot kill me.”

Jasper laughed at him, the creepy cackle he seemed to enjoy. “I don’t have to kill you. I can maim you. You are immortal but you don’t regenerate parts that are magically removed.” He gestured to a surgical table at the side of the room. “I intend to enjoy this immensely.” Jasper actually licked his lips, like a demented villain off an old cartoon. He walked over to the table and ran his hand along the edge of the table, clearly determining which weapon to choose. Ryder had dealt with madmen before; he’d even been in this position before.

“The Brethren will hunt you down like a dog. Especially your father, I think he would enjoy it.” Ryder knew he’d struck the right cord immediately. Jasper tensed then relaxed and turned to face Ryder.

“Mind tricks won’t work with me. Mentioning my father as if it would trouble me. He is nothing. You are nothing. Immortals will cease to exist once I reclaim the power my daughter stole from me.”

“No mind tricks, Jasper. You would require a mind in order for such things to work. You have clearly lost yours.” Ryder faked boredom, “I mean, look at this. A meat packing plant not two miles from your daughter’s home where she sits with two seraphs and four Immortals at her beck and call? Only a fool would attempt such a feat against Storm.”

“You are just trying to shake me. I am no fool, I have planned this for years. Perhaps I did not see all variables but I built in a certain amount of flexibility. While I work on you here, my hybrids are surrounding Willow Wood. And I am certain my daughter has found my message by now.” Jasper returned to fingering the tools. He’d select one and then shake his head and mumble something as he set it back down.

“Talking to oneself is a sign of insanity, Jasper.” Ryder had loosened the restraints on his wrists, a poor tie job with old rope by the feel of it. He did not think Jasper had tied the ropes. The chains on his feet were clearly magically enforced but if he could use his hands Ryder would stand a better chance of remaining intact.

Jasper slammed the cleaver onto the table causing the whole structure to rattle. “I. Am. Not. Mad. I am misunderstood. I am wronged. I am brilliant. I am not mad.”

“No, I am pretty certain you are batshit. As in, light’s on but nobody’s home, a few aces short of a full deck,” Ryder had a book of such sayings that Pollux had sent him, he worked to remember some of his favorites as he played with his restraints, “a few fries short of a happy meal, a few ants short of a picnic, a few planes short of an Air Force, all wax with no wick - ”

“Enough. I am not insane.” Jasper turned to face him, his eyes narrowing, “You are trying to rile me up, it won’t work. By the way, even if you slip out of your hand restraints, your chains are magically bound and believe me, you can’t break them.”

“…not playing with all your marbles….”

“It won’t work, Immortal.” Jasper returned to playing with his weapons. Ryder let the ropes fall to the ground. Time for a different approach. He stretched but found it impossible to take a step in any direction. However, Ryder could pick up the chair. He lifted it and flung it at Jasper. The seat of the chair hit him across the shoulders and caused the anomaly to fall forward on his table of torture with a grunt.

Storm

Storm came to in her bedroom. Several pair of eyes looked down at her. Shane sat beside her, washcloth in his hand. Roane spoke first though, “What happened?”

“Ryder went to the kitchen to make some food; I went to the study to find some books to help us plan. I got distracted and then realized I hadn’t heard him. So, I went to the kitchen to find him but he was gone. Jasper left a note staked to the counter with an athame. Then I had a vision.” Storm closed her eyes, replaying the vision in her head, not sure how it fit. She opened her mouth to relay the details when a howl shattered the silent night.

“The hybrids are here.” Without opening her eyes to look at him, she somehow knew that Lucian smiled at the prospect. In fact, she found it possible to read the emotions of everyone around her, not so much their thoughts as she could with Ryder though powerful nonetheless. Kell and Pollux had been focused on sexual energies but abruptly changed gears to mirror Lucian’s impulse to fight. Storm opened her eyes, her body suddenly very alert to the threats around them, and surprisingly aware of how many hybrids approached.

“Half a dozen are moving through the orchard, two dozen are coming through the front gate, and there are nine attempting to break in through the back door of the garage.” They all looked at her. Dan opened his mouth and then closed it. Roane nodded toward Lucian and the Scots who crept out the bedroom door. Dan released his wings and flew through the hole she’d blown Ryder through.

“Go, seraph. I will defend her. The shield of this room will help me protect her. You will be more useful out there, you know I have the right of it.” Roane sat cross-legged on the bed near her feet. Shane nodded at him and then stood.

“Babe, take care of yourself.” Releasing his wings, Shane flew off after his brother.

Storm looked at her grandfather. “He has Ryder. I want him back.”

“I know. You cannot kill him, Storm. I will not allow you to sacrifice yourself so that he can win by default. I will go for Ryder.” Roane stretched his legs and leapt off the bed in a smooth motion.

“You cannot kill him either. I will not lose the only family I have left. There is another way.” Storm looked to her grandfather.

“Storm, he is mad. My son has lost his mind, he must be put down. There is no alternative.”

“Yes, there is. I saw it. The whole vision did not make sense, but part of it did. I know what to do.” Storm pushed back the blankets and stood facing Roane. “I think it is time I meet my grandmother.”

Ryder

Ryder stood there for a long time, trying to release himself and planning dozens of ways to torture his captor. Jasper remained unconscious on his table of torturous tools. He had to give the anomaly a little credit for getting a leg up on an Immortal, especially a former enforcer, but it ended there. Ryder seethed.

“Wake up you piece of shit.” No response.

Ryder closed his eyes and reached out for Lucian. He touched his friend for a moment and knew the Immortals were engaged in battle with Jasper’s hybrids. No help there. Hopefully somebody stayed with Storm, one of the seraphs at least. No, Roane likely refused to leave her side. He reached out for Roane and Storm, hoping they were together, but ran into a mental wall of golden light. What in Hades was she up to?

Storm

Storm felt a tickle on her conscious but brushed it away. She knew who it came from and he needed to be patient. Roane felt it too, she saw it in is face at the same moment but they pushed through. Storm had learned basic summoning spells as a child but she’d only used it for art supplies and books. Summoning a deity proved to be more difficult as it turned out, even with her grandfather’s aid. Standing in the middle of her kitchen, holding his hands and surrounded by a circle of salt, Storm chanted and used Roane’s memories of Damarra to call on her. The warmth of their combined power enveloped her like a swaddled infant.

A bright white light emerged between Storm and her grandfather. She watched it take shape, growing and stretching until a lovely woman stood before her smiling broadly.

“Hello, Storm.” Her voice like tinkling bells sounded childlike and ancient all at once. Auburn locks, much like Storm’s, flowed down past her waist and the diaphanous emerald gown contrasted her peaches and cream complexion. Storm released Roane’s hands and took a step back. “You are lovelier than I ever dreamed, granddaughter. I have watched you grow and move about this world with such purpose. I met you once, when you were in Ireland. You seem so much warmer now.”

Storm exhaled, realizing she’d been holding her breath. Wow, that’s a lot of information to process on top of the fact she actually summoned her grandmother from wherever the Tuatha De resided. Emotion surged through her and Storm found herself babbling, spilling everything actually. “I – well – I don’t know how to begin. When did I meet you? I don’t remember you. My aunt died so her binding spell broke and my emotions were released and now my father has my Immortal and wants me to turn myself over to him so that he can kill me so that he can take back the power he thinks I stole from him somehow but I don’t even know how to do that and I don’t want to die.” Once Storm started, everything came out so fast and then her grandmother’s arms were around her accompanied by a sense of complete serenity. Damarra withdrew some and looked her over.

“There, that’s better. You have some work to do on controlling those emotions of yours.” She registered the other figure in the circle and frowned. “Hello, Roane.”

“Damarra, it is lovely to see you again.” Roane’s eyes flashed silver; Storm figured it must be a trait of the Immortals.

“Of course it is dear, they all do it, except Lucian but he is a wee bit different.” Damarra winked and projected into Storm’s head,
This is our way, dear. Part of my gift to you. When you care deeply enough for somebody it will be possible to commune in such a way. Sorry for eavesdropping, it just happens sometimes.

That explains a lot.
Storm realized just how much she had to learn. Ryder first. She needed him.

Damarra looked at the salt circle, whirled her hand around and the salt cleaned itself up, vanishing into the garbage can. “That’s better. So my son has your lover, my dear? That simply will not do. He only existed to allow you to be born. It seems he has lost his purpose and gone a wee nutty.”

“I’m sorry, run that by me again?” Storm’s head started to spin. No way did she hear that right.

“Which part, dear?” Damarra looked around the kitchen, absentmindedly responding to Storm. “This room is fascinating. Appliances have changed again, they are so sleek now.”

“Damarra, I think our granddaughter has not been as educated as we’d hoped.” Roane rolled his eyes and smiled at Storm. “Perhaps you could just give her the short version?”

“Well, didn’t you read the journal, dear? You should have had that on your eighteenth birthday.” Damarra ran her fingers over the handles on the refrigerator doors and opened one. She laughed, “How marvelous this all is. I need to visit modern times more often.”

Storm sat on a bar stool and clutched the counter. “I ran away at seventeen.”

“Well that was silly, dear. You were safe here. Your aunt had the journal and knew how to protect you. She would have given you the journal and trained you in the ways of the Emerald and when the Immortal came you would have fallen in love, healed the rift, and taken your destined place in this world. Easy enough. I do not understand where things went awry.” Damarra walked over to the sink and turned it on and off. She looked up at Storm and smiled. “It matters not I suppose. Do you love the Immortal, dear?”

Dammit. It had been hard enough to confess her feelings to Ryder but to admit them to the grandparents she’d just met, well, that’s a different story all together.

“I will take that as a ‘yes.’ Then everything is as it should be. Let’s go collect your lover, shall we? We can answer all of your other questions once your course has been righted again.” Damarra smiled. Storm wasn’t sure what to make of her but it didn’t seem to matter. Her grandmother slipped an arm around her waist and hugged her close. “You will get used to my ways, I assure you. Come along, dear, it will all work out.”

Damarra led Storm across the kitchen. As an afterthought she looked back to Roane, “It is good to see you as well, Roane. Care to come along and right a few wrongs?”

“Of course.” Storm thought he had more to say but her grandfather simply smiled and followed them out of the kitchen. He loved her still. Storm didn’t know how she knew but it was very clear. Damarra leaned in and whispered in her ear “It is our way, dear. You can read emotions.”

Never in her wildest dreams could Storm have pictured herself standing on the front stoop, arm in arm with her grandparents, an Immortal and a deity. They stepped into the middle of a raging supernatural battle. Dan and Shane were flying around with flaming whips taking the hybrids down by their legs so the Immortals could finish them off. Damarra released Storm’s arm and gave her a light pat, “Watch this, child.”

Damarra walked into the middle of the fracas and extended her arms in front of her. “Cease.” Her voice reverberated through the night and all activity stopped. Damarra turned back to Roane and Storm, brushed her hands and winked, “Why do males always feel the need to solve everything with violence? It really never works, I mean, who can think with all of that noise and look at your poor lawn, to say nothing for that second story window.”

Storm flushed, how embarrassing, “I may have done that to the window.” Apparently, Ryder had healed from it alright, judging by their foray in the study, but she supposed she would have to make that up to him as well.