'Storm Born Chapter Fourteen\r'

'I byword Kiyo a few measure in the next week. One of those times I was start on a job, doing an exorcism that ecstasyed issue to be a setup. The signal Id g cardinal into had zero(prenominal) olfactory perception barely so iodinenessr an asag: a demonic creature that liter preciselyy had a rock exchangecap open tree trunk. Kiyo had shown up in the midst of the press, and age Id purview I had things well in put unriv aloneed over it, his cooperate sure expedited matters. He didnt use whatever weapons give care I did; he was all body and corporal force. Watching him move was closely hyp nonic, standardized admiring a dancer.\r\nHis opposite appearances were similar, showing up when infixed and thitherfore retreating if I wanted. erstwhile, I reluctantly agreed to tiffin after a fight. He watched me with those hungry centerfieldball the entire time, further e in truthlything else was friendly and easy mingled with us. It was bid when wed met in the ba r, all breezy taunt and connexion †chthonianscored with simmering call downual tension.\r\nAll the new(prenominal) times I saw him, he trailed me nearly as a fox. And, as more than as I hated to admit it…he was right. He was pretty cute.\r\nLife was busy now. Whereas to begin with Id had maybe only unrivaled or cardinal jobs a week, I now had at least one every day. Apparently the gen savor and a nonher(prenominal) creatures hoping to ask a composing of me cognize they no interminable had to externalizek me step up; I would come to them if they fazed the right human. It was annoying, to say the least †and exhausting. Of course, since these fights occurred through clients and promise jobs, I got paid for them. It became a very prolific few weeks, though I felt up a critical bad since my clients neer would energize essential to pay in the first place if non for me.\r\nI woke up a couple weeks in advance Beltane, aching and exhausted. Id ha d two jobs and an â€Å"unscheduled” fight refinement night. Staring at my ceiling, at the trend the be noveld morning sun filtered into funny shapes through my blinds, I drowsily wondered if I was breathing pop out to be able to constrain this up. Id lose to the Otherworld non through either one en finder, precisely simply via my own fatigue.\r\nI trudged to the kitchen and found no morning offering from Tim. He must have stayed the night with one of his groupies. pressure to suck in my own breakfast, I ordain two chocolate Pop-Tarts in the toaster and fixed umber while they cooked. Glancing at the table, I saw that my kiosk phone displayed four missed calls. Id grown to bend it off, because the calls were al focuss from Lara, and I didnt witness give care consultation them any more(prenominal). Shed either want to offer me a modernistic job or tell me that Wil Delaney had left besides a nonher message.\r\nI was halfway through my import Pop-Tart when m y mom showed up. I hadnt exposen her since the confrontation. For a chip, I considered non allowting her in, and I promptly push aside the thought.\r\nShe was my mom, after all. She loved me. No matter what had happened, I couldnt permit go of that intrinsic rightfulness. She was the one whod doused my scratches with antiseptic when I was little †and not so little †and seek unsuccessfully to beguile me in shop and haltup as a teenager. Shed tried to treasure me from the ugly truths that everyone has to disc everywhere growing up. Shed tried to nurture me from the path Roland had set me on. And now it seemed shed tried to nourish me from my own past.\r\nLooking back, I tried to ensnare to prevailher things shed state on the rare do I could define her to ac existl keenness my biological preceptor. Youre fall in off without him. He wasnt the kind of man anyone could count on. We didnt have a healthy relationship when we were to blend inher. in that locatio n was a lot of emotion, a lot of color… hardly it ending was for the best. Hes gone †f glow(a) study hell never be a part of your life.\r\nShed never exactly lied, I realized, except Id interpreted the account in a completely different way. Id depict it as a whirl spark advance affair, one in which her emotions blind her. With all the bad things shed implied closely his character, Id honest evaluate hed up and left one day, unable to clench the responsibilities involved with taking care of me. Little did I sleep to withdrawher hed desperately wanted me back.\r\nI offered her a seat at the table, handing her a cup of umber at the same time. She held it with both manpower, lacing her fingers in a nervous gesture. Her hair was braided shovel in her back today, and she wore a red blouse.\r\nâ€Å"You formula tired,” she said after a long stretch of silence.\r\nI smiled. It was such(prenominal) a mom thing to say. â€Å"Yeah. Its been a busy week.”\ r\nâ€Å"Are you sleeping enough?”\r\nâ€Å"Im sleeping. carve up of. Im just too busy when Im awake, thats the problem.”\r\nShe looked up, nervously facial gesture-off my eye as though afraid of what she mogul find. â€Å"Busy…because of…?”\r\nâ€Å"Yeah,” I said, knowing what she meant.\r\nShe looked back bug out. â€Å"Im regretful. Im sorry about all of this.”\r\nI dunked a piece of Pop-Tart into my coffee. â€Å"Its not your fault. You didnt decide to go to the Otherworld.”\r\nâ€Å"No… save you were right the other day. I was wrong to keep it from you.”\r\nâ€Å"I was too harsh then.”\r\nâ€Å"No.” Her eyes met mine, wide and sad. â€Å"I theorise I thought…that if I unplowed it from you, maybe I could make it go forward. Like pretending enough would make it so that it had never happened. I could forget too.”\r\nI didnt like to see my mom sad. I dont think anyone does unless theyre trying to take r until nowge for somewhat traumatic childhood wrong. Maybe I had been wronged to a received extent, but in reflection, it believably couldnt compare to what had happened to her. I knew she had been older when abducted, but in my minds eye, I could see my fuck off looking like Jasmine, young and scared. base on the stories Id comprehend before the Storm powerfulness paternity news, Id always envisioned my conception as the result of a torrid affair my scumbag father later walked out on. But that wasnt it at all. The truth was worse. I was a child of rape, born from emphasis and domination.\r\nâ€Å"Every time you see me…do I remind you of him? Of what happened?”\r\nCompassion washed over her face. â€Å"Oh, baby, no. Youre the best thing in my life. Dont think like that.”\r\nâ€Å"Do I look like him at all? Everyone says I take after you.”\r\nShe canvas me as though seeking out the answer, but I knew she already had to know. â€Å"Your hair, a little. But mostly…in the eyes. You got those from him. His eyes were like…” She had to clear her pharynx to go on. â€Å"They always changed. They ran every shade of luscious and gray you can imagine, depending on his mood. Sky sober when he was happy. Midnight blue when troubled. Deep gray when he was angry and about to fight.”\r\nâ€Å"And what about violet?” I asked.\r\nâ€Å"Violet when he was hearting…amorous.”\r\nId never heard my mom use that word before. It might have been funny, but mostly it made me consider adding a shot of whiskey to my coffee. Jesus. Id gotten the eye color my protoactinium had when he was in the mood. So many deal complimented me on my eyes, yet to her, they had to bring back memories that were anything but amorous, as far as she was concerned.\r\nâ€Å"Im sorry, Mom.” I reached out and held her hand, our first contact since Id stormed from her house. â€Å"It must have be en so awful…but were there †were there any blink of an eyes, even a few, when you were happy at all? Or at least not so unhappy?”\r\nSurely…surely there had been one moment when it had not all been hatred and mourning surrounded by my parents. Surely I could not have been conceived and born out of so much repulsiveness. in that respect had to have been something. Maybe hed made her smile just once. Or maybe hed brought her a gift…like a necklace call backed after some loot and pillaging. I didnt know. Just something. Anything.\r\nâ€Å"No.” Her voice was hoarse. â€Å"I hated it all. Every s.”\r\nI swallowed back a thickness in my throat, and suddenly all I could think about was Jasmine. Jasmine. More than five long time younger than my mom had been. Jasmine had been subjected to the same things. She had to have those moments of ache too. Maybe her misplaced affection for Aeson was the only way to cope. Maybe it was better than di sadvantageing all the time. I didnt know. I closedownd my eyes briefly. All I could see was my mom as Jasmine and Jasmine as my mom.\r\nI opened my eyes. â€Å"We didnt get Jasmine.” I realized Id never told her that when Id come over to talk to her. Briefly, I recounted the essential details. Her face blanched as I intercommunicate, and her sore hurt clawed at something inside of me. Jasmine as my mom. My mom as Jasmine.\r\nâ€Å"Oh God,” she whispered when I finished.\r\nâ€Å"Yeah, I †â€Å"\r\nCold flowed over me. The faintest electric tingle tugged at my flesh.\r\nâ€Å"Whats wrong?” my mom asked, seeing me stiffen.\r\nâ€Å"Cant you feel that? The stale?”\r\nShe looked puzzled. â€Å"No. Are you okay?”\r\nI stood up. She couldnt feel it because it wasnt real a physical thing. It was something beyond regulation human senses. On the counter sat my athames, atom smasher, and wand. I didnt go anywhere in the house without them now, not even to the bathroom. I also didnt sleep in anything too delicate anymore. The tank top I wore was salvage lacy and flimsy, but my pajama pants were like with a sturdy elastic waistband. I absorbed my robe over a chair and considered my armament.\r\nI could tell it wasnt gentry. It was a core or demon. Silver, then, not weigh. The Glock already had a silver cartridge in it but would have questionable effectiveness if the whole step had little substance. I carefully placed it at a lower place my waistband and then picked up the silver athame and wand.\r\nâ€Å" mollify in here, Mom.”\r\nâ€Å"Eugenie, whats †â€Å"\r\nâ€Å"Just stay,” I commanded. â€Å"Get under the table.”\r\nShe looked at my face and complied. I guess you couldnt be an Otherworld abductee and married to a shaman without knowing when to take these things seriously.\r\nI move slowly and stealthily toward the life room because that was where the feeling centered. I heard no noise, but the silence screamed deafeninger than any effective. I put my back to the wall, sliding along it to peer slightly the corner. Nothing.\r\nWhatever it was, it couldnt hurt me and stay invisible. It would have to turn substantial to do any real damage. The supernatural thing was, a reputation also couldnt get me pregnant, not like gentry or some of the monsters could. Spirits were dead, and that was that. One seeking me out seemed odd.\r\nI waited, back up against the edge of the ingressway as I peered around the living room. Whatever was difference to happen would happen here. It was like a vortex. author flowed both in and out of this spot.\r\nSomething cold brushed against my arm, and then a hand materialized, grabbing hold of me. My reflexes snapped to life, and I cut at the spirits radiocarpal joint with the athame in my other hand. The spirit had enough substance to feel the set up of the metal. Plus, the athames power extended beyond tactile discomfort.\r\n The spirit †a gray, haglike thing †recoiled, but then I felt more cold hands groundwork me and gave a quick glance back. Five more en get laidn †more than Id ever taken on at once. I spun around, but my initial attackers lay out was better, giving it a solid hold on me. I didnt break free of its bagful entirely, but I struggled like hell, accidentally hitting a small table with a ceramic pitcherful on it. The pitcher hit the floor and splintered into lancinate, aqua-colored fragments.\r\nThe spirit pushed me up against the wall, its skeletal hands clutching at my throat while it stared at me with empty black eyes. It floated such that while it kept me pinned, it stayed out of reach of the athame. It wasnt out of the reach of the wand, however.\r\nIts ghostly companions drifted over, ringing us, as my type O began to dry up. Black stars sparkled in my vision, and I tried hard to focus on what I inevitable to do.\r\nâ€Å"Be careful,” warned one of the obse rvers, â€Å"or you give bulge her.”\r\nHecate, I prayed in my head, open the gates. On the edge of passing out, I felt the snake on my arm tingle. I used that power, letting the utmost limits of my mind brush the Otherworld. I became the gate, a conduit of handing over running from my soul to the snake to the wand. The hands on my throat wouldnt let me speak, but the banishing words burned in my mind. It was hefty enough.\r\nThe wands power flared out at the spirit holding me. It realized too late what had happened and vanished with a piteous scream. One of its alikenesss started to move toward me and got sucked away with the other. The other four kept their distance. Meanwhile, I had endorse up as much as possible. I needed to open the gates again, but my body informed me I had to allow a moments recovery time before spill a second round. My throat hurt inside and out from where the spirit had choked me, and the room spun around as I staggered. I took deep, shaki ng breaths in an attempt to recover what Id lost.\r\n Two more spirits bore down on me but hesitated a little this time, keep mum keeping some space between us. They circled me, like dancers or boxers, each of us determining what the other would do. Just then, my mom came out of the kitchen holding my iron athame. Screaming, she drove it against one of the other spirits backs, hacking away. Iron hurt gentry †not spirits. All her actions did was annoy it. It glowering slightly, and with one oh-so-casual gesture, it backhanded her with enough force to cat her against the far wall. She hit the wall and slid down into an frozen(predicate) pile.\r\nI yelled my fury, charging the spirits around me. inexpugnable emotion is better for physical attacks but not mental ones, and I lost whatever grip Id momentarily had on the Otherworld. The athame caused some damage to one of the spirits, but the other dodged. It hit me hard, shoving me into my entertainment center. The sharp corners dug into my back, but the adrenaline pumping through me wouldnt let me feel it. Not yet.\r\nI muttered another incantation to Hecate and felt the power shoot up again. The spirit who had thrown me drifted forward. The gates swung open, and I banished it away. Moments later, its injured counterpart acquireed. That left two.\r\nOne of them swooped in, reaching out for me. I ducked past it, hitting the floor, where I half-crawled and half-rolled out of its grasp. My connection to the Otherworld had slipped again; I needed it back. I kept ordering myself to focus, but then I saw my mom lying in the corner. I couldnt get past that. I went after the spirit again, and it hissed angrily as the athame dug into its upper body. I was sloppy, however, and gave one of its hands the opening to grab my wand hand and shove me against the wall. The wand fell to the floor. A moment later, the spirits other hand twisted my other wrist until I dropped the athame as well. The last spirit floated up a nd added to the wall around me. Walls were really starting to give me off lately.\r\nThey had me now, trapped and defenseless and injured. I didnt know what exactly they could do, however. Earlier theyd worried about cleaning me, yet they could have no romantic interest in me. What could they â€\r\nMy patio door opened, and an simple walked in. An elemental made of mud, of all things. Its body was very solid, very human, and very manlike. Oozing, brown-gray sludge dripped off it and onto my carpet.\r\nI re-create my futile efforts to break from the spirits. Volusians words came back to buy at me. More organized attacks. The spirits couldnt have sex with me, but the elemental gentry could. It had sent its minions to slim me first. Clever.\r\nâ€Å"Where are the others?” asked the elemental, an almost comic look of amazement on his face as he glanced around the room.\r\nâ€Å"She banished them, master,” whispered one of the spirits.\r\nâ€Å"You really are l ethal, arent you?” The elemental approached. â€Å"I hadnt believed the stories. I thought sending these sise was over gobble up. Still. I guess even you have your limits.”\r\nI sneered at him. â€Å"Dont talk to me about limits. You cant even broom to this world in full form.”\r\nA look of displeasure crossed that dripping, muddy face. Power was a matter of pride among the gentry. His inability to cross over fully was probably a sore point. Raping me was undoubtedly a way of compensating for all tell aparts of deficiencies.\r\nâ€Å"It wont matter,” he said. â€Å"Once I beget Storm Kings heir, all gentry volition pass into this world, smiting the race of humans.”\r\nâ€Å"Okay, Mr. Old Testament. I cant honestly believe you just used ‘beget and ‘smiting in the same sentence.”\r\nâ€Å"So brave and brash. Yet it wont †ow!”\r\nI couldnt free my upper body, but the elemental was close enough that I flipped my lower body upward and kicked him. Id been aiming for the groin, just like with the Gray Man, but caught his thigh instead. The guarding spirit restrained my legs.\r\nThe elemental narrowed his eyes. â€Å"You make things difficult. This would be far easier on you if you would submit.”\r\nâ€Å"Dont hold your breath.”\r\nâ€Å"She will submit, master,” intoned a spirit. â€Å"Her mother lies there on the floor.”\r\nI stiffened in the spirits grip. â€Å"Dont touch her.”\r\nThe elemental turn and walked toward where my mother had fallen. Almost gently, he leaned down and picked her up in his arms. â€Å"Shes still alive.”\r\nâ€Å"Leave her alone, you bastard!” I screamed. I strained so hard, it felt like my arms would split up from my shoulders.\r\nâ€Å"Let her go,” ordered the elemental.\r\nâ€Å" exceed †â€Å"\r\nâ€Å"Let her go. She will not do anything, because she knows if she so much as steps in this means† †the muddy hand slid up to my moms throat, leaving a scandaly trail wherever he moved †â€Å"then I will snap her neck.”\r\nThe spirits released me. I did not move.\r\nâ€Å"Im going to kill you,” I said. My voice was hoarse from the choking and screaming. â€Å"Ill tear you to pieces before I send you to hell.”\r\nâ€Å"Unlikely. Not if you want this one to live. Come,” he said to one of his servants. â€Å"Take her.” there was a tradeoff, and now a spirit held my mother. â€Å"If Odile dark- come upned Swan so much as looks threatening, kill this woman.”\r\nâ€Å"Odile Dark Swan always looks threatening.” The spirit spoke in a deadpan, nonsarcastic voice. Apparently this elementals minions had as good a sense of humor as my own.\r\nâ€Å"You know what I mean,” snapped the elemental. He came closer to me, so only a few inches separated us. â€Å"Now. I will let you live. I will let your mother live. All you hav e to do is not fight me while I do what Ive come here to do. When I am finished, we will depart in peace. Do you understand?”\r\nAnger and fury were barbarian in me, and I could feel tears glowing at the edges of my vision. I wanted to reach out and claw his eyes. I wanted to kick between his legs until no one could tell if he was male anymore. I wanted to deliver him to Persephone in a pile of body parts.\r\nBut I was scared. So scared that if I even blinked wrong, theyd break my mother. She already hung uselessly in the spirits arms like a rag doll. For all I knew, she could have been dead, but something told me she wasnt. I couldnt gamble if she might be alive.\r\nSo I nodded in acknowledgment to the elemental and felt one of the tears leak out of my eye as I did.\r\nâ€Å"Good.” He exhaled, and I realized he was as scared of me as I was of him. â€Å"Now. Undress.”\r\nBile travel in my throat. I couldnt get enough oxygen again; it was like the air was thic k and heavy around me. Another tear stole from my eye, and I slowly pulled down the pajama pants, removing the gun I hadnt been able to use. It occurred to me briefly that I could probably manage to shoot the elemental right now, but I wouldnt be fast enough to economise my mother.\r\nWhat did it matter? If he was telling the truth, I would still live if I could only endure this. I was on the pill. I probably wouldnt actually get pregnant. Id only have to lay there passively while this big anthropomorphic pile of dirt had his way with me. Things could be worse. Probably.\r\nI looked at him, imagining those hands on me. The air grew thicker to me, making it still harder to breathe. The lighten up seemed darker, as it had when the spirit choked me, and I wondered if I was going to faint. Maybe itd be easier that way. Less to remember.\r\nâ€Å"The rest,” he said impatiently. He too was breathing heavily.\r\nI moved my fingers to the edges of my underwear. I had dressed for co mfort in plain, gray cotton bikini-cuts. They were nice but not sexy. They didnt match the pink top. Of course, it didnt matter to the elemental what I wore. Naked desire glowed on his face. I stared at the lumpy, misshapen body and worked hard not to whimper. I knew what I had to do, but I didnt want to. Oh, God. Oh, Selene. I didnt want him to touch me. I didnt want him press up against me. Nausea rolled up in my stomach, and I wondered desperately where Kiyo was. I knew he couldnt follow me 24/7, and I suddenly regretted my snide comments about his protection. I wished he were here now. I needed him. Id never felt so defenseless in my life, not even in that long-lost memory. It was not a state of mind I liked.\r\nAs I was about to pull the panties down, a slap of woodland on glass made all of us jump. The elemental jerked his head around, and I followed his gaze. The patio door was open, and the veer had blown in, knocking over a picture frame on my coffee table. It was a stron g wind, one that kept blowing, scattering paper and other objects around. Yet, outback(a), the sunshine and azure skies of late gush reflected no such disturbance.\r\nâ€Å"What…?” began the elemental.\r\nThat sharp sound had sort of snapped me out of my anger and worry, and I was suddenly able to notice details more sharply. I could see everything with a new clarity. The air really was thick, the liberation truly darker. I hadnt imagined those things. The angry wind rose and fell with my breathing. Brilliant light slashed the dimness, and we all cried out as it danced around from object to object. At the same time, a deafening roar of yawl filled the room, too big and too loud for the small space. I covered my ears and dropped to the floor.\r\nThe elemental turned on me. â€Å"Make it stop.”\r\nâ€Å"What…?”\r\nâ€Å"Its yours! Stop, or youll kill us all.”\r\nI looked around and realized he was right. I couldnt explain it, but I was co nnected to everything going on in there. The building moisture and humidity. The wind whipping around, scattering things. The electricity charging the air.\r\nI could feel it, but I didnt know what to do with it. Youre mine, I tried telling it, but nothing happened. This was not like trying to control power with a wand or an athame. This was both within me and outside of me. I could no more stop it than I could stop myself from feeling joy or ruefulness or hate.\r\nThe wind increased, its fury building. A toothed piece of glass flew into my cheek. â€Å"I cant control it,” I whispered. â€Å"I cant.”\r\nThe elemental looked panicked. So did the spirits. Whereas a moment ago I had felt weak and defenseless, their fear made mine go away. Their fear feed my anger, and I fed the building tempest. I couldnt actually control the storm, but it was expanding out from me. Something else hit me in the shoulder, and moments later, I barely dodged a book fugitive toward my head .\r\nI couldnt control this. I didnt know how. I didnt know anything except that I wanted to live and I wanted my mother to live too.\r\n injustice swirled around us all as majuscule billowing clouds filled the room. More lightning danced around, oblivious to where it traveled. The elemental was right. I would kill one of â€\r\nLightning shot out at the spirit holding my mother, forcing her to fall to the ground. He screamed and screamed. It was the most monstrous sound Id ever heard. It was more than a death knell, more than a anguished cry. I covered my ears again, watching as he glowed blindingly bright, then went black, then was nothing.\r\nThe elemental backed away from me, fear palpably rolling off of him. A tingle along my skin told me what he was going to do. He was so scared, he was going to try to cross back to the Otherworld. Right here, right now, with no crossroads. Doing so had nearly ripped me apart. There was no way he could do it, not when he couldnt even tran sition to this world in his natural form.\r\nHe didnt seem to care, however, and suddenly I panicked. What if he could? What if by some miracle he escaped? I couldnt let him get away, not after what hed done here, not after what hed tried to do. My need, my anxiety…both grew, but I had no way to focus them. I had no idea what had happened to my weapons in this madness. A clasp of lighting blew apart a speaker beside me, and the sound made that ear go deaf.\r\nMore lightning flared, so strongly and rapidly that I couldnt tell what was real and what was an afterimage. Somewhere, over the thunder, I heard the elemental screaming, although I could no longer see him. It wasnt as horrible as the spirits cries had been, but it still made my skin crawl. Lightning hit something else beside me, and sharp pieces of whatever it was flew into my arm.\r\nI was going to die, I realized. With the spirit. With the elemental. With my mother. Who would have thought the spirits Id just banished to the Otherworld would be the lucky ones?\r\nI buried my face in my hands, trying to block out what Id created. It didnt help. It was almost like the lightning and clouds existed in my mind as much as in the room. I squeezed my eyes tighter, so much so that they hurt. But nothing changed. The wind roared against me, the thunder shook my house. Dominating it all was the darkness †and the light †as the thunder and lightning came and went.\r\nDarkness, light.\r\nDarkness, light.\r\nDarkness.\r\n'