Immortal Dreams (96 page)

"My cars are just down the street," he says briskly when the doors open and he takes my hand.

We flash through the crowd without concern for being noticed.  Devin types in a code to a large warehouse, and I almost trip into it when I see the phenomenon with my own eyes.

There are rows and rows of cars streaming across the floor.  Devin keeps my hand in his, and opens the door to a sleek, black sports car.  He pulls the seat forward as if I'm supposed to get in the back.

"Go get in the passenger seat," he orders.

I flash into the car just as Camara pops into the backseat.  Deacon quickly joins her, and Devin takes his place behind the wheel to make the beastly car roar.

He must have seen them coming.

"Kry called us.  I knew you'd pick the Veyron.  Although, it would have been nice if you had made the bloody backseats a little bigger" Deacon murmurs dryly.

"Be glad I had any installed at all," Devin counters.

He squeals out of the parking place and jumps out of the garage to the street.  The car sparks as it bottoms out on the small dip between the driveway and the road.

He pushes a button that closes the door to the garage, and Camara interrupts my inner panic.

"Wouldn't it be faster to take a chopper?" she asks.

"Not right now.  The helicopter is across town, and it’s completely unprepared.  It needs fuel and time to start up.  This car will get us there faster, especially with me behind the wheel right now," Devin asserts.

"Gas," I worry out loud.

"No gas.  Future tech," he murmurs.

Oh yeah.  Thank goodness.

My head bobs as he shifts gears and weaves through the New York traffic, which is fortunately slightly diluted due to the late hour.  He slides through barely-there spaces, and quickly springs forward to the next void as we head out of the city.

Once we hit the bridge, the car violently surges with lightning quick speed as the engine hums with a ferocious appetite.

"What did you see?" Deacon asks.

"I didn't see it.  Adisia did," Devin says.

"You have visions now?" inquires Camara.

"No... I mean... I don't know.  It felt like I was there - I mean really there.  I know it wasn't a dream," I try to explain.

"How do we know it wasn't just a very vivid dream?" Deacon spouts.

"She saw a girl with black hair telling Persia no Aphrodite can live," Devin says in a low, almost muted tone.

Camara and Deacon exchange a panicked glance.  Then something dawns on me.  She was in control of the vines like Gemma.

"She was strangling Persia with vines shooting from the ground.  Are these women affiliated with Gemma?" I blare.

Devin doesn’t answer.  I feel the car going even faster now as we blur down the open road in front of us.

"Women?  Plural?  And you're sure they had black hair and could use the plants as weapons?" Deacon interjects.

"Yes.  I'm positive.  What does that mean?" I squeal.

"It means we need to hurry the hell up," Camara adds.

"Can you see anything?" Devin asks Camara.

"I'll try," she says as her eyes flicker to the pale blue light.

"You can't see anything?" Deacon quizzically inserts.

"No.  Someone's doing a good job of blocking me because they're focusing on blocking me.  I thought it was Persia, but I don't know.  It feels like her signature, but I don't know why she would be blocking me this hard if she's in trouble," he says with an air of confusion.

"Because she doesn't want me to come there," I hoarsely release through my tears.

Devin's jaw clenches when he realizes I'm right.  She wants to save my life by sacrificing her own.  She was focusing so hard on blocking him that Aphrodite cried out to me.

He squeals through the streets and drifts around every curve as if he's a professional handler.

I fasten my seatbelt, but not to keep me safe.  I need it to keep me from sliding all over the car because I'm worried I'm going to break the door if I keep clinging to it with my white-knuckled grip.

Blue lights flash from behind us as a cop car tries to catch up with our hellacious speed.

"I'll get it," Deacon says while turning around.

"No need.  He'll never be able to keep up, and we're turning just ahead.  He'll keep going straight and radio it in to have others block the road we're not going to be on," Devin says curtly while cutting the headlights off completely.

Very quickly, the cop car becomes nothing more than a faint twinkle in the rearview mirror.  It's pitch black, and I can barely see the road.  Devin doesn't need his eyes to drive though.

He skids to take a ninety-degree turn once we enter my town.  We've made it here in under an hour - which should be impossible - and he blazes through the silent streets with even more vigor when he sees the sky lighting up.

I can see the lightning crashing in the distance, and my heart plummets to the ground.  Devin charges through the torrential downpour blaring against us, and I try to veil us from the whirling winds.

"Fuck.  She was right," Deacon exclaims.

Chills invade every inch of my body as I mimic his reaction. 
Fuck.  I was right
.

Devin skids to a halt, and we all jump out of the vehicle.  I flash behind him and barely keep up with him as he charges straight ahead, releasing a rippling wave through the air just before we reach the site.

I hear screams as his ripple connects with the first three women I had seen in my vision.

Persia is on the ground as she gasps for air against the strangling vine.  I pull the lightning from the sky and strike the bitch holding her down.

She flips backwards as it connects with her, and she loses her connection with the vines strangling Persia.

I slide to the ground to her side in order to protect her from the others swarming in.  Devin is a machine as he continues his destructive path.  Camara flips her fans through the air and they slice through one of the girls.

I cringe as she collapses to the ground, and my eyes flash over to Deacon.  He's holding a metal rod tattooed with snakes, and he's blasting them with an invisible force surging from the conducting rod.

"Another one!" A girl yells as she glares at me.

"No," Persia screams as she jerks me to the ground and pulls the sky down on the girl.

The lightning consumes her as the swirling winds rip her to the heavens.  She drops down in shambles, and I rise up in time to inflict my own damage on a new face seeking our blood.

I free the lightning in gulping blasts, and the girls collapse under my wrath.  I gasp as I see them fall lifelessly to the ground.

They're dead, and I'm the one who killed them.

The first girl I struck yells to them.  "Get out.  We have to go," she screams.

They flee from the larger fight than they were prepared to encounter.  I smile as I look down at Persia, but it quickly fades when I see her eyes barely holding on.

"No.  I saved you.  You can't die," I cry while dropping back down to her side and throwing my arms around her.

She forces a smile as she strokes my hair.  I don't get it.  Why is she dying?

"Athena's poison," Devin growls to answer my silent question while he grips his head.  "Shit."

Persia's eyes begin to cloud as she tries to speak.

"I got them out.  Your father and your mother are safe," she breathes weakly.

I feel the tears pouring out of my eyes as I try to fathom this impossibility.  This doesn't make sense.  Why did I get a vision if I couldn't stop the outcome?

"You're my mother, too.  Please don't leave me again.  I need you," I cry louder.

People start emerging from the safety of their homes, and I see that my parents' house has been shattered by the violent crashes.

Persia cries as she chokes slightly against her wheezing, labored breaths.

"I love you, Adisia."

Tears flood my face, and my sobs reach higher howls as I choke on the overwhelming emotion filling me.  The clouds thunder above me and the slackened rain starts pounding back down vigorously.

"I love you," I sob.

I look up at the despaired faces surrounding me as headlights blind my eyes.  I stare at Devin hopefully.

"Please.  Tell me Theia can fix this.  Please save her," I plead through the tears.

He kneels beside me, and his hand slides up my back.  He shakes his head as his eyes drop helplessly to the ground.

"They injected her with Athena's poison.  It's only deadly to an Aphrodite.  There's nothing we can do.  I'm... I'm sorry," he stammers.

I cry louder as the sobs hit new ranges and the winds begin breaking limbs from the fragile few trees around us.  Kry runs up with Theia and Phillip, all of them halting with pitying eyes and gaping mouths.

I wail into the chest of Persia as she draws her last breath.  My pain can be felt for miles, and the storm strengthens around me to make sure no one escapes the pain I feel right now.  I want blood to be shed by the masses for this.

The wind stirs into a swirling threat above our heads, and the lightning begins crashing in bulk.

"You have to calm her.  Persia is a trigger, too.  She'll crush this town and everyone in it," Theia warns, but I don't give a fuck right now.

My drunken state has fully returned, and I'm not me anymore.

I feel the surging power consuming me with all of its divine vengeance seeking to be released.  Everyone can die for hiding like cowards while my mother died in front of their eyes.  They're too scared to see the truth and too pathetic to stand up for someone in need.

Too many.  Too many daughters have died while others did nothing to stop it.  Too, too many,

My eyes glow green as I stand to my feet, completely possessed with Aphrodite's wrath burning through me.

I hold out my hands and the car in the driveway beside us slams through the house across the street.  People begin screaming and running in panic as I lose all control.

"Stop.  Adisia, you have to control it.  You'll kill them," Devin pleads.

"They deserve to die.  They just stood there and watched my daughter die," my voice echoes, but it's not me talking anymore.

"Holy fucking shit!  Aphrodite is completely controlling her.  What the fuck?" Kry panics.

I'm riding in the backseat of my own body as the swirling winds erupt across the flat land behind the subdivision.

The trees rip free from their roots and shoot across the land like missiles.  The glowing green is stronger than my blue, and I can't climb back in.

"They'll all die, and so will all the earth-wielding, self-righteous daughters Athena bore.  No more.  Aphrodite sleeps no more.  Too many have died.  Too many.  They'll all pay the price for the lives I've lost," the new voice from my body declares.

Devin stands before me, seeming like a distant figure at the end of a tunnel.

"Adisia, you have to fight this.  Aphrodite is dead.  She's just part of you.  You're giving her too much power.  Fight her.  Come back to me.  Please, come back to me."

His lips consume mine, but it takes a moment for the sensation to reach me.  I feel his desperation, his need, and his love pouring through my veins.

The tears start breaking free from my eyes again, and they're mine, not hers.  I feel the wind calming around me as Devin's love grounds me, and I slowly fight against the goddess controlling me.

The crashing sound of the whirling trees halting their attack and falling from the sky rings out.  Each breath I take is steadier as I start to regain control of the vessel that should only be mine.

I drop to the ground as the blue eyes return, and Devin scoops me into his arms as he breathes out a sigh of relief.

"Clean this up.  I'm going to take her to see her parents, and hopefully banish Aphrodite from ever pulling this shit again," Devin says to Theia.

"I've got it, son.  Go," she replies warmly, her eyes offering me sympathy in passing.

"Persia," I whimper in my own voice.

"Shh.  Baby, it's okay.  We'll make sure Persia is taken care of.  We'll hold a funeral tomorrow," he coos.

I cry into his chest as he puts me in the back of a SUV that has just pulled up.  Ther is in the front seat with Trey, and Devin speaks instructively.

"Take my car back to the city.  I'm going to take yours so I can take care of her."

"No problem," Ther answers softly as he stares at my tear-streaked face, his lips moving to try and find something to say.

He just offers me a sympathetic look just as Theia did when he can't find the words he needs.

"I'll drive," Deacon says as Ther hops out.

Camara takes Trey's place in the passenger seat, and Devin cradles me in his lap.  He presses his lips to my forehead momentarily before speaking.

"The inn.  That's where Persia sent Adisia's parents.  She blocked the visions to their location.  I need to get them out of here, and then I'll block the visions in Persia's place."

We pull up to the
inn, and Devin lifts me out of the backseat as though I'm a sleepy child.

"Are you sure you can do this?" he asks sympathetically.

"I have to.  I hate doing something like this, but I don't want the same thing happening to them," I say as new tears emerge.

I take a deep breath, and Devin wraps his arm around my waist as we walk toward the front doors.  Mom rushes out when she sees it's me.

"Adisia?  Oh honey, tell me you didn't just drive through that storm?"

I almost start crying as I think of Persia's storm, her sacrifice.

"We beat it," I lie, barely subduing the raging storm brewing inside me.

"Oh dear, why have you been crying?"

I fight the flooding tears strangling my words.  I can't tell her I just held my birthmother as she took her last breath.  I can't tell her a group of psychotic bitches want me dead just because of my bloodline.  So many fucked up things rattle around in my mind at once... and none of them can I tell her.

"I saw your house and got worried.  Someone told me you had gone here.  I just had to see it with my own eyes," I lie again.

She sighs out heavily.

"Yeah.  Fortunately, your father had a hankering to spend the night at the inn.  I just went along with it since he was so insistent.  I suppose I should give him a big hug for saving our lives," she murmurs in disbelief.