The Stelter City Saga: Ultranatural (59 page)

Ammon stood there staring blankly at the
imprints of her stilettos in the damp grass. If it weren’t for the
proof that she had been there, he would have never remembered why
he was standing alone behind a filming studio. He wasn’t sure how
long he stood there dazed, but if it weren’t for the sudden gust of
wind that sent the rain splattering across his face horizontally,
he would have stood there for hours trying to figure out why his
ex-girlfriend had changed immensely.

When he glanced back up, the
grey rain clouds had turned black. Ammon poked his head around the
corner of the warehouse and saw that just across the parking lot,
the film studio had nearly been burnt to the ground.
Josh and Cassie
.

Ammon’s heart leapt up into
his chest and his stomach churned as if he were about to vomit.
There was no way they could have survived. He knew it from the
first time he set eyes on the ball of fire rolling into the air.
This was a fire that was meant to annihilate
everything.
It had erupted so
suddenly, they were probably dead before they even knew what was
going on. Ammon knew this was true even as he stared at the growing
blaze, but he couldn’t find it in himself to believe it. He had
already lost his father. He couldn’t imagine what he would do if
his friends had died only a few months later.

Frantically he reached for his phone tucked
away in his pocked. But even before he dialed 911, the sound of
sirens was echoing down the mountains.

~“Lee,” Ace whispered softly as her limp
unconscious body rested against his chest. A deep gash ran along
the palm of his hand and the blood flowed like rivers over his
fingertips until they dripped onto Lee’s exposed shoulder.

The bullet wound beside her neck wasn’t
nearly as gruesome as her leg had been after a metal horn had been
lodged down to the bone. As Ace sat on a bench sheltered by a
cluster of palm trees, he could see that the wound was beginning to
close and a faint blush was beginning to return to her cheeks. By
the time the gash in his hand had faded into a pink line, Lee’s
shoulder had closed up entirely and there wasn’t much more he could
do but wait.

Ace leaned back on the bench and rested his
cheek on Lee’s messy hair. Just before him, the ocean had darkened
from its clear liquid topaz to a stormy grey. The downpour had just
set in over Waikiki Beach and the last of the tourists had already
vanished from the sticky sand with towels over their heads. The
island of Heleow seemed to be eaten every time a white foamy wave
was tossed by the wind. With each passing moment, the downpour grew
heavier until even the cars driving on the street behind him
decided it was better to be indoors. The shoreline was practically
empty in every direction. Now would have been a perfect time to
evaporate from the scene and reappear in Lee’s bedroom or at least
somewhere in the Stelter penthouse. But Ace didn’t want to go back.
Not with bullets on the floor and blood on the wall.

The rain wasn’t slowing. In only a matter of
moments, the distant city of Heleow had vanished behind a grey
curtain of rain. Ace wished he knew some other location for Lee.
Somewhere where she could be dry and safe and they could talk
privately for what could possibly be the last time. But there was
no where he was willing to take her. The rain continued to pour and
eventually grew so heavy that it was making its way through the
shelter of palm leaves above. Droplets of water sprinkled over his
dark untrimmed hair as a fat tear of rain landed on Lee’s nose.
With a start she sat up quickly and blinked multiple times to make
sure what she was seeing was real.

“
Ace?” she muttered gazing
up at him with glazed eyes. Her voice was hoarse from dehydration
and Ace wished he had a bottle of water to give her.

He smiled weakly down at her and wiped the
remints of water from her nose with his thumb. “Hey, angel. How are
you feeling?” he asked.

Lee shut her eyes once more and inhaled
deeply. “Where are we?” she croaked, “What… happened?” She glanced
around at the scene still unsure if it was reality or is she was
still dreaming. Everything seemed real, right down to the scent of
rain surrounding her. She took in one last breath of air before
turning her focus to Ace.

The humidity had sent his dark hair behind
his ears curling in perfect spirals. The droplets of rain rolling
down his forehead turned his hair jet back and glued it to his
golden skin. She had expected him to smile down at her with the
familiar grin she had fallen in love with over and over again, but
his expression was as blank as the grey scene around her. It was an
expression she had seen so many times; more so before they started
dating. It was the look of a lost and confused soul. He gazed at
her expressionlessly and watched as the oncoming rain wet her
hair.

“
I love you.” Lee said
quietly. She wanted to say more. She wanted to tell him about how
she was kidnaped and ask him how he managed to save her once again.
She wanted him back, she had nearly forgotten they had broken up
only earlier that morning, but it seemed so long ago given the
circumstances.

Ace shook his head and Lee felt her heart
break just a sliver when he turned his gaze from her to the
swelling ocean. “We need to talk, Lee.” He had spoken so quietly
that the pattering of rain around them nearly ate up all his
words.

“
Yes, we do.” Lee agreed
taking both of his firm hands in hers and wishing that he would
look her in the eyes. “About earlier today…” she started, “I love
you, Ace. I love you so much and… I need to trust that you love me
too. I don’t know what you were doing with Ithaca-”

“
Lee,” was all he said and
Lee silenced immediately. She stared up at him not knowing what he
was going to say or do. His expression was entirely
unreadable.

Nearly a minute of silence ticked by and Ace
hadn’t said anything. His blank eyes just gazed out at the rocking
waves and Lee’s mind spun in all different directions. “Can you
please…” she began slowly before her brain could overload on all
the different things that Ace could be thinking. “I need to hear
you say that you love me too.”

At first Ace continued to sit still and Lee
felt the sliver in her heart break just a bit wider. Then finally
he turned and muttered softly. “I will never stop loving you,
Lee.”

A wave of relief spread down to her toes and
mended the ache in her heart. The yearning sensation to kiss him
rolled up from her stomach to her arms until she was reaching for
him with her eyes half shut.

“
That’s why we can’t be
together.” His words stopped her when she was only inches from his
face.

Her eyes fluttered open just as her brows
folded in utter confusion. “What?” she asked thinking she had heard
wrong.

Ace inhaled deeply as if he were getting
ready to give Lee a lengthy speech. “I made a deal with
Ithaca.”

“
What?” Lee asked again. She
sank back in her seat and leaned away from him. Her heart throbbed,
but she wasn’t sure if it was because of pain or nerves. “What
about Ithaca?”

“
Lee, she’s evil.” Ace
finally said, looking at her in the eyes. “She wanted to kill you.
She had someone kidnap you and she was planning on letting you burn
alive in a filming studio. Even if I had managed to rescue you in
time, she would have never stopped hunting you and your family
down. Ithaca wants you dead, Lee.” Ace shook his head as he spoke.
He felt his face hang with grief as he listened to his own words.
“That’s why I made a deal with her. She needs me for something and
I haven’t figured it out yet. I guess I’m more than a pawn to her
because she was willing to leave your family alone if I… if
I…”

Lee set a hand over his damp arm. She knew
what he was going to say, and she knew what that meant about their
relationship. Tears swelled up in her eyes and rolled down her
cheek just in time for Ace to catch them and wipe them away. “Don’t
go.” She whimpered.

The sight of her tears sent Ace’s heart
sinking like a stone in his chest. He pulled her body into his and
felt her warm tears stain his rainy shirt. It wasn’t until she
started trembling that he realized how much the idea of not being
with her would hurt him. He knew she was a gem and leaving her was
like finding a precious pearl then throwing it back into the sea.
He would never find another woman more special to him than she was.
There was no one he would rather spend his dyeing day with than
her. Ace wanted her now, and he knew that he would want her
forever.

“
Ace, stay with me.” She
begged.

“
I can’t.” he replied into
her hair. He shut his eyes tightly and tried to ignore the burning
sensation building in the back of his eyes.

“
Please,” she muttered
again.

“
Lee,” Ace said this time
more firmly. When he pulled away, Lee gazed up at his deep blue
eyes glistening with tears. She had never seen him cry but seeing
his tears mix in with the rain on his face only confirmed to her
that his feelings were genuine. He really loved her.

“
I can’t keep saving you!”
he confessed wiping his slightly pink eyes with the back of his
hand. “Do you know how terrified I was when I got back to the
penthouse and all I saw was blood on the wall? I didn’t know where
you were! Lee, I have almost lost you so many times and I can’t
keep rescuing you!”

“
But,” Lee spat nearly
choking on her words, “I have powers, Ace. I can use them to
protect myself. I used them on August when he was trying to kidnap
me-”

“
And he still managed to
take you!” Ace finished. He held her sticky wet cheeks in both of
his hands and pulled her face close to his. His eyes danced back
and forth as he glanced from one teary green eye to the other. “Do
you know hurt I would be…” Ace’s voice cracked as he thought about
the words he planned to say next. A hot ball seemed to slide up the
back of his throat and press against the back of his eyes until
tears ran down his cheek once more. “Do you know how hurt I would
be if I lost you, Lee? I don’t… I wouldn’t even know how to live
without you.”

Lee closed her eyes and let Ace wipe away the
tears that rolled down her face in such abundance that she didn’t
know if they would ever stop. She imagined herself in his
situation. What if somehow, Ace was taken from her? She had learned
to love him so much; she had put so much effort into this one man
and for all of that to suddenly be stripped away? She imagined
losing such a wonderful, compatible friend. She imagined living,
but knowing that the love of her life could not breathe the same
air as she did… Lee would have cried harder if she hadn’t already
felt in her heart what she imagined Ace was feeling.

“
Promise me you’ll come
back.” She sobbed, “Pease Ace I need to hear it.”

Ace stared down at the top of her shivering
head. That wasn’t a promise he knew he could keep. He didn’t know
what Ithaca had in store for him. He didn’t know how long he would
be her puppet. It could be only months, or it could be decades. But
one thing he knew was that no matter the length of time, his hear
would always belong to Lee.

“
Angel,” he muttered gently
lifting her chin up so that their lips were only inches apart.
“When I come back,” he began confidently. He knew what he was about
to say. It was something that he had thought about only once or
twice, but as the words cumulated in his mind, he knew he would
never regret speaking them. “If you’re still in love with me, Lee,
I promise you’ll be my wife.”

For a brief moment Lee’s tears managed to
stop flowing. She gazed wide eyed at the most stunning man she had
ever known and realize that his love for her ran far deeper than
anything she had ever known. The tips of her fingers went numb and
even as he leaned in to press his lips to hers, she nearly forgot
how to kiss back.

“
I love you.” he said
between kisses. “I will never stop loving you.”

Lee sat there feeling his
lips press against hers, then over her cheek, then down her neck,
and back up to her lips. Each time Ace’ lips came off her skin; he
was muttering those three words.
I love
you
. As if he knew she could never get
enough of hearing it.
I love you.
And she knew he did. The tears stopped rolling
down her cheeks because she had forgotten why she had been so sad.
What was there to cry over? Ace was madly in love with her and she
with him. And when he came back, she knew without a doubt that she
would still be in love. In other words, she knew that one day he
would be her husband. After that, nothing could pull them apart.
Not even Ithaca.

“
I’ll always be in love with
you Ace.” She smiled before clutching him around the neck and
forcing his lips open with hers. With the hope of seeing him again
fresh in her heart, suddenly the thought of letting him go didn’t
seem so hard.

~Larissa kept her eyes glued out the window
of the jet. The plane hadn’t taken off yet so the view out the
window remained the same. Men scurried in bright colored jackets
over the asphalt runways as trains of luggage snaked their way out
of the terminals. The rain clouds had begun to fade from the scene
sending gaps of light shining onto the ground brilliant rays. She
had thought that the rain storm would prevent the plane from taking
off, but she hadn’t heard anything else from Ithaca. As she sat
alone in the jet, the phone on her lap remained motionless.

Larissa peeled her eyes away from the window
and glanced down at her phone to check the time. The plane was
scheduled to depart in nearly five minutes and still no one else
was on the plane. A pang of impatience shot through her, but she
immediately forced herself to relax. She knew what happened the
last time she lost her patience and she wasn’t willing to rip apart
another person’s skeleton. Even if that other person happened to be
Ithaca.