Broken Elements (21 page)

I couldn’t give him what he wanted. This was partly due to the memory of chocolate brown eyes fixed on me, anchoring us together through chaos. It was partly because, as simple as it would have been, I knew I didn’t feel that way for Brian. And overriding all else was the story Rob had told me and the memory of Brian’s face in Mac’s doorway, momentarily twisted in anger. There were some things even I couldn’t deny.

“Brian, why didn’t you tell me you asked Rob to scare me at the campsite?” I stated it as fact, refusing to provide room for denial. Maybe I could surprise him into an honest answer.

“What?” His tone didn’t indicate shock or even surprise. It was hesitant and disbelieving. He sounded like a man stalling for time.

“Oh, god. It’s true, isn’t it? You did do it. You deliberately tried to scare me.”

“Aidan, it wasn’t like that.” He reached for me, a desperate attempt to keep me with him.

I stepped back, repulsed. “Why? Why would you ever think that’s a sane thing to do? Was it like Mac said—were you hoping I would turn to you if I was scared enough? What kind of messed-up mind comes up with a plan like that?”

The darkness I’d glimpsed earlier returned, but this time, it wasn’t a mere flash instantly smoothed over by Brian’s handsome features. It crawled across his face, turning his eyes into cold crystals, sharpening his cheekbones, and thinning his lips. Color rose into his face, producing two red circles on his cheeks. His forehead creased, and his nostrils flared as he took several slow, long breaths. In a way, it reminded me of Mac’s slow battle for control, but uglier and with less humanity. Brian attempted to calm down, fighting the anger that had appeared with no warning. Unlike Mac, he lost the battle.

“I told you it wasn’t like that,” he hissed. “Are you actually going to listen to him over me? You’ve known him for what, weeks? I’ve been your friend for years, Aidan. Years. And you’re going to throw it away because some oversized animal wants to get between your legs?” His nasty words were punctuated by a lightning bolt cracking across the dark sky, the storm I’d felt beginning to break. The turbulent weather seemed to match my mood.

My mind stumbled over possible replies, horrified by his crudeness and the hateful way he’d referred to Mac. It echoed the disdainful prejudice of the old ones, and was a tone I’d never thought to hear from a friend. “You… what happens between my legs is none of your business. None. And believe me when I say, Brian, that it never will be.” My voice rose as I spoke, but was drowned out by the roll of thunder. The storm was still miles away, but I could feel it moving toward us.

“You refused to see! You talked about how broken you were, but you wouldn’t even look at me. I’m the one that can fix you! Maybe, I thought, maybe if you felt like you escaped death, you would have clarity. You would see, just long enough to see me, Aidan. Who I am. We were meant to be together. It has to be you and me. It has to!” The impassioned words burst from him, unplanned, and some small fragment of memory stirred to life. I tried to follow it, but I couldn’t risk diverting my attention from Brian, and the thought slipped away.

His face gleamed in the moonlight, fanatical and determined. He stepped toward me, and I immediately retreated, needing to keep distance between us. The man who moved toward me might look the same as the man I’d called friend for years, but someone altogether different inhabited his body at the moment, someone wholly unfamiliar and dangerous. Even as his eyes pled with me to understand, the desperation that shone through showed no connection to sanity. Brian had come unhinged as I watched.

“Don’t walk away from me. Don’t you dare walk away from me while I’m trying to explain.” The menacing words were caught by the wind and carried swiftly away from me, leaving me with only a whispered threat.

But he was a threat. While my heart could still barely believe his transformation, my body shared no such reservations. My heartbeat had accelerated, and the adrenaline coursing through my veins focused my senses, readying me for whatever came next.

Brian was considerably more muscled than I was, but he wasn’t taller, and I was faster and could command more magic. I could handle him. I took a long breath, seeking to calm myself as much as possible, and reached out with my magic, grasping the plentiful drops that hung all around us, preparing to pull them toward me if needed.

“You need to leave, Brian. I don’t want to hurt you, but you need to leave now. We can talk about this when we’re calmer.”

“What, so you can tell everyone what a big, bad man I am? So they can protect you? We all know you can’t protect yourself. I can protect you. I can tell you who you are, Aidan Brook, and you’ll never be helpless again. Don’t you want to know?”

Aidan Brook. Aidan Brook. My own name circled inside my head, spoken simultaneously by the man in front of me, the one at the campsite, and the creature taunting me inside the warehouse. The memory I’d glimpsed a moment ago fell sharply into place. Devoid of reason, Brian’s voice became the voice of my nightmares. Lightning flashed as my entire world shifted, and thunder followed close upon its heels. The storm was nearly upon us.

“No.” I shuddered violently, the force of this knowledge threatening my own grasp on sanity. “It can’t be you.”

He watched the realization dawn across my face, and he smiled. He smiled as I recognized him for the killer he was. “I know it’s hard to process right now, but you’ll come to understand, soon. I had reasons, I promise you. I never wanted you to find out, but maybe this is how it was meant to be, all along. You and me, with no secrets.”

Mentally, I reviewed my escape options. Brian stood between me and the house. Mac’s trailer lay at least two hundred feet away, hidden by the trees. I could probably outrun Brian, but my hindbrain rebelled at the thought of having him at my back, regardless of his weak powers.

My eyes snapped to his. “I’ve seen your power. You might be able to freeze a heart, if you kept the magic in reserve, but never anything like what I saw at the campsite.”

“Funny thing, Aidan Brook. My mother was so old that she simply could not be bothered with a child, and she handed me off to her many times great-granddaughter. She left me to be raised as a human.” He spat that final word.

I took a single step back and stopped before I could alarm him. “Then your mother was…”

“Pure ice. I could have grown up on the Alaska glacier with my rightful family, surrounded by the ways of my people, but instead I was raised far from my birthright. Surrounded by so many weak people, I learned to hide who I was.”

One more step. “And your partner? The earth? Who was that?” Half a step, pause.

His eyes narrowed, letting me know that my slow retreat had not gone unnoticed. He reached out one cold hand. “Leave here with me, Aidan, and I’ll introduce you. I’ll tell you everything you want to know, and a few things you never even guessed. Please.” Once again, his eyes were open and vulnerable, a man asking a woman for her approval.

The rain came at last, falling on us both in heavy sheets. Brian did not move. He stood with his hand extended, hair flat against his head and clothes sticking to his body, and waited for my answer. For a moment, he was both my enemy and the friend I remembered. “I can’t, Brian. You know I can’t.”

The spell broke. He rolled his eyes, letting out an exaggerated sigh, the way he used to do before teasing me. “I hoped to do this the easy way.” He gave a quick wave of his hands, and I felt ice crystals form on my fingers and knit together. It was the most delicate sheet of ice, easily breakable, but it moved too fast to be counteracted. It circled my arms, covering my coat sleeves, before reaching my bare neck. “Know that I have to do this. I don’t really want to hurt you.” The ice wrapped around my throat and tightened, stealing my breath.

Even as my windpipe closed, I fought against the panic. Fortunately, with water everywhere, my magic required less focus. I messily swept the torrents of water into a single stream and thrust it toward Brian, aiming it at his nose and mouth.

It was quick and efficient, if inelegant. Several mouthfuls entered his lungs before he froze the rest in midair, just as he had when I’d attacked poor, unsuspecting Rob at the campsite. It took his focus from the vise around my neck, freeing me.

Even as he coughed up rainwater, I became aware this was a battle I could easily lose. Brian—the killer—was more powerful than any of us had ever guessed. I sprinted toward Mac’s, heels sinking deep into the newly formed mud. Even so, desperation gave me speed, and I pushed through the blinding rain, unable to see anything but the warm light of the trailer.

I wasn’t fast enough. I only made it fifty feet or so before I was brought to a crashing halt, the sheet of rain before me turning easily into a narrow wall of ice. Momentum worked against me, and I was unable to stop. I charged into it at full speed, bouncing off the ice and landing on the ground. I immediately rolled into a small protective ball, guarding the injuries just sustained and the ones that seemed almost certain to follow.

“Mac!” I screamed, one long guttural howl. The wind stole the words from me and carried them away, and I did not know in what direction my desperate cry was taken. We were still so far from the house, so far from the trailer, and Brian was already upon me. His hand fisted in my hair, and he yanked my face upwards.

“You cry for that beast? What is it with you and shifters? You dated two of them in college, and you didn’t even know what they were! You date them and give me nothing. You want his help, but you spurn me? Damn it, I would never hurt you, Aidan. Never. I just need you to be quiet for a few minutes, so we can get out of here. Can’t you just try to understand?” His expression alternated between angst and anger, but this time, when the coil of ice encircled my throat, his focus was absolute. Spots appeared in my vision, and my head grew light. I desperately reached for my magic, just as consciousness began to desert me. “Shhh. Just relax. I promise you’ll wake up soon.”

Unable to fight, I felt my body succumb to his command. My eyes slowly drifted shut.

“Damn it!” The pressure lessened, and I blinked my eyes open. Brian was now several feet away, dodging fireballs being flung toward him with remarkable speed. The rain was rapidly extinguishing the flames, but she was starting with such large weapons that they were still dangerous, even after sailing twenty feet through the air.

“Sera!” I croaked, fingers clawing at the ice that still surrounded my neck. She barely glanced my way but began circling toward me, throwing defensive flames the entire way.

When she reached me, she knelt down and placed one hand on my neck, slowly melting the vise. “I thought I heard… sorry, Ade. Didn’t mean to cut it so close.”

I took a long, ragged breath. “You wanted to swoop in at the last minute. I was right. You’re totally the dramatic one.”

She helped me up, and we faced him together. Brian stared at us, debating whether this was a battle he could win. He took one step forward, eyes on me the entire time. He wrapped a similar coil around Sera’s neck, which she easily removed with a touch.

“You want to play?” she asked. “Let’s play.”

She stood upright, eyes made of iron. She gave no indication that the man before her had ever been a friend. She sent a stream of fire to him, wrapping it around his body like a prison, but the rain immediately doused it. Annoyed, she gathered an enormous fireball together and flung it toward him. He neatly sidestepped it and laughed.

I felt fear build within me, and the anger that seemed to always accompany it. I tried to ignore it and reach for the water, but it was a pathetic attempt. I could do nothing to him the elements weren’t already doing.

The storm was now directly over us, the lightning and thunder striking simultaneously. A silver tongue of electricity crashed through the trees directly to our right, finding one dead tree hidden within the more sodden ones. It was instantly aflame, a weak fire that fought to survive in the downpour. With Sera’s energy feeding it, the flames steadily grew, becoming stronger than they had any right to be in this weather.

“I don’t think you’ll win my game, Sera,” he taunted. A moment later, she gripped her chest, eyes bulging. Her entire focus went inward, redirecting her own store of heat to her heart without damaging anything. I was certain she had never done anything like this before, and I did not know if she could succeed.

She stumbled to her knees, face drawn and pained. I ran to her and placed my own hand over her chest. I could feel her heartbeat, but only barely, and it seemed to be slowing.

“Stop,” I begged Brian. “You’re killing her. Stop.”

“Just come with me, Aidan. Come with me and I’ll stop,” he cajoled. His face turned slightly, looking at someone just over my shoulder. “One step closer and they both die.” He spoke calmly, and I didn’t even realize what he meant until I felt a slow chill seize my own chest. I clutched my own chest and stared at him. Brian offered a casual, apologetic shrug.

“Aidan!” The storm was passing, and Mac’s frantic cry reached me clearly.

“Stay back,” I gritted out. My heart was beating slowly, but it was still beating.

I wasn’t sure how much longer Sera could say the same. She was channeling all her energy inward, trying to warm herself without causing any fire damage, and it looked like she was struggling to find that balance.

Mac might be able to pummel Brian in a physical match, but he had no defense against an ice powerful enough to easily freeze three hearts simultaneously. I remembered the hatred Brian revealed when speaking of Mac and knew he would not hesitate to kill him. I wasn’t even sure Brian would let Sera live.

I needed to get him away, before I lost two more of my friends.

“Stop. I’ll go with you.” The words were whispered, but he knew the moment I stopped fighting him.

He nodded grimly. “Come here. When you reach me, I’ll release her.”

“Don’t do it.” She spoke between gritted teeth, still trying to warm her own heart.

“It’s not even a choice,” I said. “You’re my best friend, you idiot.”