Piercing Silence (18 page)

Authors: Quinn Loftis

BOOK: Piercing Silence

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Quinn Loftis

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“
Humans continue to amaze
me with their ‘technology.’ These so called ‘inventions’ that
they’ve come up with over the years are nothing more than efforts
to stay connected. Deep down they know they are weak. They know
they are vulnerable. Subconsciously they fear to be alone. So they
continually strive to connect themselves to other humans. But those
connections themselves are weaknesses. Like a virus spreads from
cell to cell, so can disaster spread through the networks the
technology affords. Their very ingenuity will be their downfall.”
~Tamsin

“H
ave I ever mentioned how much I loathe airports?” Elora asked
no one in particular. The group that was now gathered in terminal
C, Section A of Oklahoma City International airport each glanced in
her direction. After surviving the long and hazardous journey
across the airport, considering they had nearly been run over by
one of those luggage golf carts, they’d finally reached their gate.
Now they could sit and wait with a hundred other bodies crammed
into the tiny little terminal.

“What about it exactly do you despise?”
Oakley asked her. “Could it be the obnoxious lady on the intercom,
having to repeat herself because people won’t pay attention? Or
perhaps it’s the lovely smell that seems to be wafting off of these
fabric seats that are more than likely several decades old? Better
still, maybe you utterly loathe airports because they let guys that
look like Cush walk through the security line without a backward
glance, but then pull a seventeen year old female to the side to
pat down because she looks too threatening.”

“Yes,” Elora answered to all of the
questions. “And to be fair, I do sort of look like someone who
likes to play with fire.”

“I personally like the part where Cush made
the male security guard who stepped toward Elora take several steps
back causing him to trip over a guy trying to put his shoes back
on. I was sure the poor man was going to start crying,” Syndra
laughed.

Elora noticed that Cush did not.

“He made some comment about them being short
staffed so he would have to pat her down,” Cush said. His jaw was
clenched so tight Elora wondered how his teeth didn’t shatter. “I
simply made it clear that if he touched her I would crush his
hands.”

“Oh is that all?” Oakley chuckled.

“Poor guy,” Elora said in a voice that was
forlorn, though when she looked at Cush she knew he saw the wicked
gleam in her eyes. “That might have been the only action he would
have had in a long time.”

“Elora,” Lisa admonished though not very
convincingly.

“He can touch someone else’s female,” he
said in a deathly low voice. “No one touches you.”

Elora knew better than to continue to tease
him when he was feeling all possessive and protective so she let it
go. But she continued to watch him and he continued to seethe.
Elora was a little confused as to why he was still so upset over
it, and she was just about to ask him when a voice came over the
intercom.

“Attention passengers of Continental
Airlines flight 233. We apologize but your flight has been put on
hold for some routine maintenance of the aircraft. We will attempt
to move as quickly as possible to keep your wait as short as we
can. Thank you.”

“Routine maintenance,” Elora huffed.

“It probably won’t be long if it’s routine,”
Syndra offered attempting to soothe Elora’s ruffled feathers.

Elora glanced at her brother. “You’d better
be the bearer of bad news. If I tell them I’ll add lots of
expletives and have to blame it on my dark elf half.”

“What she’s not saying,” Oakley started as
he looked from Cush to Syndra, “is that when they say routine
maintenance it usually means there’s a massive leak in the gas
tank, or half the engine is suddenly on the ground. They don’t want
to cause any fear by telling us what is really going on.”

“So basically the nice human just lied to
us,” Cush pointed out unnecessarily, his face just as tight as it
had been since going through security.

“It’s a form of customer service,” Lisa
offered. “Keep the consumer happy and ignorant and hide everything
else under the rug. Welcome to the American way.”

“I always said humans were weird,” Syndra
said as she sat back into her chair attempting to get comfortable.
Elora didn’t know why she was even trying. Sitting in airport
chairs was about as comfortable as sitting bare-butted on a cactus.
Okay so maybe she was exaggerating, but not by much.

Elora stood up and stretched her arms above
her head attempting to work the kinks out. If they were going to be
stuck here for a while she was going to have move around and get
the blood flowing to all of her extremities again. She could see
Cush stand up behind her from the corner of her eye but she didn’t
bother to acknowledge him. He would give her some space, but he
wouldn’t take his eyes off of her.

She walked over to the huge glass windows
that looked out over the tarmac where the planes docked for loading
and unloading. She watched as men in blue jumpsuits and yellow
vests hustled about, each moving with purpose and efficiency. It
made her think of an ant hill with all the little worker ants
scurrying here and there to get their tasks done. Her eyes were
drew to the plane that had their flight number on the side and she
attempted to find what could be wrong with it. Granted she knew
there wasn’t going to be a huge sign with an arrow that said
‘faulty propeller.’ Nothing could ever be that simple.

Elora was just about to turn away from the
window when fluid movement—much too smoothly to have been made by a
human—caught her attention. Her eyes narrowed as she stepped closer
to the window, her nose nearly bumping into the glass. She was sure
it had to be a trick of the light but then two other men seemed to
materialize next to the first one. Her eyes widened. “You sneaky,
sneaky elves,” she muttered under her breath as she watched three
dark elves working alongside the humans, only she was pretty sure
they weren’t attempting to help. There was no doubt in her mind
that they were dark elves because she was seeing past their glamor.
Elora imagined it was probably not airline policy for their
employees to have long hair flowing freely, whipping in all
directions in the wind where it could get caught in something. She
also thought that it was probably not acceptable for their
employees to carry swords and daggers at their sides.

Elora turned to find Cush. She didn’t have
to look too hard. He was about twenty feet away leaning against a
pillar, completely unaware of the affect he was having on the
people around him. The men were looking at him warily as though at
any moment he was going to reach out and grab one of them by the
throat and the women were looking at him like he was the juiciest
steak they’d ever seen. It would have been funny if she wasn’t
worried about the dark elves sabotaging their plane. She motioned
for him to come over and then unabashedly enjoyed the view of his
large frame moving so gracefully through the crowd. People got out
of his way without him ever having to say anything. Elora was sure
at any moment someone was going to roll a red carpet out in front
of him. She snorted to herself at the image in her mind.

“What’s the smirk for?” Cush asked once he
was standing in front of her. His eyes were focused only on her.
She knew that he was aware of their surroundings and he constantly
watched for threats, but somehow he never took his eyes off
her.

“Are you completely oblivious to the
reaction of people around you?” Realizing that now was not the time
to boost his ego, she shook her head and waved a hand in front of
him. “Scratch that. I wanted you to come over here so you could see
that.” She turned and pointed at what was beyond the window to
where she’d seen the elves.

“Are you freaking kidding me?” She huffed.
They were gone.

“What’s wrong, Elora? What did you see?”
Cush asked her in the voice he always used when he expected
obedience.

“There were three dark
elves out there. They were running around just like the other
workers, looking as though they were helping, but I saw past their
glamor
. I don’t
know what they were doing but I would bet my big left—”

“Little Raven,” Cush said in warning.

She looked up at him with wide, innocent
eyes. “I was going to say my big left toe. Where exactly is your
mind, oh great warrior?”

“Quit distracting me, woman,” he growled as
he took her hand and led her back over to where their group was
still lounging.

Elora could tell that they all new
immediately something was wrong just by looking at Cush. His face
was hard granite as his jaw clenched and his brow lowered over his
seething eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Syndra asked as she
stood.

“Elora saw dark elves out by the plane that
we are supposed to board,” Cush explained. “For some reason I don’t
think it’s a coincidence.”

Oakley pinched the bridge of his nose as he
let out a frustrated sigh. “How is this guy staying one step ahead
of us?”

“Trik was not Lorsan’s only spy,” Syndra
told him. “He just happened to be his most talented.”

“So what’s the plan?” Lisa asked as she
joined the others all now standing.

Cush looked at Syndra with narrowed eyes.
“It’s time you proved just how powerful you are.”

Syndra’s head tilted ever so slightly to the
side and a crooked smile twitched her full lips. “What exactly do
you have in mind, warrior?”

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