Awaken the Elements (Elemental Trilogy)

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Awaken the Elements Copyright © 2012
Ellie Potts

First Edition 2014

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Blood Father

Elemental Trilogy

Awaken the Elements

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Playing with Magic

Awaken the Elements

Book 1 Elemental Trilogy

By

Ellie Potts

Chapter 1

              The crazy lady with her little yappy dog sat beside the building listening to the men inside talk. They were discussing the people over in Iran and the virus their priestess had created. She needed to know more about this virus. If the Oracle was right, the end would be near. She pet the dog’s mangy fur as people walked by, giving her room, trying to avoid the smelly homeless woman.

             
“Moorgun said the virus would sort out the right and the wrong,” said one man.

             
“How does she know it will work?”

             
“Our god told her all about it. She wouldn’t share, but they have released the virus by her orders.”

             
A shout in the alley made them quiet. “There is someone close by; we need to leave,” said one of the men.

             
She listened to their feet scuffle around and run out of the building. She needed to talk to the elders about this. Maybe they could stop Moorgun. She rose to her feet, unsteady. Those around the streets thought nothing of the crazy lady who talked to her dog. But they never saw her eyes; they were clear and sane. Though, right now, they were worried.

****

             
Over in the small, third world countries, where poor people drank murky water and bellies grumbled every day, men dressed as doctors entered small hospitals. They ignored the weeping, pleading mothers begging for them to help their sick children. They all entered small storage rooms where meager hospital supplies waited to be used.

             
In a diminutive town in Chile, three faux doctors looked at each other as they crowded into a half-empty medical storage closet.

             
“Do you have the time?” One asked another.

             
Their eyes looked glazed as if tweaking on some first-rate drug. It could have been said the look in their eyes was insanity, but only they knew the secret. The secret:  a woman with floor length, midnight hair that veiled her luminescent skin and what she had done to them. What she had promised. A seductive dream they would kill for; exactly what they were doing.

             
The taller man looked at his watch and saw it was two minutes until noon, Pacific Time. “We're on time,” he said dreamily.  The promise of touching the woman again drifted through his mind. Although in hers, she knew she would never again see any of the slaves she had sent out. Her magic of corruption would soon spread like a wildfire.

             
One of the men opened a small box and took out a petite bottle. Each grabbed a syringe, filling it with black liquid, and inserting it into every IV bag they could find. They were to wait and be witnesses if anything worked. They walked quickly out of the hospital. Only one person saw any of these so-called doctors, the slaves; a nurse in Iraq. She dismissed them and went about her work.

****

             
Moorgun sat before her altar; a thin loose gown covered her. Her knees ached as she sat there watching the dark glass, waiting for the chaos to begin. Her old skin hung from her brittle bones; the years were catching up with her, but she waited because soon
He
would be with her, and
He
would grant her eternal beauty. Again, she would be able to see herself as she had been; beautiful and young.

             
The dark glass fogged over, and the visions started. She watched the sick man shake. The nurses ran over, and doctors were called. After the shakes, his blood would slow down to a trickle, and his organs would fail, but his brain would live. Every liquid in his body would carry the infection. Just a small bite to another human would cause the corruption to spread until it took over the world. And the search for her chosen one would finally be at an end. She watched as the sick started to rise with a huger they had never felt before.

             
Animalistic.
They only thought of Infecting flesh.

             
“Feed, my pets,” she snickered.

****

             
Autumn stopped, trying to catch her breath as she looked around the wasteland. She couldn’t run any longer. All she saw before her was death. The blow to her back was hard, knocking her down to her already bloody knees. Her lungs, trying to breathe, screamed as the little bit of air she had got knocked from her. Her hands caught her body before she could skin anymore of her bruised body.

             
“Did you stop fighting?” the rough voice said behind her. “What a pity. I liked the chase.”

             
She looked at the dead land in front of her and knew in that moment she would stop running. She opened her hand, letting her scarred flesh touch the rough ground. Closing her eyes, she called to the Earth. Autumn smiled slightly as it reacted. He hadn’t fully killed it.

             
She got to her feet slowly, waiting for her breathing to even out. She didn’t want to turn. She didn’t want to face the man behind her. She had been running so long, and was tired. The last element was still alive. Her leaf green eyes burned for those fallen. As she turned around, the Earth magic cycled through her, restoring her.

             
“I’m done running,” she said through a raw throat. “I’m done with your ways and your lies.”

             
The man stood before her, clad in a fur tunic. He threw his head back and laughed. “You’re done?” he finally laughed. “It is just beginning for you, little witch.  Those of you are now dead. I have taken this plain and destroyed it just like I will destroy you.”

             
Autumn pulled the obsidian blade from her belt, the last remnant of the others. They had fought so hard to bring him down, but in the end, she could not stand with them to do the last spell, and now it was too late.

             
“Come to me, witch. Come and face your destiny.”

Autumn
screamed as she ran at him, her blade held high.

****

             
Autumn sat up in bed. She scooted to the edge, dangled her legs, and quieted her mind. The dream.  Again. She shook her head and turned to the body still lying under the covers.

             
She walked to the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. Her eyes, so strange, yet so familiar. She ran the water in the sink and splashed the coolness onto her face. The shine of the diamonds on her finger caught her eye, and she stared at them. Her stomach twisted with unease.

             
She listened to the silence. That feeling hit her again.  Everything felt wrong; she should have said no. Why did she say yes? She loved him, didn’t she?

****

             
Autumn walked into her parent’s house. The smell of animals hit her. The sound of dogs barking in the backyard was just background noise to the girls giggling in the living room.

             
“Mom!” Envy called from the living room. “It’s almost time. Where are the snacks?”

             
“Not Mom,” Autumn said as she turned from the hall into the living room.

             
“What are you doing here?” she asked. Envy sat in their dad’s chair surrounded by their little sister, Lily, their cousin, Anatha, and Envy’s friend, Ivy Lee.

             
“Mom invited me to dinner.”

             
“Probably to get news if you set the date,” Lily said.

             
She flinched and knew they all saw. “So what is everyone doing here tonight?”

             
“Tune’N’s reunion tour starts today, and it’s live,” Anatha said sporting her River Forever shirt.

             
`“Aren’t we a little too old for Tune’N?” she asked as she sat her purse down on the coffee table. Envy pulled the magazine from it. “Hey!” She tried to grab it back.

             
“Aren’t you too old to read these?” she asked, throwing it at her sister.

             
Autumn picked up her magazine and sat down. Watching the girls scream as the concert started, she frowned and thought about leaving. Her mom would be upset which was to be the norm lately. She disagreed with her lifestyle, her job, her choice of friends, but oddly enough, she agreed with her fiancé. She loved him because he wasn’t “strange” like her.

             
“Normality is overrated,” she said once. Yet here she was engaged, and now there was a wedding to plan. But something told her everything she did lately was wrong.

             
She opened her magazine and started reading the story that had caught her eye in the first place. She glanced over to the TV as the guys hit the stage. She remembered singing their music and being part of what her mom thought normal kids should have done. But they had broken up, and she had grown up, finding herself, or so she thought.

             
“Why do you read that smut?” her cousin Anatha asked.

             
“She is preparing for the upcoming apocalypse,” Envy said with a sneer, making her double chin appear bigger than usual.

             
“It’s a form of escapism. You know, life is hard when you grow up. One day you’ll realize that,” she said, biting back the anger that made her skin burn.

             
“Excuse m
  
” Envy started to say, but their mom came in carrying grocery bags.

             
“A little help, ladies,” she said, juggling bags.

             
“I got it, Mom,” Autumn said, glad to get away from the bunch of crazy girls.