Trinity Awakening (7 page)

             
"Banshee!" Sinéad cried out. "You need to go now, take my granddaughter, keep her safe, I'll deal with the demon." A fierce look came across her face, like she was about to battle an old enemy.

             
"Grandma, I'm not leaving you here." Nina was pleading with her Grandmother.

             
"Take her now... I love you little flame. Now go!" Sinéad rose to her feet. Morthos took hold of Nina, who was fighting him with all she had; Garus pushed Trinny and Emma toward the exit. As Aarion opened the front door a part of the ceiling collapsed in the living room next to where Nina’s grandmother stood. Through the gapping hole came a whirl of black fabric, the room filled with a stench that was like rotten fish. There stood the figure of a woman seven feet tall with thin wispy black hair floating around her as if gravity did not exist there. The black tatty fabric of her long mourning dress did the same as her hair, it was like time had slowed around her. Her face was as white as winter’s first snow, and her skin was so thin you could see dark veins beneath it. Where her eyes should have been were empty holes like you were looking into a bottomless pit. She opened
her mouth to reveal jagged glass-like shard teeth and screamed toward the others who were looking back in horror at the vile creature; they covered their ears again and crouched to the floor in pain. The Banshee's scream came to a halt as a ball of flames hit her. "GET OUT!" Yelled Sinéad, who was standing there with balls of fire sitting in the palms of her hands, ready to take another shot at the hideous monster that stood before her. Aarion dragged Trinny to her feet as Garus was helping up Emma; Morthos continued to hold Nina tight and was out the door first. Nina was still screaming for her grandmother and fighting the grip Morthos had on her with all her might. 

             
"We have to help her!" Trinny cried out. 

             
"I have to keep you safe." Aarion pulled Trinny out the doors and was quickly followed by Garus and Emma. They all managed to get past the garden gate when the Banshees terrifying scream was heard once more.

             
"Ow!" Morthos held his arm where a hand shaped burn mark appear on it, he had let go of Nina to cradle his wound. She ran back into the house just as flames consumed it. The gas bottles near the kitchen exploded and they were all sent flying back onto the hard earth. They looked back toward the house to see a flaming figure fly up through the roof. It was the Banshee. It flew toward Trinny, it's fiery hideous hands reaching for her,
she
had nowhere to go and braced herself for a hard hit. Suddenly huge balls of fire came one after another hitting the Banshee hard; it fell to the ground at Trinny's feet. Aarion pulled her back from the screaming creature. Nina and her Grandmother were standing behind the Banshee, their bodies engulfed in flames but with no sign of pain or burnt skin, and they hurled a firebomb attack on the monster. At last the Banshee's screams were silent. The
flames that encompassed Nina and her Grandmother went out in an instant, as if the oxygen had been sucked out of the air. There was not a mark on them.  The Banshee was dead.

             
"How did you do that?" Asked Emma in shock and admiration.

             
"Flames don't hurt us, but they certainly hurt Banshees, evil creatures that they are. I was pleased you didn't listen Nina, I don't have the same power as I use to, thank you my dear." Sinéad was holding her granddaughters hand.

             
"I can't believe you were not going to let me protect you Grandma, you are a stubborn old fool sometimes."

             
"Seems I have passed that trait on too." Sinéad smiled at Nina.  "You will go now Nina, and you will help these people in anyway you can."

             
"But..."

             
"No buts, I will be fine, I'll go stay with the neighbors, seems I may have to rebuild." She was looking sternly at Nina, and then gave her a loving smile when Nina nodded unwillingly. "Go now sons of Taeith, the Dark Empress must know what you are doing, and is trying to get to the Elementals before you do. She has power over the dark creatures that reside in the different realms; they'll be searching out anyone who could come up against their Empress. Go, and take care of my granddaughter."

             
"We will protect her with all we have." Morthos said as he held the burn on his arm.

             
"Sorry about that, you're very strong and I had to help my Grandma.” Nina felt a little guilty as Morthos nodded with understanding. Nina hugged her grandmother and followed behind the group of five people she had only just met. Aarion led them back to the place they had arrived and
took out the
Cipher
to open the portal. Emma was still in shock from the event and shivering from the freezing wind, she huddled next to Trinny and kept silent. Trinny whispered in her ear.

             
"What do you think Nina's Grandmother meant by my dad knowing about the dark Empress not being dead, how would my dad know that?"

             
"I don't know Trin, this is all pretty freaky stuff." Emma willed a smile on her face for her friend and they moved quicker to catch up with the others. They reached the patch of grass where Aarion had just opened the portal and the spectrum of light had spilled out onto the old stonewall. Trinny looked to see a dirty alleyway through the orange and yellow reflective colors. "I'm riding with him this time." Emma latched on to Morthos muscular arm; he looked taken aback by her forcible action, but led her through with no questions. Garus motioned to Nina to go before him. She did as he gestured. They were gone, Aarion took hold of Trinny just like last time and quickly ushered her through the open portal, it sealed behind them.

CHAPTER FIVE

'The blustery day turned into a blustery night.

To Pooh, it was an anxious sort of night, filled with anxious sort of noises. And one of the noises was a sound that had never been heard before.'

- A.A. Milne

Trinny opened her eyes to find they were standing in a dark alleyway. It was nighttime. There was only one light that was flickering over a locked door at the very end of the ally. The air smelled foul. Rubbish was everywhere; a large bin that took up a lot of the small alleys space was spilling over with waste, from what looked like food scraps. 

             
"Where the heck are we now?" Emma asked looking a little scared. 

             
"Chicago." Morthos answered abruptly. 

             
"I came here when I was about 10 years old, my mum really wanted to be part of the live TV audience for
Oprah."
Trinny smiled at the memory, and then turned to Aarion, she noticed he looked distant. His hair was a little tousled, and his eyes looked dark,
how can someone look that good all the time,
she thought to herself. "Aarion, are we far from the next Elemental?" 

             
"No, not far, the
Keitha
tracks down the power force of the Elemental, then I let the
Cipher
know the destination, it opens the closest portal, he must be close. I can see a park across the road at the end of this ally, the
Keitha
is leading us in that direction, he must be near there, lets move." Aarion's lean muscular frame brushed past Trinny as he lead the way, she felt a tingling sensation at his touch, then she felt a cold small hand place itself in hers and she turned to see her bright brown eyed friend smirking at her.

             
"Don't go getting a crush on some 'fairy boy,' who is most likely going to break your heart my friend." Emma never missed a thing.

             
"I'm not crushing on him. And that 'fairy boy' thing, it just doesn't sound right Em, they aren't some drag queens from Vegas."  Trinny smiled at Emma and her friend gave a
knowing look as they stepped out into the cool of the windy street.

Garus and Morthos had moved quickly in behind Aarion, Garus turned back and urged the girls to hurry. Nina walked out from the alleyway with a sullen look on her face.

             
"Nina, are you okay?" Trinny asked. 

             
"Yeah, I'll be fine. It's just the first time I have used my powers in a battle before."

             
"How did you survive the heat, all those flames?" Trinny asked in disbelief. 

             
"You really don't know much about Elementals do you?" Trinny shook her head feeling slightly embarrassed.

             
"My Gran and I are Fire Elementals, fire burns through our veins." As she spoke the veins on her arms and hands seemed to brighten and you could see the lines of blood, it was like lava flowing through her. "We can draw the fire from our very being, we don't need a flame to ignite, it comes on command."    

             
"That is so cool. I'm Emma by the way, and this is Trinny!" Emma was always so bold when talking to new people; she's the most confident person Trinny had met in her life.

             
"So what are you?" Nina asked. "It's obvious your friend Trinny is an Earth elemental," motioning toward Trinny. "Are you from the Fae realm like those others guys?"

             
"No, I'm just a human tag-along, would be nice to have some cool power though, water elemental would be nice!"

             
"I don't mean to be rude, but why are you here then? My Gran said the Fae don't like to have humans involved with anything about their world!"

             
"Long story short! Those three guys..." Trinny pointed to the boys who were walking several feet away from them in a triangular formation talking among themselves, "...gate crashed my sweet sixteenth birthday party. Then followed us home, told me I was to rescue their world and Emma wanted to come, they didn't like it but my mum said that she could which really shocked me. We took full advantage of her decision, then we showed up at your house in Ireland and now here we are in Chicago of all places!" Trinny hadn't realized how fast she was speaking until after she had finished, she felt better now, like she had released some of the stress she hadn't realized she was carrying.

             
"Okay. So the Fae turned up at your house and told you you had to save their world and Emma wanted to come?"

             
"Yes. Correct!" Emma said as they approached a busy street with taxi's and cars driving up and down. 

             
"That's cool! Oh Emma, the water elemental thing, that power was lost 500 years ago when the dark Empress wiped out the last of it's line, only Earth, Air and Fire are left." Nina informed them.

             
"That's horrible." Trinny said in a low voice. "How is it obvious to you that I'm an Earth Elemental?" Trinny wondered how she could look so different that Nina and her Grandmother knew. 

             
"Ultimately, our ancestry is the same and our blood lines are from the realm of Cassis. Elementals can see another of their kind straight away." Nina said matter-of-factly. 

             
"I didn't know you were one." Trinny was feeling like she knew nothing about
who
she was and what she was meant to be able to do, Nina gave her a reassuring smile.

             
"You would of, if you knew what you were looking for, or even if you knew you should be looking for something.
You were not brought up the same as me. I have always had the old ways taught to me, and I have been trained from my
Awakening
on how to use my abilities, because your father died just before it was time to train you, you have not known what to look out for."

             
"What's an
Awakening
?" Trinny was intrigued.

             
"
Awakening
is when the powers from within us begin to emerge, it happens when you turn sixteen years old. Sixteen is considered adulthood for Elementals."

             
"I turned sixteen today."

             
"Everything will fall into place, and your powers will come when needed, just trust in your gift. You're lucky, you have one of the stones of Cassis, and it will lead you."

             
"Do you have one too?" Trinny asked as she held her pendant.

             
"Only royal lines have the gem stones, Earth is a pendant, Air was a bracelet, and Water and Fire both had rings. If I ever find that ring, I will claim it for my people." Nina stepped up her pace to catch up with the others. 

             
"Did she just tell you that you are some type of princess?" Emma was looking impressed. "How cool is that, not only do you have some power you have no clue on how to use, but you are some royal princess from a race of powerful people, this is just to good to be true, my best friend is like Cinderella slash Wonder woman." Trinny was still trying to process the whole conversation, and didn't even answer, this was all a bit much for her to comprehend right now, she grabbed Emma's hand and pulled her toward the four people who had just become a huge part of her life.