The Stelter City Saga: Ultranatural

The Stelter City Saga:
Ultranatural

By Stefany
Valentine

Copyright 2013 Stefany
Valentine

Smashwords
Edition

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Chapter 1 Déjà vu

~The earsplitting bang of a gunshot
traveled along the vacant beach. At the foamy waterline, a man’s
body went limp as Ithaca set the gun down by her side. After all,
death was the consequence for not joining in her uprising. The body
toppled over, the man’s face plummeting into the sandy shore just
as an eerie midnight wave crashed. Ithaca took a seat on the beach
and watched as the black ocean pooled up around the corpse, slowly
dragging it away.

“
Well done,” August praised
from behind.

Ithaca watched as her finger traced the
shape of a heart in the damp sand. “You know I hate taking
lives.”

Through the still night, August’s
laughter echoed across the empty beach. “You are a horrible
liar.”

Slowly a wicked grin spread across
Ithaca’s face. Her fingers dug into the sand until she was able to
rip out the tracing and fling it into an oncoming wave. “Oh,
darling August.” She beamed falling back on the shore, “you know me
far too well.”

~Sometime in the middle of all the
kissing, Ace managed to whisper, “I love you.”

Lee gazed into his sapphire eyes. They
always looked like this; so serious and yet somewhat untroubled. It
didn’t help that the arching of his perfect brows contributed to
this expression. Even when his inky black hair swept across his
forehead to hide them.

But with Lee’s long pale fingers matted
through his hair, she could clearly see every detail of his
flawless face. From the long thick lashes to the tightness in his
jaw. Even his nose was perfect. But that hardly compared to his
body. He was always so firm and muscular, during their embraces,
Lee’s arms would tell her she had them wrapped around a
tree.

“
I love you, Lee.” He said
again. Even his voice was perfection which made the way his lips
trace her name even more delectable.

Lee’s stomach flipped and goose-bumps
sprang up her fare slender arms. She knew he loved her, and that he
had for months now. But she could never grow tired of hearing it.
“I love you too.” She whispered back.

Even with her emerald eyes shut tight,
she managed to find his lips and even with her back pressed flat
against the stone wall of the front porch, she pulled him in
closer.

His hands slid from the side of her
silvery hair and gripped onto her slender waist and Lee let out a
faint gasp when he dug his fingers against her fragile core. Ace
tried to be a gentle kisser, especially in moments like these. Even
though he controlled his strength perfectly in a boxing ring, he
hadn’t quite mastered his touch on Lee. He was a supernatural. An
above human being who was stronger than a lion, faster than a car,
and- for Ace- had the power to be untouchable.

But at that moment, he wanted to be
touched. Especially by Lee. He wanted nothing more than to surround
himself with her ambiance and so in the mix of all the romance, he
dared himself to pull her legs around his hips. Ace had expected
her to wrap her legs round him and cling onto his shoulders so that
she could have more of him, but what she did was the exact
opposite.

Lee had known their kissing
was getting out of hand. But when Ace lifted her up by the waste, a
wave of embarrassment washed over her. She muttered something
against his lips as she tried to pull away, but Ace mistook her
moan as a desire for more. Finally, Lee was just about to remind
him that their romance was getting out of hand when an electric
zap
zinged
over
their lips. Ace pulled back immediately with a faint cry of
pain.

“
Ouch,” Lee muttered. When
she had snapped her head back, it collided with the wall and for a
moment she saw stars.

Ace chuckled as he gazed at her with a
numb spot on the tip of his tongue. Her usually ivory face was
flushed all over, hiding every single one of her small adorable
freckles. She had just gotten a haircut for the first time ever, so
now her face was framed by a silvery line of hair that sat over her
wide lily pad eyes. It made her look adorable and innocent which
was the way he loved her. Not sexy and fierce like the way he had
pinned her to the wall.

He hated himself for not being gentler
with her. He knew they were in a funny place in their relationship.
It was as if his body ached for her physically while his heart and
mind stopped him from going too far. Sometimes, the mixed signals
were so confusing that even a peck on the cheek felt too strong.
Either way, Ace felt silly for even pulling her up there and set
her down gently.

“
Sorry,” he muttered faintly
turning to face the front door of their North Side hideout. He was
grateful for the late time of day because in the shadows, his faint
blush was hidden.

“
Yeah,” Lee answered, “Well,
that was… you know… yup.” Lee didn’t know what she was trying to
say. They had only started dating seriously a month ago and she
still hadn’t figured out how she honestly felt about all the
romance. Every time they had a passionate embrace similar to that
one, they had always pulled away and let an awkward silence settle
in rather than discus the boundaries.

This time an extremely awkward
atmosphere was brought in with her remark. The cold night air was
so silent that every car horn honking in Tarrllian City could be
heard from where they stood. If the night air had been warm enough
to let the bugs out, the cliché chirping of crickets would have
only added to their awkward situation.

“
Sometimes I wonder.” Ace
finally muttered to break the silence, “If you’re a supernatural
too.”

Lee scoffed, but she was grateful that
he had said something before she could make the situation more
nerve-wracking. For as far back as she could remember- which wasn’t
really even all that long ago- funny things happened around her and
electricity. Sometimes they were small like she always managed to
shock herself while climbing out of a car. Other times they were
more noticeable. For example she always had a gift for predicting
thunderstorms, and one time a manmade lightning bolt jumped seven
feet just to hit her.

“
That would be cool.” Lee
mentioned, “But my scenes aren’t as keen as yours. And I’m not
strong, and I’m not fast.”

“
You are fast.” Ace
objected.

Lee laughed dryly, “Ha, ha. Well not as
fast as you. I have yet to sprint faster than a Stelter on my bare
feet.”

Lee hadn’t realized she had talked
herself into a yet another unpleasent zone until after she finished
speaking. Just mentioning the word Stelter sparked a touchy subject
because instead of thinking about the billion dollar corporation,
Ace and Lee thought about the cars.

Cars were like bread and butter to the
ginger twins Cherry and Rose Dare. And the reason why this was such
a sensitive subject was because Cherry had passed away almost two
months ago. She, along with Ace and Lee’s other gang member Ditto
had died from bullets fired by Tarrillian City police officers last
year. Friends who weren’t gang members also had their lives
stripped. Shadow, a particularly powerful supernatural, and Mirage;
another amazingly gifted supernatural who gave her life to save
Lee. But Ace was the only one who knew her sacrifice.

At that time, Ace had no
idea why Mirage would take a bullet for Lee. Even though she left a
letter for him before she was murdered, it never mentioned why she
felt Lee’s life was more valuable than her own. If anything,
reading the letter only made Ace realize that he had so many
questions. Questions that had never crossed his mind.
In the letter Mirage had never answered any of
them directly, but she did tell him where he could go to find
answers: Heleow Hawaii. A Stelter city.

Ace would have left Tarrillian a long
time ago. But he needed to know that Lee was secure. He couldn’t
just leave her after all of her friends practically died before her
eyes. In the note, Mirage had left many predictions: villains,
wars, fires… but nothing too terribly specific. Nothing indicated
who this mysterious villain was or what the war was going to be
over. There wasn’t even a hint as to how he would play a part in
any of this.

That’s why he needed to go to
Heleow.

Lee shivered in the cold late winter.
Not knowing what else to say, she tugged anxiously on the silver
locket around her neck. I was a gift Ace had given her their first
Christmas together and she hadn’t taken it off since. “We should
probably go inside now.” she said weaving her fingers in with
his.

Once inside, Lee flipped a switch and
the grand front entrance lit up. Paintings and fancy furniture
scattered throughout the three floored home. Even though the place
was appealing to the eye, it lacked the lively vibe it once had
when the whole gang lived there. Now it was just Lee.

“
Have you seen Rose or DH
lately?” she asked as she continued to ignore the uneasy feeling
lingering in the air.

Ace leaned against the wall and glanced
down the wide tile hall into the huge chandelier filled living
room. “Not since last week.” He replied.

“
Where are they
now?”

Ever since the deaths, the remaining
gang members had split up. Lee hadn’t seen either of the two in
about a month.

“
South Side.” Ace answered,
“Doing some Krome work I believe.”

“
So what have you been doing
this week?” Lee asked leaning against the wall beside
him.

Ace didn’t answer. Instead he rested
his head back on the wall and stared at the chandelier three floors
up.

“
What’s wrong?” Lee
asked.

Ace shook his head, the dark loops of
hair bounced around his narrow midnight eyes. “Nothing. I’m just
tired.” He finally said.

Lee eyed him doubtfully. He had always
been a bad liar. “Ace,” she grumbled, “Don’t even. What’s on your
mind?”

The boy sighed; his eyes finally fell
on Lee. “I love you.” He said again and Lee saw the truth of it in
his eyes.

Her skin tingled when she heard him
utter those words and she slid her arms around his waist. “And I
love you, Ace.” She replied, “So you’ve got to tell me what’s going
on.”

Ace stroked her rosy cheeks as he
studied her with that unreadable expression and Lee waited for him
to answer. Finally with a sigh he said, “I need to leave
Tarrillian.”

Lee failed to hide her stunned
expression. “What do you mean?”

“
I… I need to figure some
things out, and I think I should be leaving before the week is
out.” He answered as calmly as he could.

“
Where?” Lee asked trying to
keep her voice level, but she could feel the tears bubbling up. He
couldn’t be leaving her. She had just lost two of her good friends.
Losing Ace would be more than detrimental.

“
Heleow.”

“
That’s what Mirage told you
to do?” Lee guessed piecing things together, “In that letter she
left behind?”

Ace nodded. His expression still hadn’t
changed and Lee could guess what he was going to say next. “And you
need me to stay here?” she asked trying to keep the hurt from her
tone.

His hand stopped tracing circles on her
cheek only so that he could cup her face and hold his lips to her
brow.

“
Ace,” she whimpered
clutching his wrists, “but…” her voice began to tremor and tears
swelled to her eyes. She felt like a baby crying in front of him,
but this wasn’t the first time.

“
I can’t risk letting you
get hurt.”

“
You were planning this
weren’t you?” she asked trying to contain her tears, “Ever since
that morning on the balcony. Is the reason why you haven’t left yet
because you wanted to make sure I was stable enough to take care of
myself while you were gone?”