DAMAGED - A Bad Boy Romance (26 page)

This last adversary was very human indeed. The tire thieves were in the process of finishing their job when Dion and Lilly made their appearance.

“That tire cost me all the money I had,” he said. “I had to use my emergency money to get the onyx necklace. I don’t even have the cash to buy gas for tomorrow.”

Lilly could see Dion fight to control his anger, but it was boiling up inside him. It was one thing for elementals to have a run at him; they resented his ability and looked upon Dion as competition. But for fellow humans to steal something so trivial, yet so important to him, was beyond understanding. They didn’t care about his situation one bit. She watched his face go rock hard as the car sped away toward the exit.

It never made it out of the parking lot.

As the car shot out toward the ramp to the highway, the ground in front of it rose up and blocked it. The car slammed on its brakes and spun out of control, barely missing the combination of asphalt and earth, which began to rumble up around it. The car stopped and they could hear yelling on the inside of it. The thieves gunned the engine and aimed for the grass berm next to the exit lane. However, as they approached it, the ground next to the wall, which had risen out of the ground, collapsed, leaving a vast pit before them.

Once again, the car spun off in another direction and stopped. This time the driver started to inch the car forward and the ground opened up directly in front of it. Fire erupted from the pit below it and the car began to move backwards.

Everywhere the car tried to go, the earth rose up or dropped in front of it until it had no choice but it move back in the direction of the van. The white sedan slowly rumbled back toward it. When the sedan reached the old van, the car came to a full stop.

Lilly looked up at Dion and saw the rage in his eyes. He fought the desire inside him. He had to keep from destroying the van and everyone inside it. This was the wrath of an operational earth element master. Dion stood perfectly still and focused on the sedan.

The back door of the sedan opened and the thief emerged. In his hands was the tire and he shook with fear. Lilly was worried the thieves were armed, but Dion’s power trumped any weapon they could possibly carry in that car.

“Put it back the way it was!” He ordered the thief.

The tire thief, knees knocking together, stepped toward the van. He appeared to have second thoughts until the fire pit surrounding the car spread closer. Then he continued on behind the van. The sound of him replacing the tire could be heard from their side of it. After fifteen tense minutes, the thief emerged with the tire jack in one hand. He stood in front of Dion with the jack as if seeking instruction.

“Place it down on the ground and get back in the car!” Dion ordered the thief.

As instructed, the man placed it on the ground and slowly climbed into the car, shutting the door behind him. The car continued to idle in place.

The earthen mound in front of the exit retracted and became level with the ground. The fire inside the pits extinguished and the ground rose back up to become smooth once again. It was almost impossible in the dark to tell anything had taken place. Then ground became quiet and the rumbling, which had accompanied the movement of the earth, was gone.

The white sedan moved at a snail’s pace across the parking lot and began to pick up speed as it left the exit lane. By the time it was on the entrance ramp to the interstate, Dion estimated the car’s speed had hit in excess of ninety miles an hour. It vanished into the night, a white streak down the blacktop.

“I hope they have a good story ready if they encounter the Highway Patrol,” Dion said as he turned back to Lilly. “Are you parked on the other side of the mall? Come with me, I can give you a ride over there now that my van has all four tires.”

Lilly walked to the van with him.

Dion reached down and picked up the jack, which he tossed in the back of the van as he opened the door. The driver’s door was unlocked, as the thieves had used a coat hanger (left inside) to pull open the lock and ruffle through the inside. They didn’t find much beside the jack, but the tire was their intent anyway. He unlocked the passenger door for Lilly and helped her inside.

She didn’t know what to say. The day had begun with her watching him do small tricks with a pool of water and ended with Dion causing the earth to move around a speeding car. If ever she needed physical proof of his abilities, this was it. She quietly sat down in her seat and waited for him to start the van.

Nevertheless, it wouldn’t start. Dion swore and looked at the gas gauge in the van. “Idiots siphoned off my gas too. If I had known, I would have made them fill my tank. Looks like I’ll need a ride from
you
tonight.”

They walked across the huge parking lot under the stars. The arc lamps illuminated it, but not all of them were on tonight.

Lilly realized she was very much in love with Dion, but lacked the words to tell him. All she could think about was going on the next adventure with him. Be close to him. Didn’t he say he had to obtain three more elemental powers before he could work the fifth one? She wanted to be with him every step of the way.

“So what about your van?” she asked him on the drive back. “It’s going to be left out there all night? Aren’t you worried someone might try that again?”

“I left an elemental guarding it,” he said. “Anyone tries to mess with my van tonight will encounter an eight foot giant standing next to them. It’s just a golem and doesn’t have any violent tendencies, but he will be able to scare the pants off most people. It should suffice. When I get home, I’ll have my uncle and aunt call a tow service and we’ll meet them out there when they arrive. Alternatively, maybe I’ll just borrow a gas can and go out there myself. No reason to make this more involved than it has to be.”

“I’d like to meet them,” Lilly said. “You aunt and uncle, that is.”

“You will. They should still be up.”

Dion directed her to one of the many subdivisions, which lined the area, and they were soon in the driveway of his aunt and uncle’s house.

It was another modes split-level house, a style popular in recent years which had replace the ranch style castles which sprang up everywhere until ten years ago when people became tired of the same basic dwelling.

New developers began to build new models and soon houses were taking on the characteristics of their owners. Some houses were in a perpetual state of construction and addition, as the owner would always find some new project to initiate before concluding an existing one. Some houses had yards free of any traces of crabgrass while others had entire gardens growing out front. It was before the zoning laws standardized the way everything could be built. Most of them had their own water system and pumped it from the underground water table. This was all about to change with the coming of progress and shopping centers. Even cable TV had yet to reach this area and most houses were adorned with a virtual forest of antennas of all shapes, sizes and rotational controls.

Dion’s uncle met him at the door.

Lilly was surprised at how much he resembled his nephew. He graciously invited her inside and told them both to sit on the couch while he went to fetch his wife.

“I’ll get some coffee brewing,” he said. “You two look as if you could use some.”

“Do you think they’ll believe what we have to tell them?” Lilly asked Dion.

“They’re family,” he reminded her. “My uncle is the element worker and his wife understands.”

“Oh, honey,” Lilly heard a very feminine voice cry out and she looked up to see a tall woman with long red hair enter the room, “Are you okay? Your uncle told me you had a bad time at the mall today. Is everything alright?”

“I’m fine Aunt Taliea,” he told her. “At least I met the Earth Grandmaster today. You should see what I can do now.”

He turned to Lilly, “I’m sorry, I didn’t introduce you to them. This is my Aunt Taliea and her husband, my father’s brother, Uncle Rich.”

They all hugged, shook hands and sat back down again. Dion and Lilly stayed on the couch while his aunt and uncle sat across from them in chairs. It was an ordinary house, so far as Lilly could tell; the only difference was that there was no TV in the living room. She hadn’t even heard one when she entered the house.

First, Lilly phoned her parents to let them know where she was. She was careful to give them the phone number where she could be reached. Her mother was a little perturbed she had gone somewhere without checking with her first, but Lilly casually reminded her she was eighteen and should be trusted to make her own decisions. Her mother made her promise to be home by midnight.

“She acts like I’m still in the sixth grade,” Lilly said after hanging up the phone.

Dion spent an hour or more telling them what had happened during the day. His aunt put her hand to her mouth several times when they talked about the ghouls and the animated plastic bull, but she stayed silent through most of the story. When they had finished the story, his aunt and uncle stayed quiet for a while.

“Well,” his uncle finally spoke. “I’m glad you got your full earth elemental abilities. You are an earth elemental master now. Just be careful with what you can do. I’ve known Athena West a long time and I’m sure she wouldn’t have bestowed them on you unless she felt you were worthy.”

“What do you plan on doing next?” his aunt asked him.

Lilly could see the concern in her face.

“I have to go back there tomorrow,” he told her.

“Go back? After what happened today?”

“I need to see the next elemental grandmaster. The one who is the grandmaster of the air elementals.”

“But why?” his aunt cried out. “Isn’t having the ability of one enough. Your Uncle Rich is an air worker and he’s never felt the need to try and obtain grandmaster status.”

“I know, but I have to do this. I need all four of the elemental master abilities.”

“All four?” his uncle said. “Why?”

“Because I will need them in order to obtain the fifth elemental mastership. And I want that because I learned today what I always suspected; my parents are being held captive inside that place. It’s up to me to get them out. I can only do that if I have all of the elemental powers… including the fifth one.”

“I don’t think I’ve heard of someone working the fifth element in hundreds of years,” his uncle said. “It’s the most dangerous one there is. Can’t you find another way to get them out?”

“No, the builders are in the middle of the mall in that clock tower. I think they’ve imprisoned my parents in there. They kidnapped them in hopes it would stop me from acquiring all the elemental powers. Well, they’ve given me a reason to obtain them all.”

His aunt and uncle were quiet. They realized Dion had determined his path and there was nothing they could do to prevent it.

“One more thing,” Dion said to them.

“What?” his uncle asked.

“I need to borrow the gas can. Lilly is going to run me back to the van with it after we stop at the gas station before it closes. The thieves who tried to steal my tire also drained my gas before they left. I didn’t learn about it until we tried to start the van.”

His uncle smiled.

“Well, that went pretty well,” Lilly told Dion as she drove him back to the mall. They’d managed to find one gas station still open in time to fill up the gas can. “But really, I don’t see why you bother with a van.”

“Why?” he asked her as they pulled up to a red light.

“Anyone who can summon the power of the earth should be able to travel anywhere he wants and do what he wants. I can’t imagine what you’ll be able to do when you get those other abilities.”

“Just you wait and see,” he told her. Then Dion leaned over the seat, kissed Lilly on the lips, and held it.

The light turned green, but the car didn’t move until another car pulled up behind them and honked them forward.

It wasn’t long before they reached their destination. Lilly got out of her car and helped Dion pour the gas in the van, then returned the can to the trunk of her car.

“It’s late,” Dion told her as he wrapped his arms around her. “You need to go home.”

“What time should I be here tomorrow?” Lilly asked.

“Let’s get here nice and early at nine in the morning.”

They kissed one final time.

Soon, each was on their way home, with plans in the making for the next Elemental Grandmaster.

Chapter 1

“Jupiter Hitch?” Lilly asked Dion. “His name is Jupiter Hitch?”

“That’s what I’m told,” Dion said as they pulled up in front of the mall in his van. The tank was now full after he’d gone out the previous evening with his uncle and filled it.

His aunt and uncle were still opposed to Dion’s return to the mall. After learning about his experience the previous day with the ghouls, the security officer who wasn’t human, and the revelation that his parents were imprisoned inside the mall, they pleaded with Dion to stay put. If it were that dangerous, why would he return alone?

But as Dion made clear, there was no other person who could free them. The mall builders created the shopping center over the abyss and it was obvious that they feared his abilities. The only way to keep Dion at bay was to hold his parents captive. Or so they thought. Instead, it had the opposite effect. He was more determined now than ever to free them.

The mall rose from the field as if it was constructed as a fortress on a plain to guard the approach to a city. Although the lands around it were flat, it was also possible to imagine the interstate next to it a great river. The cars racing down it resembled fish in the river.

It was early, but the sun was already in the sky, drying the morning dew without leaving too much of an imprint in the soil. If you were still enough, it was possible to see the rabbits in the grass, munching on whatever they could find. Not too far away, from where the mall was built was a quiet stream, which wound its way to the Miami River in silence. It would appear from concrete pipes and vanish into them over and over again. The hand of humanity made itself known felt by the sounds of concrete trucks bouncing to the latest subdivision under construction.

Dion parked the van close to the entrance of the second part of the mall, the part that corresponded to the element of air. Now that the powers of the earth elementals were bestowed on him, he needed to obtain the other three. Only when he had all of them could he hope to master the fifth element, which ruled in the center of the mall. He had no hope of freeing his parents until he had the power of it under control. As Dion was once told, no element worker had mastered this fifth element in hundreds of years; his difficulty could not be understated.

Dion stepped out of the van and leaned back on the metal of its side. He looked at the mall and closed his eyes. It was there, the power of the element of air in the section he faced. He could feel it in the sky and around the entrance. He could see the small air gusts and wind elementals frisk around the mall and make patterns over the ground. They didn’t have much form, but these did not concern him. They were useful if you need to summon up a breeze for a kite or to push a sailboat, but not for much more. The stronger ones where higher up in the atmosphere. They were not easy to manipulate. Work with them the wrong way and you could get a lightning bolt sent down on top of your car. One had to be very careful with the elementals of the upper atmosphere.

“Do you feel anything?” Lilly said as she noticed Dion’s expression. He seemed quiet and relaxed.

“Just the sylphs who are already outside.”

“What?” Dion’s terminology drove her a little mad sometimes. This was only the second day she was with him, but the adventures they’d experienced together the day before were enough for two lifetimes.

“Sylphs,” he told her. “Air elementals. Some people call them fairies. But they’re a lot different from what you’ll find in literature. No, they don’t go around with sugarplums and they don’t have wings. They don’t have much material form at all. I see them a lot around fast air currents and in air ducts. It’s how I did the falling card trick with the police detective. I found one and cut a deal with it to knock over some stacked cards in return for allowing it to leave the building. They’re pretty easy to please. At least the smaller ones which are close to the earth. I don’t know a lot about the ones who live in thunderclouds, but they seem to be quite dangerous.

There’ll be more elementals inside and I have no idea what form they will take. The ghouls can’t bother us again as I have dominion over them. I can use them if I need to, but I don’t want to get dependent on them, it won’t look good to the other Elemental Grandmasters.”

“Do these new elementals inside the mall have any special forms? Or do they all float around the skylight?”

“We’ll know them when we run into them There is no way the mall builders will allow me to run around inside without some kind of opposition. We didn’t realize the cleaners where ghouls until we got close to them. I suspect it will be the same way with any other kind of elemental we run into today.”

Dion wore the same jeans jacket he had on the previous day. It matched the flared pants he wore too. Although he didn’t have any kind of logo on the back of his jacket, no one would’ve mistaken him for a mechanic or someone who worked with machine tools. Dion was refined, but not as obnoxious as the officers’ kids from the local air base. They let everyone know that their families shopped at the commissary and had access to all kinds of things civilians didn’t. Lately, a completely new class had moved into town: the university brat. With the rise of the state colleges built around the Midwest, academics from the coasts were flocking to the hinterland in search of work in their fields.

“So, what do you know about this Jupiter Hitch?” Lilly asked.

“According to Ms. West, he’s the Grandmaster of the Air Element. He’s the one I’ll need to meet if I’m to be granted all the powers which come with the second element.”

Athena West was a pharmacist who ran the Alchemist Shop inside the mall. She was also the Grandmaster of the Earth Element. It was she who’d given Dion his power over the earth elementals the day before. The entire day was spent in an attempt to reach her. The builders of the mall were intent to keep Dion away from her store. The ghouls, who were employed as cleaners, did everything possible to block him from reaching his destination. They’d even kidnapped their friend Emily and taken her away. It took an underground trip to the subbasement where the ghouls lived to free Emily. Lilly doubted her friend would ever come anywhere near the mall again.

Lilly was smartly dressed that day in platform shoes which added a few inches to her height. She didn’t want the real high ones that gave her an extra six inches, as they were difficult to walk in around the mall. Her blouse showed enough shoulder, but not too much. It was hidden beneath the jacket she wore over it. No reason to go on a hunt for an element grandmaster and appear to be a slob. She doubted at college it would be easy to keep up appearances when she started in the fall.

“Where do we find this one?” she asked Dion.

“He owns a hobby shop. It’s on the first floor of the mall, so we don’t have to deal with the escalators this time. Pretty nice place from what I can remember. Miniature airplanes, model rockets and toy trains. There was a hobby shop near me when I was growing up in California. I still remember buying those tiny bottles of paint to decorate model airplanes.”

Lilly never had much interest in model airplanes or rockets when she was younger. It was just not on her radar. But if it helped Dion locate his grandmaster, she was willing to help him. By now, she trusted him and his abilities. 

“You think he moved here to the mall when it opened?” she asked him. “I heard something about it at the time.”

“I talked to Uncle Rich about it last night. The mall went out of their way to get him to move inside it. They claimed the reason was because they didn’t want bad relations with the local businessmen, but I think there was much more. They especially wanted him inside the mall because he’s an elemental grandmaster. They went to a lot of trouble to get them to move inside and reorganized their shops. Ms. West’s pharmacy was somewhere down in Scipio. They did the same to all of them: made them an offer they couldn’t refuse. Now the mall builders have all the elemental grandmasters under one roof, where they can keep them all in sight.”

Jupiter Hitch was an older man who opened the hobby store after he retired as an engineer from the local air base. He’d worked as a civilian contractor for the United States Air Force after he graduated college in 1940 with a degree in engineering from a prestigious technical college. World War II kicked off almost a year later and his skills were instantly in demand. He spent the war in uniform and cashiered out to a growing aeronautical industry. In 1946, he found himself working for a reclusive millionaire turning out experimental aircraft. When his designs had a high success rate, he was promoted to the head of the department. Hitch quit when his employer refused to listen to his concerns about a high altitude aircraft they were trying to test. When an entire crew was killed in an experimental design, he quit and moved east to work for the government.

Hitch became the elemental grandmaster in the middle of the Second World War after the other elemental workers decided he possessed extraordinary abilities with the air elementals. He provided information that allowed American bombers to avoid storms on the way back from missions over Germany. No one in the American government knew where he came by his information, but it saved thousands of lives.

He used his air elemental insider information to build better planes in the years after the war. The sylphs could tell him instantly if a particular airfoil design had the ability to work. The air elementals of the higher atmosphere would let him know about conditions in their part of the clouds. In return, he let them know when any kind of testing might happen in the elementals’ part of the sky. During the nuclear tests, this information was crucial to the elementals. He was also instrumental in bring the nuclear atmospheric tests to a halt. His reasons were humanitarian, but he also understood how furious the atomic explosions made the elementals.

All the years he worked for the air base, Hitch experimented on small model aircraft. He became a legend among the tiny aircraft builders, people who flew small model planes with miniature gas engines. Due to the air base and its need for skilled technical people, there was a large local community of model aircraft and rocket enthusiasts. On any given Sunday, he was down at the city flying circles or launching another model rocket into the air. Hitch never married so he had plenty of time to devote to his hobbies.

When he retired, he opened up a hobby store, which allowed him to pursue what he really enjoyed: building the latest and best model aircraft he could find. It also allowed him a cheap way to buy parts. After he hired some people who knew about the business and sales side, it allowed him to do what he wanted all day long. The hobby store was quite profitable and allowed him to interact with other hobbyists. In time, his store, Hobby Visions, became a popular source of tools and material. Hitch would also put out a catalogue that became known all over the world.

“Good morning,” a voice said to their left and they turned to see Edward again. This time he wore a USAF uniform. The rank said “Major” on the nametag.

“You can get in trouble walking around impersonating an officer,” Dion said to the little man.

“It’s the least of my concerns. I’m more concerned with your current situation.”

Edward was a strange little Englishman who popped in for brief moments to offer advice it seemed. They could never get a straight story out of him as to his origins. He claimed he was allowed to give them guidance on their adventures, but not to do anything else. Edward was corporal for only five minutes at a time, but he was vague as to how long he was allowed to appear. The only thing consistent so far was that he showed up in a different outfit each time. The last time he’d appeared, Edward wore a concert t-shirt, jeans and a pair of suede leather shoes. As far as clothing went, this was a vast improvement.

Edward pulled out a cigar, clipped off the end with a pair of tiny scissors, and lit it. He took a long inhale, much to the disgust of Dion and Lilly. “Ah, one of the few pleasures I am still permitted. Just don’t say a word if anyone asks you what I’ve done, please.”

“Anything special we need to know about what is on the other side of the glass doors?” Lilly asked. “Are you going to call in an air strike?”

“It wouldn’t do many any good if I had the authority. They could drop blockbusters all over that structure and the builders would find another way to create a new one. They are that powerful.”

“So, does this explain the Air Force uniform?” Dion asked him. “It looks a lot better on you than the last outfit.”

“While thank you. No, I get a brief opportunity to make a request before they send me back. I’ve spent my time on the other side looking into what is considered proper attire these days. Beastly, I tell you, just dreadful. This was the best outfit I could find on a short notice. What I came here to let you know, is that the builders of the mall are furious you walked out of it with your earth elemental power yesterday. They have threatened to replace all of the ghouls, although what good it would do is beyond me. Any other earth elementals they can bring inside will automatically be under your authority. The chemist is leaving and has told the management she will end her lease next month.”

“Chemist?” Dion asked.

“Oh, dear, that is right; you call them pharmacists in this country. Anyway, she feels it is time for her to move on to set up shop somewhere else. I’m guessing her work is finished in the mall. This might be another reason all the Element Grandmasters were so willing to relocate to the mall. They knew you would find it easier to locate them if they were in the same area. She spoke highly of you, my lad, so keep up the good work.”