DAMAGED - A Bad Boy Romance (37 page)

“I see one to the right,” he told Lilly.

“And I see one to the left.”

As they covered their approach behind a support pillar, Dion and Lilly spotted four of Karanzen’s men guarding the way to the hobby shop. It wasn’t as obvious as they expected it to be. They were still doing their best to pretend to cover the entire space and acted as if they were on a routine assignment. One of them even pretended to check the key station near the stairway, but he didn’t have the big round clock he would’ve needed. Besides, Dion was certain none of the guards carried those gigantic clocks to hang across their shoulder during the rounds. It made the place look too much like a paint factory.

“At least the sign is gone,” Lilly said. “And it appears to be open.”

“First we have to get past Karanzen’s boys in blue,” Dion said. “Earth elemental powers won’t do me much good in here. I can’t just open up the earth and let them fall in, as much as I might want to. Innocent people could be hurt.”

“Should we make a run for it?” Lilly asked him.

“It might be the only thing we can do. Just march up there and try to force our way inside.”

Then he noticed something else: sylphs floating in the air just over the heads of the guards. Most people lacked the ability to recognize these airborne spirits, but he’d inherited the ability to recognize them and take advantage of their uses. However, these weren’t the kind he could use, they were much more powerful. And then he recognized them: the same twelve elementals which terrorized them earlier in the day. The difference was they were in their natural form. It would take another day for them to assume the cheerleader format, but a combined force of wind inside mall could still be effective if used the right way. He was certain they’d joined forces with the guards patrolling on the ground, even if the guards had no way of knowing they were over their heads.

“Those elementals are here,” he told Lilly. “The ones who kidnapped Sean and Emily.”

“Where? I don’t see them anywhere.”

“You wouldn’t. You have to be trained to know what to look for in one of them. They’re the same ones, just in their sylph form. It will take a long time for them to return to the cheerleader version, but they’ll do it if they get the opportunity.”

Dion sized up his chances. The sylphs and guards were out in force in front of Jupiter Hitch’s hobby shop. They knew he and Lilly had to get through them to reach the Elemental Grandmaster. The sylphs were double worried because if he were granted full air elemental power by Hitch, Dion would have control over them. Bound to someone they tried to stop was not something the sylphs wanted to contemplate.

“I don’t see any other way to get inside it,” Dion told her. “We’re just going to be forced to make a line for the store and hope we don’t get stopped by the guards and their airborne allies. Come on, let’s start walking.”

Through the mass of shoppers, Dion and Lilly trudged forward. They were determined to get to the hobby shop no matter what the opposition tossed at them. Dion took Lilly’s hand and began to walk forward, slowly, but picking up speed as he went along. They seamlessly flowed through the crowd and hoped no one would notice them as they moved along.

It almost worked.

They were within twenty yards of the door to the hobby shop when two of the guards at the same time noticed them. One of them signaled to the other and they began to walk rapidly toward Dion, trying to act as normally as they could. Apparently, Karanzen had informed them to take him down quickly, but not to cause any problems. The other two guards saw their quarry and began to walk in the same direction. Soon, Dion saw them moving to create a line of interception in front of the store.

The second thing he noticed was the wind.

The air suddenly began to blow in his direction, slowing down his rate of progress to the door. The sylphs were alerted to Dion and Lilly’s presence and decided to take care of them too. They couldn’t use their full wind force, as they were inside the mall and Dion’s uncle would be furious. But they could impede his passage to the store.

For a few minutes, it appeared his passage to the hobby shop was blocked by Karanzen’s goons and the air sprits. The combination of bodies blocking the entrance and mysterious wind blowing against him seemed to bring everything to an end. Dion was frustrated as his own air elemental ability was too low to be of much use against the powerful sylphs. The few air elementals he could summon were too weak to be of much use. The ones he was against were from full of the gale force wind.

Dion put his head down and tried to march in the direction of the store.

Then a sound came out of the other side of the concourse. It was the sound of a motor roaring in the air and it drowned out the noise caused by the wind pushing against him. It emerged from the ceiling and began to descend down to their level.

Dion saw two of the guards look up as the source of the noise descended to their level. When they had a good view at what cause it, their mouths popped open. Even the sylphs stopped working their howling wind against him and Lilly.

It was a helicopter. A small, miniature helicopter and it was slowly coming down to their level in front of the store. Dion and Lilly themselves stopped to watch it spin around the concourse and hover in place. Most of the shoppers did the same thing and looked up in amazement.

Lilly had read about these tiny helicopters, but had never seen one up close. She assumed they were too specialized and expensive for most people to own. Even radio controlled airplanes, which she would sometimes see flying around the open fields, were too expensive for most people. However, the hobby shop was the right place for someone to go shopping for one. Many devices could be radio controlled, such as model cars, small sailing ships and, of course, helicopters. She could smell the gas fuel burning from the helicopter. It couldn’t have a large tank on it, but maybe it didn’t need one.

As the people on the floor watched, the tiny helicopter which even had a miniature pilot inside, hovered around in front of the store, spotted the guards and immediately changed its course. It spun down at one of the security guards with collision as its intent. The guard yelled and tried to escape, but smacked into a support pillar before he could move away fast enough. The tiny helicopter missed him by a few inches and spun back up into the air. By now, people had scattered and moved away from the path of the little ‘copter.

It did a small turn and went back down, its props neatly disrupting the flow of the sylphs who were in full retreat. The sylphs tried to rally higher, but the helicopter soared up to their level and neatly fractured through them. The sylph air spirits were unable to merge together and form an effective counter attack and rapidly began to leave the mall through any open door they could find. People who pushed doors open noticed extra gusts of wind as the sylphs fled the mall. They decided whoever controlled the helicopter could launch whatever attack they wanted against them. They didn’t need to stick around to be broken up by the blades.

The helicopter, when certain the sylphs were no longer a threat, swooped back down at the security guards who fled to the side of the concourse as they attempted to avoid it. One guard was almost clipped as it came down next to his head, but he jerked in the other direction and managed to escape injury.

By now, there was only one security guard on the floor between Dion and the entrance to the store. He turned and began to walk in Dion’s direction when the whirl of the helicopter came at him. The guard turned and saw the blades near his face and ran back to the side of the concourse, leaving the pathway to the hobby shop open for Dion and Lilly.

In front of the hobby shop, the radio controlled helicopter hovered and continued to roar out its challenge to anyone who would block Dion from reaching the store. It was silver metallic in color and displayed the masterful technology used to create it. The little helicopter moved back and forth slowly to let everyone know it stood watch over the gate to the hobby shop.

“I guess it’s clear now,” Dion said to Lilly and continued forward. No one attempted to stop him this time.

They walked under the little helicopter as it continued to fly in place. Dion gave it one final look as he and Lilly pushed the door open and walked inside.

Chapter 12

Jupiter Hitch leaned across the counter in his store with the controls to the helicopter in his hands. He was a large man, although not a tall one. He had thick glasses and a Hawaiian shirt on as he manipulated the controls for his radio-controlled helicopter, which still hovered outside of the store. On seeing them walk inside, he briefly raised one hand in salute.

“Just give me a second,” he told them. “I’ve almost got this thing finished. I need to land it somewhere. It’s a toy, but an expensive one and I don’t want to lose it.”

He made a few movements with his hands and the helicopter began to rise in the air. After a few more minutes, he had it over a service platform on top of the elevator shaft. Concentrating as hard as possible, Hitch brought it down gently on the platform where he could leave it until the miniature helicopter needed to be brought back down later. He made a final adjustment and the sound of the helicopter died down as the engine shut off.

“Glad you two made it inside when you did. I don’t think I could’ve kept it up for much longer. I might have used all the gas I had in it just to land the copter on that platform. I’d hate to have to get somebody up there to retrieve it, but I might have to do that.”

He put the control box down on the floor and came out from behind the counter. Dion saw how big the man really was at this point. He was over six feet in height and had to carry at least three hundred pounds on him. Jupiter Hitch rattled the floor when he walked. He walked over to the door and put the closed sign up while turning the latch in the door.

“I’ll catch a lot of grief from the mall for closing early again and flying the helicopter, but I can deal with it. Besides, they didn’t tell me what was so important that I had to run down to the security office today when I arrived. That cursed Officer Karanzen kept me in the lobby for a good two hours waiting. When he came out, he claimed it was a big misunderstanding and they didn’t need to see me at all. Of course, they pulled it in the middle of a busy day when I didn’t have any one to mind the store for me. I should charge them for the two hours of business I lost.”

He turned his attention back to Dion. “So you’re the young man all those elementals are scared about, huh? I can’t see why. You look harmless enough to me. I talked with Alexandria and she told me you are cleared to use your full abilities on the earth elements. She also told me the ghouls tried to keep you away from her pharmacy. Something is up from the top level, I can feel it. There are some powerful forces at work here.”

“They don’t want me to obtain all four of the elemental powers because then I can gain the fifth. I need them all because my parents are held inside the clock tower, where the offices are located for the mall.”

“Do you feel you can handle the responsibilities which come with being a Master of the Air Element? I understand you have the power over the earth elementals, but the ones in the air are not so easy to control.”

“Yes, I am certain. I have not come this far and learned so much to back down now.”

“Very well. Come into the back room and we will see what can be done.” Hitch turned to Lilly and looked at her with concern. “This is only between Dion and myself, I hope you understand.”

“I do,” she told him. “The Grandmaster of the Earth Element said the same thing.”

“It shouldn’t be too long. It’s just a matter of knowing he’s ready.”

Lilly leaned on one of the counters and watched him go in the back room with Dion and shut the door. She’d learned the process, test, or whatever the Elemental Grandmaster administered made no light or noise. It didn’t happen at all like one saw in the movies.

She wandered around the hobby store while they were in the back room and looked at the merchandise. There was an entire wall dedicated to model cars and airplanes. She remembered when building model cars were all the rage in her neighborhood with the boys. Then it was model ships and planes. Somewhere in the meantime the kids began to build the plastic movie monsters too. Later on, many of the plastic models would be smashed when they fell off the table or end up in the trash by an over-zealous parent who needed to clean.

She noticed the paints were displayed by code and tied into whatever model needed to be painted. It seemed like a lot of money to pay for a small bottle, but she never did understand why so many places charged so much for so little. She found the lengths of balsa wood, which was used to build model airplanes. Some of the planes were wire guided, but the better ones were radio controlled. It seemed the way of the future, especially after she saw the stunts performed by the miniature helicopter. It was almost magic watching it do those maneuvers out in the concourse.

The door opened and Dion emerged with Jupiter Hitch. Dion had a smile on his face, the first one she’d seen all day.

“Congratulate the new Master of the Air Element,” Hitch said to her. “He passed with flying colors. Now you can make those sylphs do whatever you need. Just heed the warning I gave you.”

“Is there anything else I need to know about the air elementals?” Dion asked the older man. “They seem to be very independent minded. I didn’t get such resistance against the earth ones.”

“They’re all over the place and congregate whenever there is a storm. They’ll do what you tell them in the future, but don’t push them too hard or they’ll find a reason to mess up whatever you attempt to accomplish. Always follow through on anything you might promise because they have long memories. I have met air sylphs who still hold a grudge against Paracelsus for revealing too much about them. And don’t be tempted to use your abilities the moment you leave here. I’m sure the mall owner has all kinds of opposition to throw at you, but resist the temptation to escalate.”

“Thank you,” Dion said to Hitch as he turned to leave. “I will do all I can to be worthy of your trust.”

“I’m sure you will,” Hitch called to him as they left the hobby store. Dion turned and saw the “open” sign flipped back as the door was left unlocked when they left. In spite of his high reputation among the element manipulators, Jupiter Hitch still had a business to run and couldn’t afford to miss a sale. Dion wondered when Hitch would try to get the miniature helicopter down from the platform on top of the elevator shaft.

The mall had returned to normal. Shoppers were going about their business and no one talked about the miniature helicopter which buzzed the security guards. Given the short attention span of most people he encountered, Dion wasn’t surprised by this revelation.

He was accustomed to people who didn’t care much beyond the end of their street corner. He’d grown up in a different world where his parents had scolded him if he even tried to use his elemental worker abilities on a pool of water or on the stove burner. They made it very clear to him it was not for uninitiated eyes.

He could sense the air elementals floating around the top of the mall. They knew he’d achieved full power. The only ones who’d actively opposed his attempts to gain full power over them were gone; the helicopter drove them outside the mall and into the atmosphere to regroup. These sylphs were not the sort who would give him any problems. Other than some help in wind gusts and weather control, the air elementals weren’t the sort to be of much use.

He looked up and saw several spinning in the upper rafters. This part of the mall was dedicated to them and they enjoyed being inside this place.

“You have half of your powers,” Lilly said to him, “are you going for the remainder?”

“Of course,” Dion said quickly. “It’s not a question of want. I need all four to work the fifth. I don’t know how my uncle managed to obtain the fifth without the others, but something tells me this is why he’s gone out of his mind. The power he obtained isn’t supposed to be gained on its own. The other four abilities support it. He’s a table without legs floating in an ocean of chaos. Somehow, he thinks possessing my mother will make him free of his inner torment. It won’t happen. The only person who can free him is himself and he may be too far gone to save his own soul.”

“So are you going back home?” she asked. “To your aunt and uncle’s house?”

“No. I need to find out more about my uncle and his background. I can’t do that here, so I’ll have to find a travel agency which can take me where I want to go.”

“You mean like that place we were in yesterday?”

“No, I need to find a travel agency which can take me to a place of my own choosing. I need to find one that can take me outside this time circle. However,” he said while unrolling the map, “I have a way to find one.”

He traced his finger on the map and Lilly noticed a red dot appear in the map. She looked at it and saw the dot was located in a section of the mall right outside Jupiter Hitch’s hobby shop. The dot indicated where the bearer of the map was at any given time.

“It appears there is a travel agency which can take me where I want to go just down the concourse in a back hall under the stairway. It’s here on the map.”

Lilly looked at where he pointed and the map showed a location called Purple Zone Travel. It was shaded in such a way to indicate that it wasn’t open to normal mall patrons. Since they’d wondered into the last place which took them outside the mall by accident, Lilly could only speculate what this one was like on the inside.

“So who is this travel agency meant for?” she asked him.

“Travelers. But not always human ones. The place we were at yesterday was specifically for human travelers. The place we are going is for any creature that needs to travel from one point in the multiverse to the next. They have stations everywhere and can generally get you where you need to go.”

Dion took both of her hands in his after he rolled the map up and placed it under his arm. “I want you to understand you can wait for me outside or just leave. You’ve been through a lot already and it will only get worse. I can take Emily and Sean home this evening on my own; all I have to do is phone my uncle. I can give you the keys to my van and you’ll be able to leave this place.”

“I don’t want to go,” she said as she let go of his hands and wrapped her arms around him. “I’ve gone this far, I’ll see it through.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Dion said as he leaned over Lilly and lightly kissed her on the lips. “We need to get moving if we’re going to reach this place. Let me check one more thing.”

Dion rolled the mall map open again and checked the path it showed him to the travel agency. “Good, it recommends a direct route. I guess this means Karanzen knows his men were unable to stop me again. I’m sure we’ll deal with him later, but not right now.”

They continued down the concourse, waving at a few friends from the high school. As this was spring break, there were quite a few kids from the school out today. All the stores were decorated with their special savings signs and the full weight of consumer culture was on display. Every other person was weighed down with a shopping bag or carried some box. All the major department stores in the area were represented by whatever they had in their hands. It was a grand parade today of endless packaging. Dion and Lilly didn’t stop to reflect on the contradiction between the mall culture and what it was built over, but continued on their way. The travel agency would be hard enough to find without the mobs of people blocking the entrances to the stores.

Purple Zone Travel didn’t even have a sign outside to tell the potential customer what it was. There was a blank storefront window where the travel agency was supposed to be located. Dion walked up to the storefront and looked at it. Most people would have assumed it was closed or not yet opened. The mall tended to put facades over closed stores or ones, which hadn’t been opened. It looked bad on them when there was a blank space, so they did everything they could to hide it.

Dion looked at the glass door, which lead to the inside, and saw a small notice on the door right above the handle. He bent down and read it.

“PZ Travel,” the small sign, no bigger than six inches read. “We are open by appointment only. Please call this number to arrange an appointment.”

There was a phone number listed after the notice, which would probably go directly to an answering machine so the owners of the travel agency could screen the callers.

Dion placed one hand on the door handle and tried it. It was loose, but he felt a tingle in his hand as if the door had examined him. The door was tuned to let only those inside who needed the services of the company and to keep out the idle visitor. Dion turned and looked back at Lilly.

“It’s open, we can go inside,” he called to her.

They pushed the door open and went in. As they heard the automatic door closer swoosh behind them, they examined the room they’d just entered.

It was painted black. Everywhere. Even the ceiling was black and Dion wondered how they’d managed to paint it without spilling the paint everywhere. The floor was a shiny black color and reflected their images as they looked at it. Lilly thought about how difficult it must be to keep the floor clean and free of scratches.

Artifacts and paintings lined the walls. For a minute Dion thought, he’d made a mistake and walked into an art gallery, although it would be odd to see one in a shopping mall. There was faint light, which was provided by a series of candles, which were strategically placed over the inside of the room. It created a sense of unreality. It was hard to believe they were still in the mall.