Inferno : Elements Series Book One
Chapter Eight

Derek

I go to the hotel that I’m living in, pack up my things and check out. By the time I’m done it’s late afternoon and I decide there’s no reason to wait until tomorrow to leave. Transporting myself to Gwen’s front door, I knock and wait. She doesn’t answer. I knock again, knowing that she’s home Because her car is still in the driveway.

“DEREK!”

Gwen’s panicked voice sounds in my head and I know something is wrong, I also know that she isn’t in her house. Abandoning my bag at her front door I race around the back of her house and move as fast as I can through the trees, heading straight for the spot where I felt the Recruiters’ magic earlier today. The closer I get to my destination the more magic I sense in the air and the more I’m certain that all that energy is coming from Gwen. I’m about a minute away from the spot when storm clouds roll across the sky, completely blocking out the sun and lightning begins flashing. Thunder shakes the ground and I pick up the pace. I get to the small clearing and am stopped in my tracks by what I see. Gwen is standing in the clearing, surrounded by eight Recruiters, and they are as stunned as I am. Looking at Gwen I can see that her eyes have changed again, no longer bright green or molten lava. Her eyes are as grey as the storm clouds that have formed above us and, looking closer, I can see silvery-blue flashes of lightning within the grey smoke. Her eyes have ome two storm clouds, seemingly trapped within her eye sockets; the lightning sparking from the corners of her eyes every few bolts. The wind picks up speed and Gwen begins floating a metre off the ground. Stretching her hands out on either side of her body, she tilts her head back and looks up at the storm that, I realise now, was created by her. As if in response to her look, flashes of lightning begin dancing across the sky and Gwen drops back to the ground as a crack of thunder, louder than any I’ve ever heard before, rips through the air. Several bolts of lightning follow Gwen to the ground, scorching the places where they’ve made contact and the Recruiters scatter. They’re too late. Lightning begins to crash down faster than they can run and all eight are lying dead on the ground within seconds. My mind, still reeling from what I’ve just witnessed, comes to focus on Gwen. The lightning has stopped and as the grey fades from her eyes, the storm above us begins to dissipate, leaving the sky blue once more and Gwen kneeling on the ground with her hands on her knees.

“Gwen?”

She looks up, surprised to see me. She didn’t know I was here.

“How did you get here?”

“I was at your front door when you called out to me, do you remember?”

“Of course I remember I just didn’t know you were there. I called out hoping you’d hear me,” she looks around the clearing at the bodies and shudders. “Who are they? What did they want with me?”

“Tell me what happened.”

It seems to take some effort for her to recall the events of that last hour but she finally gets her thoughts in order.

“I was packing so we could leave in the morning and I realised that I had washing on the line. I came out to get it and pack some of it when someone grabbed me. They must have knocked me out,” she reaches behind her head and rubs a spot that must be sore. She winces and her fingers come away bloody. “Ow. Next thing I know I‘m lying on the ground in the middle of this clearing with vines wrapping around my body. One of them was clearly controlling the vines; I remembered you saying that some Elementals could influence plants, so I singled that person out and thought about burning them. I lit her shirt on fire and the vines stopped wrapping themselves around me. That’s when I called out to you and then, I don’t know, something just came over me and then there were storm clouds and there was lightning and all I could think was ‘this storm came to help me.’ I can’t even describe what it felt like, it was incredible, Derek,” she looks up at me, a look of pure awe on her face. “Who were they?”

I walk over to check out the damage to back of her head. There’s a small gash, nothing I can’t heal and as I do, I tell her what she wants to know.

“We call them Recruiters. You know the bad guys in every story; the ones who think Humans are lesser beings and just want to take over the world?”

She nods.

“Yeah, that’s them.”

“I don’t understand. What did they want with me?”

“I told you that your energy is very strong. They’re able to feel it too. I imagine they were going to take you and try and convince you to help them and, if you didn’t agree to do it willingly, I imagine they would have tortured you until you agreed to be their new weapon.”

She straightens up, squares her shoulders and with her unique brand of attitude says;

“Is that why you want me? So you can train me to be a weapon against them.”

The question catches me off guard. I never even considered it, it’s not an option. Everything from here on in is up to her.

“No. Everything to do with your abilities is up to you. If you want to train the way I have and ome a warrior or anything, then you stay and you train. If you don’t, you can leave once you’ve trained enough to be in control of your magic. You don’t even have to go to boot camp if you don’t want to.”

She nods again, seeming to accept my answer.

“What do we do with them? Also, how much trouble am I in? They were Elementals, is there some law against killing them. Am I going to get thrown into, like, Elemental prison Because of this? If that’s the case then I won’t be going with you.”

“No,” I smile at her, trying to reassure her that everything is fine. “They were Recruiters, it’s actually the Warriors jobs to track them down and do just this. You might have some jealous Elementals on your hands when we get to boot camp. Speaking of which, how do you feel about leaving tonight. Just head back, get your things and go?”

“That actually sounds like a good idea. I just need to get my stuff and shower first. I’m covered in mud.”

“Shall we?”

I point in the direction of her house and we move off in silence. She enters through her backyard grabbing the clothes she dropped as she goes. I go around to the front door to collect my bag. By the time I enter, Gwen is already in the shower and all I have left to do is wait until she’s ready to leave.

She doesn’t take long in the shower, walking out fully dressed with wet hair. She smells like orange blossoms.

“Is there anything specific I should take with me?” she asks, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“Not really, just clothes and anything personal you might want to take with you.”

She picks up her sketch pad, a pencil case and a few books and puts them into her bag. A dinosaur shaped bag.

“You have a bag shaped like a dinosaur?”

“Yes, problem?”

“Nope,” I say, hiding a smile. “No problem at all.”

Her eyes narrow.

“It’s the biggest bag I have, besides, who doesn’t like dinosaurs?”

“You have a point,” I grin at her. “Are you ready to go?”

She thinks for a second about if she’s forgetting anything and exit’s her room.

“What about my family?”

“No one will notice that you aren’t there and I have a few people who will check in on them to make sure they’re okay,” I reassure her as she pulls her short hair into a small pony tail and picks up her bag.

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“Are you ready?”

“Yes,” she says, eyeing my hand suspiciously.

“You’re going to have to hold my hand, just for a second, so I can take us both to boot camp.”

Without any further hesitation she takes my hand. Her hand is warm and soft against mine, calloused from years of weapons training. Without another thought, I set our destination in my mind and step forward.

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