Chapter 12
“It's a ball.” Marian declared, smiling happily.
“A ball?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “As in Cinderella and the weird dresses ball?” A sick feeling boiled through my stomach that made me feel like throwing up.
“Sort of.” Marian laughed and handed me the paper that had been delivered by The Order.
The Elemental Ball
Date: August 8
Time: 7:00 P.M.
Day one
Earth
Special guest: Lucius Sullivan
Day two
Air
Special guest: Russell Greene
Day three
Water
Special guest: Marian Wright
Day four
Fire
Special guest: Amber Williamson
I ran a finger over Russell's name. His last name was Greene. I never knew that. I didn't know Lucius's or Marian's either but not knowing Russell's felt more personal.
“How did they know my name?” I glanced up at Marian.
“We told them. The day we found you was the last we heard from them until this.” She gestured at the paper.
“It lasts four days?” I scrunched my face together.
“Yeah.” She hopped up from her place at the kitchen table and started assembling the puzzle that Russell, Lucius, and I tried to put together. It got boring so we just left it there.
“Each day represents the elements, hence the special guests.” She waved her hands in the air dismissively. “There's a different ball room for each day decorated to have a theme of either water, fire, earth, or air.”
“Sounds unnecessary.” I mumbled, fiddling with a puzzle piece. The ball was exactly six weeks away and my nerves were bundled together.
“You would think so. It's mostly for The Order's benefit more than ours. At least you get to meet them.”
“And we have to do what The Order says.” A voice mocked in a high voice. I snickered as Lucius joined me at the table, nudging me flirtatiously and making a face.
“You make it sound worse than it actually is.” Marian frowned at him as Russell walked in.
“Hey guys.” He smiled overall at us and then shrunk it to a private smile in my direction.
I felt my face flush and my mouth open to an 'O' shape. I wasn't used to this strange affection from him. I absolutely loved it and everything but it was still kinda weird.
I think I was starting to get the feeling he was slightly bipolar.. One minute he's angry, then he's kissing me, then I'm irritating to him, then he's sad, and then he's affectionate.
It's a freaking roller coaster ride.
“What are we doing here?” Russell asked, taking his usual place in front of me. Marian finished a puzzle part and went to sit beside him.
“Talking about the ball. We have to go this time so Amber can meet The Order.” She said.
Russell fiddled with the biggest puzzle part and placed it in front of both of us. We all started assembling pieces and searching. To my understanding, it was suppose to fill the entire table and had around 5000 pieces. It was suppose to be a beautiful view of Florence, Italy.
“How depressing.” A smile twitched at his lips as he appraised me. “Did you tell her about the kind of dress she was going to have to wear?” He asked Marian
I felt a mortified expression cross my face.
“What dress?” My voice was high pitched. I was actually going to have to wear one?
“Calm down it's not that bad.” Marian said, shooting daggers at Russell with her eyes.
“It better not be.” I muttered, imagining myself in something frilly and ridiculous.
Lucius laughed as we started to mess with the pieces again.
“I think my puzzle pieces go with yours.” I said to Russell, showing him the clump of pieces I put together.
“I think they do too.” He looked at me, his blue eyes boring into mine as if there was a double meaning. I swallowed and stared at him so long that Lucius had to pinch my thigh under the table for me to stop. I jumped and quickly fit our pieces together.
“Perfect fit.” I said quietly. My throat felt dry and I lowered my eyes to the table, barely joining in conversation.
“What do you guys think The Order will think of me?” I asked a few minutes later, sipping at a glass of water by me.
“We really don't know.” Marian looked over at me and propped her arm on the table. “It can't be worse than what they think of Lucius.” Her eyes sparkled with admiration over at him.
“It's not my fault they can't handle this.” He moved his hand down his chest and flipped his hair in his eyes.
Marian and I fell onto the table laughing.
When we were done with our fit of giggles, I wiped a few tears out of my eyes and took a deep breath. Lucius grinned and poked my side, inciting another giggle. Russell smiled at my face, flushed from laughing too hard.
A loud crash made us all jump, ruining the perfect moment.
“What was that!?” Russell yelled, standing up and looking out the window.
“The alarm.” Marian said quietly. “Something's here.”
“What?” Something? I shot up from my chair and walked to where Russell was. “What are you-”
A loud crash came from the window and a large rock came through, hitting me square on my cheek. I collapsed from the impact and cradled my cheek, pain rocketing through my system.
“Amber!” I heard voices cry. Russell sank to his knees beside me and grabbed my arm.
“I'm fine.” I grit out, sitting up a bit. I removed my hand from my face and a small amount of blood was painted across my fingertips. I brought my hand back to my face and glanced at the floor. I picked up the rock that was thrown at me as Russell and Lucius helped me up. Marian ran over to the window and looked out.
“I think whatever threw that is gone.” She said.
“Are you okay?” Lucius asked, guiding me over to the sink.
“Yeah, I'll be fine.” I slid onto the top of the counter as Lucius handed me a wet paper towel. I pressed it to my face as Russell walked next to me, cautiously placing a hand on my knee. I handed the rock to him.
“What do you think that was?” I asked.
Russell furrowed his eyebrows, a dark look crossing over his face. He flipped the rock over and held it up. Words were engraved into it.
Go to the abandoned building tonight on Nails Road –A friend
“It's a trap. It has to be.” Russell said, looking over the rock. I bit my lip nervously and pressed the wet towel harder to my face.
“Do you think it could be Donovan?” Lucius asked nervously.
“I don't know.” Marian chocked out, glancing at the base of my throat. I self consciously touched the necklace that Russell told me to wear. “Do you think he knows we found Amber?”
“She did use a small burst of power the day I took her from Santa Barbra. He could have caught on to that” Russell said, pulling me closer by my knee. Even in the position we were in, I had a strange thought of making him give me a piggy back ride. I shook away that ridiculous thought.
“You guys didn't give me the protection necklace until after I had been here for awhile.” I said, twisting the said object with my fingers..
“That's true.” Marian chewed her bottom lip in thought.
“Nails Road is about twenty miles from here.” Russell stated, looking at each one of our faces .
“Are we seriously going?” Lucius asked, reaching up to pull the towel off my face. I winced as his warm fingers brushed against the cut.
“Russell, come here.” Marian demanded, swiftly walking out of the room. He quickly let go of my knee and followed after her. In my head, I made a whipping sound at his obedience.
“Hey.” Lucius moved my chin in his direction so he could look at my cheek. His dark eyes examined the damage.
“How bad is it?”
“Not bad.” He smiled, brushing over my cheek with his thumb. “You'll probably have a bruise and the cut isn't that deep. An edge of the rock must have split across it.”
He grabbed at my legs and slid me to the end of the counter. He grabbed some ointment of some kind from the medicine cabinet and slid in between my legs. He twisted off the cap and started massaging it into the small wound.
“We brought you here for protection and you are all ready hurt.” His eyebrows knit together.
His hand was still pressed to my face so I leaned into it.
“You said it wasn't bad.” I smiled.
He smiled back and pinched softly at my leg. He wiped his hand with a napkin and looked at my face. As if he was trying to understand something.
I heard footsteps and Marian strode back in with Russell at her heels. Russell paused abruptly in the doorway, his longish hair flashing across his forehead. He stared at Lucius and I, his calm face twisting into an infuriated expression. I wanted to snicker when I realized what he was seeing. Lucius's hand on my face and thigh, our heads close together while he stood slightly between my legs. Lucius didn't bother turning around, just sticking his tongue out at me.
“We're going. Believe it or not, we could probably take one of Donovan's lackeys.” Marian stated to me.
Lucius whipped around.
“But what if it's Donovan himself?”
I put my hand on his back and could feel the muscles in his back growing taut.
“We doubt it.” Russell cut in, slicing us a look with his eyes. “If he was going to do it he would want us to know he was coming.”
“Should I go?” I questioned nervously. If it was a trap then I doubted I could protect myself.
“You can't be here alone.” Lucius said. From the corner of my eye I could see his jaw clenching. I wonder if something happened to him that put him on edge all the time. Marian slid closer to us and grabbed Lucius's arm. She locked eyes with me.
“Lets get ready.”
***
What exactly was one to wear for something they barely knew anything about? I thought after deciding it was a good idea to change my clothes. I searched the closet for something that I thought was appealing. A dark jacket that was shoved in the corner caught my attention. It was Russell's jacket that I still haven't given back. I moved it away from the wall and revealed the unopened orange soda. I smoothed it back over and brought my hand to my face. It smelled like him.
I sighed. The only thing I've accomplished was sharing a kiss with him that he regretted and molested his leg underneath a table.
I heard Lucius call my name so I quickly put on light jeans and a green tank. I also slipped on some black DC shoes that were slightly larger than my foot size. Marian promised that she would buy me some items of my size soon. I missed wearing my own clothes. A lot.
I redid my hair, piling on top of my head with very little grace as I walked outside, joining Lucius in the back of Russell's truck.
“Do you know where we're going?” I asked him, leaning against the door and putting my feet in his lap.
Lucius shrugged and tapped a rhythm on my shoes lightly with his hands.
“You're helpful.” I chirped with slight annoyance. He rolled his head in my direction and gave me a look that suggested he's never been helpful.
“Stick close to me or Russell by the way.” He said, lowering his voice as Marian and Russell approached the truck. “I don't want you lost or injured if it comes down to it.”
“Okay.” I agreed.
“We should just be investigating.” He gave a look to the bandage on my cheek. His hair flew in his eyes and he brushed it back with a lazy hands.
I never actually took the time to realize how attractive he was. Being completely obsessed with Russell was fogging up my brain and I couldn't think of anyone else in that way. I didn't really want to. It was more than a crush, it was a connection full of delicious heat and strangely enough, friendship.
Looking at Lucius now, if we went to the same school and we were normal, I'd probably have a crush on him.
“Are you guys ready?” Marian asked as she slid in the passenger side. Russell turned the ignition and shut the door before we answered.
We were ready to go so we started to drive off. Russell glanced in the backseat.
“Put your seatbelt on.” He said expressionlessly.
“Okay, 'Daddy.'” I mumbled. Lucius busted out laughing and gave me a knowing look, confirming our disobedient children status.
By the time we made it to our 'destination', it was very dark outside and slightly chilly. I stepped out of the truck, holding on to the hem of my shirt nervously.
“So where are we?” I casually asked. Lucius stepped next to me and wrapped his fingers around my wrist.
“Nails road.” He replied, pointing toward a pathway. “There's the only abandoned building.”
“Didn't this place use to be a prison?” Marian asked, curling her hand around a bottle of water. I wasn't sure she was going to use it to fight or if she was just thirsty. I wasn't going to ask though.
“It did?' I asked, stepping closer to Lucius. Visiting abandoned prisons wasn't my thing when I thought I was normal and it certainly will not be now. Kudzu covered most of the land around us but two pathways cut across into the deep woods. The pathway cut off.
“We need to split up.”
“Split up? Why?” Lucius sounded panicked, clutching my hand protectively.
“We can cover more ground.” Marian said, prying me loose from Lucius. “Who wants the newbie?” She asked, referring to me.
“Hey!” I complained. I was getting better at controlling the fire. Sort of.
She giggled and pulled me in for a side hug.
“I'll take her. Who says natural enemies can't work together?”
Lucius mouth opened but before he could get anything out, Russell interrupted.
“I'll take her.” Russell said quietly. A moment of stunned silence passed by before we 'casually' headed off to our different paths.
Russell and I walked calmly by each other until we reached a little problem. A fence was in the way of the back and we needed to be on the other side. Russell stared at it, evaluating it and trying to come up with something that was more complicated than it should be. He glanced back at where we parted from Marian and Lucius and then back at the fence.
Five minutes later and I had enough.
“Shouldn't we go over it?” I asked impatiently.
“I need to think.” He scanned the fence with thoughtful eyes, as if he was readying himself for a trance. I narrowed my eyes and curled my fingers through the fence.
“Well stop thinking!” I jumped up, intending to hop over the fence.
“Amber!” He tried to grab at me, barely brushing at my jeans. I hit the ground and turned around to face him, the fence separating us. He looked up at the top of the fence and shook his head, having no desire to going over it.
“Jesus, Russell! When was the last time you did something for the first time!?” I waved my hands and leaned against the fence, looking at him. I don't know why I started to get frustrated with him. But his quiet thinking was making me crazy. And not in the usual way.
Instead of answering my question, he simply mumbled:
“You're a lot more irresponsible than I pegged you out to be.”
“Well, you're not exactly the best ray of sunshine I've met either.” I sniped.
I ended up liking you a lot more than I planned.... I thought, twisting a loose curl behind my ear.
“Wasn't trying to be.” He pierced me a look and hopped up.
Halfway across, things took a turn for the worse and he plummeted to the ground.
“Russell!” I sunk to my knees and put my hand on his arm. I was surprised to find myself giggling through the worry. He sat up and flinched away, embarrassed.
“Stop laughing.” he hung his head back against the fence. I muffled the last bit of my laugh with my hand.
“Oh, come on.” I reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder. He peeked at me through his longish hair. “It was funny.” I smiled.
“I made a fool of myself just now. Have some sympathy.”
I scooted closer to him.
“It's okay to make a fool of yourself you know. Make mistakes. Do something impulsive and crazy.”
He slowly looked up at me.
“But what if....what if it's the wrong choice to make? What if someone gets hurt?”
I smiled and shrugged.
“You can't think everything through.” I placed a hand over his forehead where it was creased in thought. His soft hair tickled my fingertips. “You'll get wrinkles if you think too much you know.”
He laughed softly and grabbed my hand where it was over his head.
“You have a soft side.” He claimed, helping me up along with him.
“Just don't tell anyone.” I smiled, enjoying the moment.
“I won't.” He promised, patting my hand and letting it go.
It was strange. It's like I had this new understanding of him. Like I've known him forever. It was exciting and puzzling to have this understanding.
We slid along the sides of the building until we reached a metal door partially concealed by a wild patch of kudzu.
“Wait.” He grabbed my shoulder and roughly pushed my against his side. He must have not meant to because he gave me an apologetic look and rubbed where he gripped me.
“Should we go in?” I asked, ignoring the tingles he left on my skin.
“I don't know.” His eyes sliced down a gap in the side wall, looking for anyone hiding around. “It looks like a back entrance but the vines suggest no one has...” He trailed off, his eyes shifting into the direction of the door. Then I heard it. The rumbling of someone speaking and loud, uncaring footsteps. Russell shoved us both into the gap of the wall, our backs slicing against the bricks. My breathing quickened. And it wasn't just because of the fact that that Russell's forehead was pressed against mine, his hands nestled on my lower back where my shirt lifted. The main reason was because the door was ripped open seconds after Russell hid us.
“Stay calm, Rubylocks.” His face moved upward so his lips were below my hairline. Electricity shot through me, my back arching against his fingertips involuntarily.
“I'm calm.” I chocked out in a hushed voice. My breath fanned across his neck, his body crushed against mine as my heart hammered away in my chest. “I've never been this calm in my entire life.” I rambled. I felt his smile against my forehead as his finger tapped my lips. His ocean blue eyes brought comfort to me.
“I swore I heard some ruckus out here. Musta' been a pack of coyotes or somethin'.” A voice claimed in an exaggerated southern accent.
“You assume everything is a pack of coyotes.” A gargled but refined voice answered back. The voice itself kinda reminded me of Gollum from Lord of the Rings.
I slid my eyes to the side and caught sight of a man and something entirely different that made me gasp. A brown skinned creature stood next to him, long scaly black wings protruding out it's back. I couldn't see the features of the man but this creature was impossible to miss.
“We need to get inside.” It said, reaching out to scratch it's face with grotesque nails. The two figures disappeared and I waited until the door shut for me to say anything.
“What is that?” I breathed out.
“Imps.” Russell said, his breathing slowing down. I curled into him, never have seeing such creatures.
“I didn't think that....” I didn't finish and Russell understood.
It's hard to believe in things you've never seen if it's what you never thought could or would be true. You have to see it, to start believing it. Sometimes though, I felt better off not knowing.
“Are you okay?” Russell's breath blew wisps of baby hairs across my forehead.
“I'm not sure.” I pressed my fingers to his sides, seeking comfort in the closeness of his skin.
Russell pulled me close and my body sank with weariness. I never got any moments like this with him.
Deciding to be the responsible one, I pulled my head back and stuffed my hands behind my back.
“We should probably get out of before those two--”
His lips connected to mine, silencing the surprised sound from my mouth. He kept them there, waiting for my reaction. My eyelids threatened to flutter closed as I urged our bodies to meet. I grew concerned in the back of my mind and I pulled back slightly. My lips were vibrating as I breathed into his face.
“But what about those-”
“Shut. Up.” He growled out, pressing his lips harder to mine. Normally, a guy telling me to shut up would have set me off in a bitch fit but I really didn't want to stop feeling his lips against mine.
At all.
His hands wound into my hair and slid down my back. I moaned involuntarily and automatically blushed at my new erratic sensuality. My hands unwound from behind my back and crawled toward the ends of his hair. As soon as I wrapped a curl around my finger, his hands gripped my hips with fervor.
Our bodies were already squished together but I rubbed against him to try to feel his skin, running my hands down the sides of his face and exploring each feature with my fingers. Just like any other kiss, it eventually ended. He pulled back softly, softer than any time before. My body went slack against the wall behind me. He went with me, his arm still wrapped around my waist.
“What was that for?” I asked, still feeling deliriously happy.
“Being you.” He answered. I could hear a smile in his voice. Or maybe I was hoping it was there.
I heard a rustle and then we slipped out of the wall. My hands rested on his chest and I slowly slid them down and then let them drop as he quickly let go of my waist. I turned around and tucked a hair behind my ear. Which is something I often did when I was a little humiliated...
“Are we going inside?” I asked softly.
“Might as well.” He walked up to the door, his boots softly cracking the leaves. He quickly opened the door and hissed.
“What's wrong?” He flew back from the door and clutched his side.
“It's enchanted.” He gripped my arm and started to make long strides towards the way we came.
“Russell.” I trembled. A pained feeling coiled in my chest. I repeated his name but he kept leading us away from the building. I saw the fence and feared that he wouldn't make it across from the way he gripped his side.
“Russell.” I was pleading by now. He scanned the sides of the fence and motioned for me to go over it. I swallowed and swiftly hopped over it. I looked over at him and he was on the ground. His hair was the only color I could make out from here.
“Russell.”
He didn't answer.
He didn't move.
There was a scream and then I was on the ground.