elemental 07 - lonely hunger (10 page)

But, she told herself firmly, a long bath and a good night’s sleep would set her right. Dylan would watch over Leigh; even if he thought she was innocent, even if he was halfway to being in love with the woman, she knew that he couldn’t do anything to let her escape. Aira grinned to herself as she unsteadily climbed out of bed and started shucking her dusty, dirty clothes, walking across the room on aching, tired legs. She had felt the temperature drop; she knew from lessons her grandmother had given her what that would mean—especially when there was a water elemental and an earth elemental in close proximity. If there had been more water vapor in the air, there might have been a freak hail storm, or at least snow flurries.

Aira told herself that she would get to the bottom of the situation. She and Aiden were long overdue for a vacation, and Dylan would welcome some time to himself; not spent as the brother-in-law of an elemental ruler, or the third wheel of a bounty-hunting team. Aira couldn’t quite fight down the niggling suspicion that now that she had shown some of the breadth of her abilities to part of the group, the rest would be more cautious. Of course, if they went underground, that would make things more difficult from her perspective as a ruler. The other two elemental leaders would continue to deny the seriousness of the situation. But that was a battle to think about later. Aira turned on the water, getting it as hot as she could possibly stand, and sat down on the ledge of the bath, waiting for Aiden’s return. She was more than happy to enjoy a brief respite from the larger battle.

CHAPTER TEN

IN THE DEPTHS OF THE night, Dylan woke up in darkness, uncertain of what had called him out of the intense sleep he had fallen into. He looked up at the ceiling in confusion, trying to remember what it had been. One moment he had been dreaming about his mother, remembering her words to him when they had been alone, asking her for advice—and the next he had been fully awake, jolted back to himself and still disoriented from the vivid dream. There was something amiss. There was something wrong. 

Dylan sat up in his bed, opening his mind to the world around him. He felt a low, deep tingling rushing through his body, cold chills that were not like the violent shivers that accompanied hypothermia but something thrilling and frightening all at once. He gripped the sheets of his bed as they intensified and he heard a pat-pat-pat of water hitting the metal gutters that ringed the apartment. Pit-pit-pit-pit…pat-pat-pat-pat-pat…the tingling deepened, and Dylan felt cold washing through him, coursing through his veins, awakening his entire nervous system. The drops of rain outside sped up, hitting a steady rhythm, transforming from an errant shower to a steady drizzle. He gasped as the energy coursing through him went from a gush to a torrent, a rising tide washing through every cell in his body. The rain came on heavier, and Dylan realized with a rush of insight exactly what was happening: He was having a power surge. It was six months away from his birthday, the one where he would come into his full abilities as an elemental; it was about the time when he could expect to start feeling these tremors of his body adjusting to the onslaught of elemental energy.

Dylan tensed from head to toe, his back arching as the power coursed through him. Outside, the rain increased to a tropical-type downpour, the kind that would come and go in a span of fifteen minutes, spending itself and then disappearing as if it had never been. He had to ride the wave, he thought in the part of his mind still capable of thinking, not driven back by the torrent of energy coursing through him. He couldn’t fight it. He had to accept what was happening. Dylan let go of the sheets and let himself fall backward onto the bed, breathing as steadily as he could while the power of his element washed over and through him in wave after wave. Dylan imagined himself in the ocean, far away from shore, cresting rollers and tumbling down the other side, rising and falling as the energy ebbed and flowed through him.

The surge of power reached its apex, and then Dylan was coming back to himself, regaining control. The rain outside began to play out, becoming nothing more than a drizzle and then slowing to a few drops. Pat-pat-pat-pat, the lingering effects of the power surge made Dylan tingle, made the rain not quite entirely dissipate. Dylan took a deep breath. He had to share this moment with someone. He had to.

He stood unsteadily, pushing himself out of the bed. He couldn’t disturb Aira and Aiden with the news; but Leigh had gone through the transition herself. She knew what he would be experiencing. She had had the power surges; she had her full abilities as an elemental. Even if they hadn’t cleared her entirely from suspicion, she wasn’t exactly a prisoner. If she was still awake—though Dylan couldn’t entirely imagine why she would be—she would do well enough for someone to share the moment with. 

Dylan’s heart beat faster in his chest as he quietly opened his door. His bedroom was right next to the kitchen and living room. He felt the pulse of water-aligned energy from the wards that Aira and he had placed around the perimeter of the apartment. Aira had suggested that if they were distant enough, they wouldn’t sap Leigh’s strength; Dylan was grateful that Aira didn’t seem to want to hurt the elemental, even if she was peripherally related to the people who had attacked her friends and the people she was supposed to protect.

Leigh was sitting up on the couch when Dylan stepped out of his room and turned to the living room to seek her out. The dim lamp on the low table next to the couch was on, and Dylan saw that Leigh was reading something—a selection from one of the piles of books that Aira had scattered throughout the apartment. “Oh, you’re not asleep,” Dylan said, biting his bottom lip in uncertainty as he approached. Leigh looked up from the book and smiled, setting it aside and gesturing for him to join her. Dylan sat on the coffee table, only a few feet away from Leigh, taking in the sight of her. Her long hair was tumbled down around her shoulders in slightly curling waves, her face warmer, softer than it had been when he had found her in the room, trapped by magic aligned with his own element.

“Curse of the earth alignment,” Leigh said, shrugging. “We don’t really sleep very well anywhere but in our own homes. We’re not much for traveling, most of us.” Leigh stretched, and Dylan found his gaze traveling to her full bust, her broad hips. She was the epitome of an earth goddess, he thought—that hourglass figure, almost an exaggerated version of Aira’s body type, her ample curves suggestive of fertility. Dylan shook his head slightly to clear it. He wasn’t here to ogle Leigh’s body.

“I just had my first real power surge,” he told her quietly. Leigh’s bright green eyes widened.

“Really? I thought I heard rain, but…” she glanced outside. Dylan smiled slightly.

“That was me,” he said, trying to keep his voice from sounding too prideful. Leigh looked at him closely for a long moment and smiled slowly.

“That’s impressive,” she said. She licked her lips. “You’re going to be a pretty powerful example of your element when you come into your full abilities. Well, in fairness you already are.” Dylan shrugged.

“I am not even remotely going to be strong enough to be in contention for the rule of the element. I’m no Lorene.” Leigh chuckled, shrugging.

“You don’t really seem like the type that would be suited to ruling the element anyway,” she said. “You seem much more content with a less flashy role.”

“I never really thought about it,” Dylan admitted. “I knew from a young age that it wasn’t in my future. There’s bound to be another elemental from my alignment strong enough to take the throne; but Lorene would be a tough act for anyone to follow.”

“My family had a great deal of respect and admiration for Lorene,” Leigh said, shifting on the couch. “We were aware of the depths of her power and the struggle that she had in containing it, in bending it to her will.”

“Are you all earth elementals in your family?” Dylan asked. He realized that in spite of his fascination towards Leigh, he really knew very little about her.

“We have one or two water elementals in there, back along the lines,” Leigh said. “There may have been an arranged marriage or two with the air elementals, for the purposes of securing an unstable person, but not much.” Dylan chewed his bottom lip.

“What was it like when you came into your full inheritance?” he asked her. The question had weighed on his mind from the time he had decided to share the news of his burgeoning power with the semi-captive. 

“I understand from the lore that it’s different for us, versus the more volatile elements like air and fire,” Leigh said thoughtfully. “Earth elementals are sort of… grounded, by nature, you know. But it was uncomfortable. I got power surges that caused a few localized earthquakes; not enough to disturb anyone outside of my house, but enough to know that it was happening.” Dylan nodded. “I got night chills, too. The energy would rise up inside of me and every muscle in my body would tense, and I felt as if I was turning into stone.” Dylan thought that it would be terrifying to go through that—more daunting even than the torrent that had threatened to nearly drown him in sensation.

“It’s only going to get worse from here, won’t it?” Leigh hesitated a moment before nodding. 

“You should probably tell your brother and sister-in-law about it as soon as they’re up in the morning. It might change your plans.” Dylan knew that Leigh was right. He would have to tell Aiden and Aira. It wouldn’t substantially change their plans; they still had to round up the rest of the group responsible for the attack on the hotel. But it might change their approach.

“They’re going to have to interrogate you,” Dylan said after a moment’s silence. He took a deep breath. “I don’t think you were involved, but…” Leigh smiled, shrugging.

“I was a spy at their wedding. One of the people involved was my cousin. They need to know what I know.” Dylan nodded slowly.

“What do you know?” Leigh glanced away from him for a moment and then met his gaze once more.

“I’ll tell you in the morning. All of it. I swear. It just makes sense to tell all three of you at once.” Leigh fidgeted slightly on the couch. “I do want to tell you, Dylan: I’m not… I’m not against you.”

“I had figured that much,” Dylan said, smiling slightly. 

“No, I mean, seriously. I was sent as a spy to the wedding, but I’m not against you, your brother, or Aira.” She looked at her hands and chewed her bottom lip in the first real sign of worry that Dylan had seen on her. “I really… if I hadn’t been taken hostage… I would have offered my services to you three.”

“You feel responsible?” Dylan could feel the guilt that was rising up in her. He realized with a shock that he was attuned to Leigh’s energy—in the same way that he was attuned to Aira or to his own brother.

“My cousin was involved. My parents…” she sighed. “They haven’t exactly condemned him, or my other cousins who are in league with that group. I’ll tell you more tomorrow.” Leigh shook her head. After a moment she smiled slowly. “You’ve kissed me twice.”

“I should probably apologize, at least for the second kiss.” 

Leigh shook her head.

“You… you realize what happened back there, right?” 

Dylan tilted his head to the side. 

“What do you think happened?” 

Leigh’s cheeks went pink and she glanced down at her hands and then met his gaze once more.

“I know what happened,” she said. The words began to tumble out of her quickly, and Dylan remembered how flustered he had been on the point of their first kiss. “You pulled the water energy out of me, and then we kept going. Our energies merged… we…” she pressed her lips together nervously. “We tuned into each other.” 

Dylan nodded. He couldn’t exactly deny it. 

“Do you want me to stay away from you?” he asked her. “I… I could do that, if you don’t want me too close.” 

Leigh licked her lips.

“I actually wanted you to come closer.” Her cheeks lit up bright pink, her whole face flushing. Dylan stood up and took a step closer to the couch. 

“Are you sure about this?” Dylan was only inches away from her; he could feel her energy, slowly building up from its low ebb earlier in the day. “You told me before to call you after all of it was settled.” Leigh smiled and spread her arms wide, silently beckoning him to her.

“Things have changed since then,” Leigh said. 

Dylan wondered; but he couldn’t quite resist the call of her body. He closed the distance between them, sinking onto the couch with Leigh, feeling her energy boil up through her body and flow into him. He reciprocated with his own energy, letting it flow into her. The air temperature began to drop around them, and Dylan smiled against Leigh’s lips. Tomorrow would be the time for the difficult questions, tomorrow would be the time to find out just what Leigh knew about the group who had dedicated itself to bringing Aira down. For the time being, Dylan was content to feel the comfort of Leigh’s body against his, to acquaint himself more thoroughly with the intriguing, fascinating energy that flowed through her. He couldn’t stop himself even if it was a mistake. Dylan pressed his body against Leigh’s and tumbled into her, closing his eyes. He sank into her mind even as his hands moved to strip her clothes. For the first time in months, Dylan felt as though the lonely hunger inside of him might—for a while—be satisfied.