Page 27 of The Elementalist
No doubt they’d killed many people throughout the years, and I’d wound up on their hit list.
Well, I wasn’t just anyone now, was I?
Nature had seen to that. Nature had given me an edge.
Then again, Nature had also put a big target on my back, too.
“Thanks, Nature,” I said and threw a rock over the cliff into the churning pool of water far below.
Those two were... evil. I could feel it wafting off them like a stink so bad it made the air blurry. Literally, in fact. I definitely smelled it. And yet, I had seen them associating with others in town. In particular, the college girls. I hoped to God they weren’t dating them.
Creeps.
Had they compelled their girlfriends? Could vampires love? From what I had seen standing outside my apartment... the answer was a resounding no. Then again, where had that fury that overwhelmed me come from? Yes, my life had been threatened—casually and wantonly—but shouldn’t I have been more worried than angry? In truth, I didn’t scare easily… and I might’ve possessed the sort of courage that transcended simple bravery and went into the realm of foolishness. A good trait for a PI. Timid people didn’t do well in this job. I get threatened often. Maybe not to my face, and maybe not so blatantly with a gun, but that wasn’t my first death threat. So, what had triggered my reaction? Hard to say, but in that moment, I felt a true hatred for these things. I wanted to do much worse than zap their asses with lightning... I wanted to strangle the life out of them… except, of course, they were immortal. Guess I’ll need to use fire.
And I’m not a killer, dammit. No matter how much I wantedto do away with those two cocky bastards. But, I had to keep telling myself that I dealt with the undead. They only looked like people. Any humanity they may once have had died an unknown time ago when whatever fiend who turned them did it. Or maybe they’d been psychos in life. I had no idea if simply becoming a vampire could transform a normal person into a heartless killer or if it only worsened what already existed.
My fury had to be part of the change that had come over me. Michael warned me about it, and I saw the evidence of it. If a death threat alone wouldn’t get me to wage a private war against these two immortal greasers, then my irrational hatred for them would. That, and thinking about the people they’ve murdered—and would kill in the future. The best explanation I could come up with involved something of a ‘matter/antimatter’ reaction between the Nature energy inside me and the dark energy that comprised vampires.
But some part of hunting them down and killing them in their coffins struck me as wrong. Assuming, of course, they actually slept in coffins. Michael hadn’t said anything about it. Fair chance the coffin thing was pure Hollywood. It sounded too silly to be plausible. Then again, the ‘can’t come inside unless invited’ sounded silly, and it proved true. Still, I had a suspicion they’d spare me the moral conundrum of having to decide if I wanted to destroy them. They would likely come gunning for me sooner or later.
Although Michael and I had trained the other night—and I suspected the full extent of my power was still unknown even to me—I felt I’d need weeks if not months of training to take on these two. Sure, I had gotten the upper hand on them last night, but they knew what I was capable of now and wouldn’t make the mistake of casually strolling up to ‘chat’ again. I had shown my hand... and had given them a taste of my power. If they had any way to prepare themselves for our next meeting, I’m sure they’dbe ready for it. Next time, they wouldn’t walk up and knock on my door—they’d be jumping out at me from a dark alley.
“Did you see how fast he drew that gun?” I asked myself, staring down into the churning water. “Had he not been so chatty, I might not have had time to manipulate the elements.”
That’s how I explained what I did: I thought of myself as manipulating the elements. I didn’t know how the hell I did so, but I did. My intent became a matter of fact. If I wanted something to happen, it happened within reason. Nature appeared to be listening to me and doing what I asked it to.
“You and nature are one, Max.” Michael tried to convince me of that over and over. “There are even some who claim that you are the incarnation of nature itself. Its physical manifestation.”
“No,” I had said. “That’s where you’re wrong. I’m just me, as I had been for twenty-eight years.”
Of course, Michael only shrugged and gave me that ‘silly mortal’ look. Although as far as I knew, he was not immortal. At least, I didn’t think so.
What did I know of fighting bloodthirsty immortals? Not much, if anything. Only what Michael told me. Great, I’d trusted my destiny to a middle-aged blogger who looked like Jerry Seinfeld’s neurotic friend. The only thing I knew for sure is that blood would spill.
To ensure it wasn’t mine, I decided to come out here, in the quiet of the woods, and practice my connection with the elements more, trying every possible way I could think of to manipulate things. After all, creating the thunderbolts had occurred to me on a whim, and it had worked out perfectly. Well, not so much. The vampires kept on running. Now, I made it rain, hail, snow… I threw lightning from my hands, chucked fireballs, made sheets of flame form in the air, and even opened pits in the Earth the size of swimming pools by commanding the dirt and rock to move and flow like liquid. Hmm...
What else could I do?
As the day wore on, I continued practicing my form of strange Nature magic, knowing I faced a high likelihood of needing it soon.
Very soon.
Chapter Sixteen
The Families Have Skeletons
Crystal Bradbury and I sat in my truck.
I’d parked outside of town near the abandoned stone quarry a little past three in the afternoon. Below us, the ground yawned open in a massive pit something on the order of six stories deep. All the natural resources within robbed by man. Interestingly, I could almost feel the assault on the Earth, feel its life force being stolen, ripped away. Then again, I was an Elemental. Or, so I had been told.
For me, this didn’t feel like another client meeting. For me, this felt like something a little more. Being around her triggered weird emotions deep in my gut that dredged up memories of being an awkward high school junior with a crush on a cheerleader. For Crystal Bradbury, not so much. I sincerely doubted she had any sort of feelings for me beyond ‘this idiot is getting nowhere’ or ‘I’m wasting money.’ Even hoping that she felt something similar for me as I felt about her was not only doubtful, but selfish on my part. After all, my life had just gone from mundane to insane.
How could I possibly inflict that life onto someone else?
And, for that matter, how un-freakin’-fair was it that I should meet a girlnowwho made my breath catch in my throat every time I saw her? I mean, I’d spent years and years alone, living peacefully and comfortably, seeking out a simple, if not boring, existence. That would have been an ideal time to meet my soulmate.
Soulmate, pal? Seriously?
