Brewing Storm, page 17
“Let’s get to the building,” Fred said.
“It’s too dangerous,” Logan said.
“I know they’re out there hunting us, but it’s our only chance.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” I said.
“No ‘we’ about it,” Fred said, shaking his head. “Logan and I will go. You two stay here, where it’s safe.”
“Are you kidding me?” I retorted. “If anyone should stay behind, it’s Logan and Cindy. Without them... Well, you know.”
“Now that you mention it, all of you are pretty necessary but me,” Fred said. “Only you can take down the Falcar. I’ll go alone.”
“No, Fred,” I said. “And I feel my strength and abilities coming back. So I’ll be okay.”
Cindy stood. “Maybe just the boys should go. Fred can trace there, and since Logan’s powers are working, he can go as a wolf, in the shadows. I am still too weak to fly us. They obviously have a very powerful witch on their payroll, stifling our strength and magic.”
A short while later, Fred and Logan took off.
CINDY AND I SAT ON the rock ledge and talked about our future. She gave me so much hope and inspiration.
“I believe our lives we’re brought together for a reason, and I’m so thankful you’re in it,” she said.
“Me too.”
“Life is better with friends who actually care about you. I’ve learned that since I left France.”
Crunch!
“What was that?” I asked.
“I’m not sure,” Cindy said, carefully making her way to the cave entrance, with me right behind her.
Before I even knew what was happening, I found myself crashing into a stony wall, with pain screaming from every nerve in my body. I couldn’t move, other than to open my eyes, and when I tried to get up, dizziness flooded my head.
“Vex!” Cindy shouted.
Her ex had found us, and he sure didn’t look happy. Immediately, he began a shouting war with her in French. I had no idea what they were saying, but it certainly wasn’t nice. He threw her across the room once again and pinned her to the wall, and only then did I crash to the damp cave floor.
“Did you miss me, darling Princess?” he asked.
She struggled but couldn’t break free from his grasp.
He softly stroked her face. “Why did you leave? It’s been awful living without you. You left me with shattered dreams, and I didn’t even see it coming. I was gone for only a few weeks, and when I came back, you were gone.”
“You know very well why I left. I will be no one’s punching bag, Vex.”
“I had to settle for your sister, but she obeys me without question. We’ll enjoy a long and happy life.”
“If you’re so happy with her, why are you here?”
“To tie up the loose ends, so to speak. I want to know why you left me for a rookie vampire, of all things. Do you know how insulting that is?”
“He just...happened.”
“A feeble excuse!” The slap Vex gave her echoed off the cavern walls. “That just happened too,” he spat. “It still hurt, didn’t it?”
“Vex, please...”
“I am royalty. I gave you a castle, a title, and all those fancy parties, but it wasn’t enough. That pathetic vampire can never give you all that. You have to toil away, working for that useless Council. You, a princess! What were you thinking?”
“I don’t care about money or status,” she said. “I just want to be free. You kept me like a bird in a cage. You have her now, and you say you’re happy, so let me be.”
“I came here to make things right.” He pulled her hair back and she screamed. “You will go back with me. Do you understand me?”
“Make things right? What for? You’re already married.”
“We can easily get rid of her.”
“What!? No, Vex. Please!”
“You said you want freedom, so I will allow you to choose. Me or death.”
“I will never choose you,” she said. Then, with the strength of a warrior, she threw him.
He jumped to his feet and ran toward her in a rage. Cindy charged him like an angry bull, but before they collided, she moved to the left, grabbed his shoulders, and slammed him to the ground.
With immortal speed, Vex jumped up and came at her again. She punched him in the stomach, then kicked him in the chin. The power of that strike threw him back a bit, but he quickly caught his balance, only to lose it again when she pummeled him in the ribs with a powerful side kick. After everything she’d been through, she was after blood, and she landed one punch after another till he was wobbly and stunned.
“Impressive,” he said. “What happened to the sweet girl I once knew?”
She kicked him in the balls and screamed, “She died a long time ago!”
Before he even stopped gasping, Cindy assaulted his ribcage again, then sucker-punched him in the gut. He delivered a left hook, then pushed her down. After regaining the upper hand, he slammed her into the wall, spewing curses and insults in French all the while. When her feet lifted from the ground, he wrapped his hands around her neck and squeezed.
I tried to summon a fireball, but it was nothing more than a weak, pathetic spark. I wanted to help, but I was merely human at that point, and I took a nasty hit to the head from a rock jutting out above me. Just before I blacked out, I saw a terrible sight. “No!” I cried when the blade of his knife glinted in the dim light, laced with the green of guardian poison on its tip.
Chapter 25
“Sophie? Sophie!” Logan’s voice cut through the darkness.
My eyes snapped opened, and it was good to focus on him first.
“What happened?” he asked, voice trembling.
“Is she okay?” I asked as I slowly sat up and took notice of Fred cradling Cindy, weeping as he rocked her back and forth. I’d never seen anyone more emotional and upset.
“No! She’s...gone,” he choked out, “stabbed in the heart with guardian poison.”
“No,” I said.
Logan touched my arm. “I’m so sorry.”
“Bring her back, Sophie!” Fred shouted. “You have to save her.”
I rushed to my friend’s lifeless body. Without a second of hesitation, I knelt down and put my lips on hers, then blew and blew, but she didn’t respond. “I-I’m not strong enough,” I said. “I feel my power burning deep inside, but I just... I can’t, and I’m so sorry.”
“Try again,” Logan said. “Please.”
I nodded and repeated the process, but I had to wrap my mind around the incomprehensible truth. Nothing was working, and it was too late. My friend was dead, and there wasn’t a thing I could do to bring her back. The grief was so heavy that it was as if I’d been stabbed in the heart myself. All I could do was lay my head on her chest and cry. It hurt so damn bad, especially since she died so violently and senselessly. I’d never felt so helpless. I had so much power within me, and I was supposed to be the strongest witch around, yet I couldn’t even save my dear friend.
“I’m so sorry, Cindy,” I said as tears dripped down my face.
Logan pulled me close and held me as I sobbed against his chest. The cavern was filled with the sounds of sniffling and crying, of our hearts breaking as we witnessed the unimaginable, and I knew the bleeding in my heart would never stop. Of course Fred took it the hardest of all, and I couldn’t blame him. She was the love of his life and the most beautiful shining soul I’d ever met.
Fred went outside to get some air and be alone with his emotions. Logan held me in his arms and I cried.
Suddenly, I saw the ghostly vision of Cindy, but Logan couldn’t see her. My heart ached because I knew we’d lost her. She wasn’t coming back. And man, did those words kill me more than anything. Going back to the castle without her... I never hurt so much.
I pointed. “Right there.”
He glanced around. “I don’t see her.”
Cindy stepped closer. “Immortals can usually see ghosts after they’re well established on this plane. I’m new, so he can’t see me. You can see me because of your abilities.”
“But we all saw that little girl at the Grand Canyon.”
“It depends how far open the door is to heaven. I see the door wide open, and it’s waiting for me. So I don’t have the ability to show up to the others, because it’s my destiny to walk through the door, not stay behind and talk. But I wanted to say goodbye, since you can see me.”
I wiped the flowing tears from my face. “I’m so sorry.”
I went to hug her, but she was only a mist.
“Goodbye, Sophie. I will truly miss you. Tell Eve and Logan that I will miss them too. And please watch over Fred. He’ll need you guys more than anything.”
Nodding, I wept.
“Fred!” Logan called. “Get in here now!”
Fred ran toward me and I explained everything quickly.
“Tell Fred, I will always love him to the moon and back,” Cindy said.
My voice wavered as I repeated the message.
Fred went to where I was looking. “Tell her I can’t imagine life without her, that she has to find her way back to me.”
A tear dripped down my cheek as I told Cindy what he said.
“Tell Fred I can hear him,” she said. “And that I’m so sorry this happened.”
I looked at Fred and touched his shoulder softly. “She can hear you. And she’s so sorry that this happened.”
He then looked in her direction. “I remember the first time I laid eyes on you. I knew right then and there that I had found someone amazing and that you were a perfect match for me. Ever since that moment, all I have ever wanted was to be with you and make you happy because you were my life. I love you so much. And the thought of you leaving me, it’s like there’s a huge gaping hole in my soul.”
“Tell Fred I love him, and that I want him to be happy,” she said between sobs. “And that one day we’ll meet again.”
I told Fred and he about crumbled as his heart ached deeply.
“How can I ever be happy without you?” he asked, emotion flooding through him.
I touched Fred’s arm. “She has to go.”
“No!” he shouted.
“They’re calling her. She’s walking towards the light.”
He wiped a tear as his lips trembled. “I won’t leave her on this island. She deserves a proper burial back home.”
I nodded. “I really am sorry, Fred.”
“So am I,” he said, then embraced me in another emotional hug while be both sobbed uncontrollably. Then, suddenly, he sniffled and looked into my eyes. “Oh my goodness! I can feel your magic.”
I wiped the tears from my face. “How?”
“I don’t know.” He closed his eyes and gripped me so tightly that it actually hurt.
“Fred!” Logan said, ready to tackle him.
The vampire let go of me and rushed back over to Cindy’s body. He leaned over to kiss her, or so I thought, but upon closer look, I saw that he was really just blowing into her mouth. Thinking that Fred had completely lost it, Logan rushed over to stop him. A second later, she gasped, and we all gasped in return.
“Cindy?” My eyes bulged as I watched her breathe, and then I looked at Logan in complete shock. “It’s a miracle!” I cupped my mouth in shock, and the tears falling down my face were now spawned by happiness.
“Oh, baby, we thought we lost you,” Fred said, pulling her close.
“I’m too stubborn to die,” she said in a raspy voice. “Thank you for bringing me back. I was just a few seconds from walking into the light.”
He held her tightly. “I couldn’t imagine my life without you.”
Tears flowed down her face. “I couldn’t either. The thought of leaving you tore me up inside something fierce.”
Logan and I rushed over and joined them in the greatest of all group hugs. I knew then that love was the most powerful force on Earth. I didn’t understand what was happening, but I never wanted to let go.
“I’m going to kill Vex,” Fred said, his expression changing from gratitude to fury in an instant. “When I find him, I’ll rip his heart out. He would have taken you, Sophie, but we fought the son-of-a-bitch, till he ran out of the cave and flew away. Who’d have thought a gargoyle could really just be a chicken?”
“Son-of-a-bitch is right,” Cindy said. “I knew his mother.”
“How did you save Cindy?” I cried. “That was absolutely amazing!”
“I’m a Petal witch, turned vampire,” Fred said. “I’ve always thought I lost the superpower lottery, and I just about gave up on ever having any, but someone once told me that greater powers take years to appear. Maybe I had it all this time but didn’t know, and the emotion triggered them. I just don’t know.”
“You can heal,” I said, “bring back the dead.”
“Actually, it’s more than that. I can copy powers. I felt yours, and it was an awesome sensation, made me feel like a kid in a candy shop.”
“Or a vampire in a Halloween shop?” I teased.
He laughed. “That too. When I sensed your necromancer power, I about jumped for joy. You weren’t strong enough to deliver, but I just wandered inside and shopped for whatever I wanted from you. They were all at my disposal by simply touching you, so I borrowed that one.”
“You sure it’s just borrowing?” Logan asked. “I hope you didn’t absorb it and take it from her, like some kind of power parasite.”
“It’s fine with me either way,” I said. “As long as one of us can do it, and as long as Cindy’s okay.”
“No, just temporarily copying it in some supernatural, paranormal way I can’t explain.”
“You’ve got your power, baby,” Cindy said. “Now, if you need an upgrade during a fight, you just have to touch a powerful immortal!”
“I’ll literally be power-hungry.”
“Hey, if you can’t beat them, just be them. You just have to get close enough.”
“Can you borrow more than one power?” she asked.
“Nope, just one at a time. The others were sort of on lockdown the second I made my pick. Other than that, I’m not sure how it works. Can I use powers from the same person again later? If so, how long? Can I borrow from a second person right after I borrow from someone else? I just don’t know.” Fred grinned at each of us in turn. “It took long enough, but it came at the perfect time.”
“I loved you before you were so powerful, Freddie. Remember that,” Cindy said.
“I love you too.”
Still smiling, I cast my gaze to Logan. “Before you got caught up in that fight, did you guys find anything?”
“Yes, but we have to go back.”
“C’mon, Lazarus,” Fred said to Cindy as he wrapped an arm around her.
Chapter 26
By the time I walked into the room, Cindy already had a huge map spread out on a table.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“The answer to our problems,” she said, beaming. “We can get the hell out of here and eliminate the gargoyles, kill many birds with one stone, so to speak.”
“This island was chosen for a reason,” Logan explained. “It’s in close proximity to many portals. For trading purposes, it’s great. Forget having to transport things across oceans when you can just pop them right through portals. It’s better than FedEx!”
I cocked a brow. “Okay, but how does that help us?”
“If any of these worlds are opened, the shield is at rest until it’s reset again.”
“Oh, I get it. We open up the portal and the shield will release.”
“Yes.”
“So I broke us in here. That’s why the boats were able to come and go. But then the gargoyles used their little witch friend to reprogram it somehow, so my blood wouldn’t open it up.”
“Yes, because they wanted you trapped on the island. Since we can’t figure out how to operate the shield, we have to use the next-best way.”
“And what way is that?” I asked.
“We open a portal world, and it’s hasta la vista, baby!”
My face blanched as I remembered way back to my childhood, when my parents read me a story called “Pandora’s Box.” I looked at Logan sincerely and asked, “How do we know which ones are friendly? I mean, we don’t want to take a field trip into hell.”
“You’re right,” Fred said. “Some of them are hostile territory. This one here,” he continued, pointing to a gate on the map, “is a prison world, with no way out.”
“Nothing is inescapable, Fred. We oughtta know that by now. There’s always, always some weakness to exploit. What if something in that prison colony finds it and breaks free because of us?”
“It won’t,” he assured me, though I still wasn’t comfortable with the idea.
“Why would we want to go to a prison anyway?” I asked, obviously confused.
“We aren’t,” Logan said. “She is.”
“The evil queen!” Cindy said.
“Oh. How can we lure her in there though?”
Fred’s eyes lit up as he told us his plan. “It’s simple. We trick her into thinking we’re going to escape through there, lead her to believe it’s a gateway to California. Cindy will fly toward it, and I’ll open it. Just before entry, you’ll cloak Cindy and me. The wicked bitch will think she went in and will follow.”
“How are you going to open the portal?”
“With this,” Logan said, holding up a strange-looking, blue crystal. “Found it with Fred when we went to go investigate.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Logan then looked at Cindy. “Our plan won’t work if they have a tracking device inside you. And I’m assuming your ex does if he found you in that cave.”
“So what are you saying?” she asked.
“Let me get it out.”
“With that knife your carrying?”
“I know what I’m doing, and you’ll heal quickly.”
Fred sighed. “Logan is the best at that. I watched him take one out on a wolf while we were on a mission.”
“Fine,” she said. “Get it out. And if it hurts, I’ll make you pay the second I claw your eyes out in gargoyle form.”
