FURY OF THE ELEMENTS: By Lori Titus
Wednesday, January 18th, 2012The Marradith Ryder Series: The Art of Shadows, Part 68
“So, what’s the object of today’s trip?” Marradith asked.
David Brennan smiled, keeping his eyes on the road.
“Well, technically, I’m supposed to get you out of the house while your Uncle Jake and your cousins get some plans together for your birthday party. Not that you heard such a thing from me,” he said.
“Well, I kind of knew that. So why are we driving to Mojave?”
“I want to see what you can do.”
He took a turn to the right, and they were soon on the desert floor. They drove until there was nothing to be seen for miles around, but the mountains in the desert.
“It’s got to be over a hundred already,” Marradith said, adjusting her sunglasses. “Are you kidding me?”
He got out of the car without answering.
For a moment, Marradith paused. She thought about touching the steering column and making the ignition spark, taking the car and leaving him there.
Instead, she slid out of the car, slammed the door behind her, and followed David out into the sand.
“It’s too hot to play around out here,” she warned.
“Alright then.” He stepped forward. “Make it not so hot then.”
“Why are you so interested in my powers?”
“Because you are rare,” he replied. “We are rare.”
Marradith sighed. “What exactly do you want to see?”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “Fire.”
“Okay. You might want to stand back.”
She kneeled, and took a handful of sand, making a fist of it in her right hand. Then she opened it, and threw the dust to her side. It errupted in a puff of sparkling flames, like a miniature fireworks display, glowing red and blue, then yellow before fading away.
“Nice,” David said. “But for you, that has to be a child’s trick.”
“I did that for Danny when he was little all the time.”
“Okay. Show me more.”
“Step back further,” Marradith said. “To my left.”
David did as he was told. He watched in amazement as she lifted her hand and brought created a ring of fire that surrounded her. She met his stare with a look of satisfaction.
“Anything else?”
“I want more.”
She lowered her hands, palms out, and the fire was extinguished as suddenly as it began.
Marradith closed her eyes. She clasped her hands together. With her head down, she began to feel the hot winds swirl around her, and begin to cool.
When she looked up, the skies above were dark with rain clouds. As the first drops of rain began to fall, she smiled at him.
“Has it always come so easilly?” he asked.
She explained that fire and electricity were always easy for her create. She had never called up a storm until the day she killed Leighton, and hadn’t even known she was able to do it. But since then, she had been practicing.
“This is from the side of you that is witch,” David said, moving closer.
Instinctively, Marradith moved backwards from him. “Don’t touch me. I don’t want to hurt you…”
Closing the space between them in one step, he put his arms around her.
Marradith felt the electricity flow from her hands. They rested against his arms, where she had tried to push him away.
I can’t move, she thought in horror. I’m grounded.
David was still. He did not move, and was not injured by the energy that poured into him. Instead of being burned, and recoiling, he only held her tighter.
The storm above grew louder as the winds picked up. Somewhere, a clap of thunder roiled through the clouds. Marradith never saw the lightening, but she felt it, as if the strike somehow belonged to her, a bit of heat that made her veins twitch.
She looked at David and saw that his eyes were closed now, his head moved back.
Then, the visions came.
She was seeing David’s life.
The emotion that loomed the largest was fear. The image of the man in the field, a face lost in the shadows of a hat. The man that killed David’s father.
And a single word, that held a power that Marradith could not understand: Adam.
David fell to his knees in the mud, breaking their connection.
“Are you crazy?” Marradith yelled. “I could have killed you.”
David got to his feet slowly. “It would have been worth it. I had to know what we could do together.”
“What are you talking about? What is your power, exactly?”
“I’ll explain. Don’t be angry.”
Marradith started back towards the car. He ran behind her, and got behind the wheel of the car before she could. Cussing, she circled over to the passenger side and slammed the door behind her. David put the key into the ignition, but didn’t turn it on. Instead they listened to the storm raging outside.
“I am Lamia, like you are. Just as I told you.”
“Then what just happened…?”
“I am telepathic. But I also have the ability to increase another person’s abilities. Other Lamia. You’re the strongest that I have ever met. And you see?” he motioned towards the wind and rain that swept down.
“You gave me that dream a few days back.”
“Yes. To try to introduce the idea in a way that wouldn’t frighten you.”
Marradith ran her hands through her wet hair. “Is Adam…he’s the one the killed your Father?”
“One in the same.”
She shivered. There was a sense of foreboding that flowed through her. De ja vu.
“What do you want from me?”
“Your help.”
“That isn’t all.”
“No,” he said. He leaned forward. Marradith saw his pupils contract to dark pinpoints. Her breath caught in her throat.
David kissed her.
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©2012 Lori Titus
