Power Revealed (The Elementers) (27 page)

Knowledge that Henry was alive spun around in Justin’s head, but it didn’t entirely seem real. The fact that Justin hadn’t been able to connect to any elements when Henry surprised him also stood at the forefront of his thoughts. How was he supposed to help Raven if he couldn’t even use the energy? He needed his powers now more than ever. Justin tried to think of the meditation exercises Anya taught him. This wasn’t the time or place for quiet time, but he put aside his aversion to meditation, closed his eyes, and tried to calm the storm swirling around inside. To help Raven he needed to center himself enough to access the energy again.

As they approached the hospital entrance, Justin said, “Drop me off before you park the jeep.”

“Justin, we need to work together.”

“We will. But Raven could be hurt in the time it takes to park, so drop me off and then you can catch up.” Without waiting for an answer, Justin opened his door, forcing Mr. Hamilton to slow down. Justin jumped out. “Hurry in,” he yelled as he ran toward the entrance.

Justin nearly ran into the automatic glass doors because they slid open too slowly. He scanned the lobby, didn’t see anyone he recognized, and found both the elevators and the stairs. He wasn’t going to stand around and wait for an elevator, so he shot toward the stairs, shoved the door aside, and raced up the stairwell for the fourth floor. He halted at the second floor landing. The door stood askew and the metal edging reminded him of a candle when the wax melts and leaves hardened drip lines down the sides. Raven or Boris must have been here.

The door screeched as Justin pulled hard on the handle forcing the door to rotate on the now warped hinges. He heard voices down the hallway and quietly, but quickly, walked toward them. In an alcove off of the main hallway stood a couple of nurses and a man in a dark suit standing in front of a partially opened elevator that had stopped between the first and second floor.

One of the nurses tried explaining things to the man in the suit. “Shirley thought she had heard someone, but by the time she got off the phone and came over to the elevator, it was empty.”

Justin hurried down the far hallway and began peeking into the rooms. He received a couple surprised or irritated looks from the occupants, but he only cared about his friends’ safety. The fourth door stood closed and wouldn’t budge when he pushed on the handle. This was taking too long. He began to continue moving down the hall when he noticed through the narrow window in the door what looked like a woman’s foot sticking out on the floor past the hospital bed. His stomach tightened up. Justin pushed on the door handle again, but it wouldn’t budge. He didn’t figure they locked hospital rooms. Boris might sense his use of the energy, but he figured the brute couldn’t pinpoint its use as closely as Raven. If he could, then Justin would deal with him.

Justin took two deep breaths and tried to connect to the earth energy. His fingers seemed to crackle with static electricity for a few seconds and then the faucet turned on and the energy flowed. Relief also flooded through him. He had no time for elegant lock picking. Instead, he used brute force to rotate the inner lock clockwise. He looked around, but nobody was in the hall to hear the clank and screeching of scraping metal. He slipped into the room, closed the door behind him, and hurried toward the body. Selena lay prostrate on the floor between the two hospital beds with a broken chair over her. Justin lifted the two main pieces of chair off of her and gently shook her shoulder. “Selena? Selena, can you hear me?”

Selena let out a small moan and moved imperceptibly. Then she rotated her head to look at Justin. “What happened?”

“I think someone hit you over the head with a chair,” Justin said nodding toward the chair fragments.

Selena touched the back of her head and winced. “I think your right. But what happened to Diederick?”

“The Water Elementer that dresses like a surfer?”

“Yes. The last thing I remember was sneaking up on him and encasing him in ice.”

“Then where—” Justin noticed a puddle of water on the floor under the bed closest to the window. He ducked his head down and looked under the bed. “Oh!” He jumped to his feet and hurried around the bed. On the floor in front of him lay Diederick with his feet encased in ice. “He’s over here. He must have fallen over and banged his head against the metal table because he’s out cold, in more ways than one.”

“It must have been Boris who hit me with the chair. But where is he?” Selena said.

“He must be looking for Raven and Anya. Where are they?”

“They were heading toward the stairs to get out of the hospital.”

Justin reached in his pocket for his phone, but Henry had it. “I need your phone.” Selena pulled out hers and handed it to Justin who dialed Mr. Hamilton’s number. “Selena and I are on the second floor. Take the stairs to the right, go past the nurse desk, and down the left hallway a few rooms. You’ll need to help Selena get Diederick out of here. I’m going to look for Raven and Anya.”

Mr. Hamilton tried to argue but Justin hung up. He turned to Selena. “He’ll be here in a moment.” Then he hurried out into the hallway and saw a sign at the far end identifying another set of stairs. Justin ran down the hallway, but slowed down as he typed in Raven’s phone number. The first two unanswered rings made Justin speed up, but then he thought he heard a voice. He stopped on the stairwell to hear better.

“Raven, is that you?”

“Yes, I can sense you up on the second floor. Take the stairs. The elevators aren’t safe. We’re hiding out in the women’s bathroom on the first floor near the cafeteria. They haven’t looked in here yet.”

“Hold still. I’m on my way.” Justin jumped down the stairs two at a time and slowed his pace only slightly after receiving a grimace from a passing nurse. There were no signs for the cafeteria down the first hallway, so he headed toward the center of the hospital and then down the one to the right where the signs pointed him. Not thinking about anything but Raven’s safety, he pushed open the door to the women’s bathroom just as a cute, blond teenager came out.

“Oh, sorry.” Justin couldn’t help but turn a little red. “Uh, wrong bathroom. Sorry.” Justin went into the men’s bathroom next door to make it look like he wasn’t trying to sneak into the women’s bathroom, even though that was exactly what he tried to do. He waited less than ten seconds and then entered the hall again, saw the girl walking toward the lobby, and entered the women’s bathroom hoping Raven and Anya were now in there alone.

“Justin,” Raven called as he entered. She was helping prop up Anya against the far wall.

Justin rushed over to them. “Are you okay?”

Anya raised her eyebrows at him. “Do I look okay?”

“Well, no.” In fact, he had never seen her look so pale. Anya was normally vibrant, but the pain and exertion had drained it all away. “Come on. We need to get the two of you out of here.”

“But what about Selena?” Raven asked.

“Don’t worry. I already found her and Mr. Hamilton is helping her remove an incapacitated Diederick out of here. The jeep is in the parking lot. Let’s go.” Justin slid his arm behind Anya’s back and Raven did likewise as they helped her into the hall.

Justin could hear Anya’s ragged breaths, but speed was more important than comfort right now.  Suddenly Anya’s legs gave out entirely causing the muscles around her broken ribs to pull even harder. “Aagh!” Anya yelped.

This wasn’t going to work. He couldn’t hold her tighter to support more of her weight because it just placed more pressure on her broken ribs. Justin guided them to a wall. “Wait here.” Justin raced down the hall before Raven could object, looking in rooms for a wheelchair. After the fifth or sixth room he saw one parked just inside the door. He peeked in and saw an old man sleeping. Justin quickly wheeled the chair out of the room and back to Anya helping her sit down in it. “Is that better?”

Anya forced a grateful smile at Justin through the pain. “Yes. Now let’s get out of here.”

Justin wheeled Anya down the hallway toward a sign identifying an exit to the right. As they were turning the corner, Justin glanced down the hallway toward the lobby and saw Boris’s large frame entering into view and looking their way. “Let’s move it. I just saw Boris.”

“Did he see us?” Raven asked while running for the exit.

“I think so.”

After passing through the sliding doors, Justin halted. “Here, you push her. I’ll take care of Mr. Beefy.”

“Justin,” Raven began to argue, but Justin knew it was their only chance.

“Go! Call Mr. Hamilton, find his jeep, and go back to the hotel. I can take care of myself. Tell Mr. Hamilton to come back once you’re safe.”

Raven hesitated for a moment, but then seemed to accept this as the best option. “Just be careful.” Then she hurried behind a van pushing Anya in the wheelchair with one hand while using her other hand to hold the phone as she called her teacher.

Justin scanned the area and noticed a grove of trees beyond the parking lot. That would be the best place to face Boris. Justin could use the trees against the Earth Elementer and hopefully keep the fight hidden from others. But the grove lay on the other side of the main entrance where Boris would likely be exiting at any moment. Skirting between cars, Justin raced across the parking lot trying to remain hidden by moving behind as many large vehicles as possible. He only crossed half of the parking lot when he noticed Boris standing outside of the main entrance scanning the area.

Justin hid behind a van and peaked around it to view his opponent. A woman walked past Boris and Justin couldn’t help but notice that she looked half the size of the man. The little bit of light that broke through the clouds shone on the brute making him look even more intimidating. Justin tried to remind himself that physical size had nothing to do with their ability to wield the elements. But if he lost the ability to connect to the elements again, he’d become a punching bag for the brute. Justin pushed the thought away. He only lost control before because he let the anger take over. He’d keep his cool this time.

Justin needed to keep Boris distracted so the others could get away. He waited for Boris to look in another direction and then bolted out from behind the van heading straight for the grove. It wasn’t till he was halfway there that he felt he could spare the time to turn his head and look in Boris’ direction. The guy had noticed Justin, but thankfully hadn’t attempted to stop him with the elements. Instead, he chased after Justin a good hundred feet behind.

Once well inside the grove, Justin weaved through the trees to lose his pursuer and then hid behind one of the larger trunks. Trying to quiet his breathing, Justin listened carefully for the loud footsteps that soon came. Sticks easily snapped under each heavy step that continued to move closer to his hiding spot. Options of attack rolled across Justin’s mind as he waited for Boris to be well out of view of those in the parking lot and not too close to be able to easily lay his paws on Justin. When the steps sounded like they were within twenty feet, Justin peeked his head around the trunk just enough to view his attacker. Boris caught sight of him and immediately opened up a hole in the ground right where Justin stood. Justin had faced this before and leaped to the side just before the crack split open, but he lost his footing due to the shaking of the earth and fell to the ground. Again, the ground below him began to stir encouraging Justin to get back on his feet and move. He felt his back leg lose its footing as the ground dropped out from underneath him, but he had enough momentum to keep moving forward.

Before Boris had a chance to do anything more, Justin reached out and blew a gust of wind at his opponent. Despite his massive size, the wind was powerful enough to throw Boris like a doll against a tree. The tree wasn’t big enough to withstand the force and it cracked on impact leaving it bent at a thirty degree angle. Unfortunately, Boris could handle the force. He shook his head and pushed himself back onto his feet. “Vere are you, you little punk?” he roared in his heavy Polish accent, scanning the trees for signs of Justin. “Come out and face me!”

Justin had stood up to enough bullies in the past, but he wasn’t crazy enough to face this guy hand to hand. He wanted to give the others more time to get away, so he stayed hidden listening to the guy’s ongoing threats. The splatter of rain began falling against the leaves, but only a few rain drops made it through the canopy to fall on Justin’s face. He thought about how he could use it.

As Boris’s voice circled and began nearing, Justin peeked out again but this time Boris didn’t see him. Reaching out to the water and wind, Justin combined and froze much of the approaching rain drops and then targeted the ice balls at Boris. Justin could hear the ammunition hit their target. “Aargh!” Boris howled. “You’re dead kid!”

Before the brute finished his sentence, Justin reached out to the trees and urged the branches above Boris to silently slither down above his head. By the time Boris noticed them, they were wrapping around him. Boris tried to punch them away, but he only broke two before the rest had firmly encased him like a boa constrictor. Justin’s opponent reached out with the earth element opening up chasms to bring the trees down. But as two trees fell, more branches took their place. With each breath he exhaled, the branches tightened further constricting his access to oxygen. His connection to the Earth element weakened. In little over a minute his head dropped to the side.

Justin only wanted Boris out of commission, so he guided the branches to loosen their grip on the guy slightly and laid him on to the ground still encased in the living cords. Justin kept his distance for almost a minute to make sure the brute didn’t suddenly recover. It seemed to take a lot to knock this guy out. Once he was confident the guy was knocked out for good, Justin walked close enough to kick the brute’s massive feet and received no response. Justin leaned closer and just barely sensed some breathing. Boris’s large frame lay on the ground while Justin tried to figure out how to get the guy out of here unnoticed. He was far too big to carry.

Justin walked to the edge of the grove looking for any signs of Mr. Hamilton returning, but his jeep was nowhere in sight. Justin connected to the water element and reached out to his teacher. “I’ve got Boris. Can you come and help me carry him out of here? Park close to the grove of trees. The guy is going to be heavy to carry.”