The Chilling Change Of Air (Elemental Awakening, Book 3) (12 page)

"Unusual?" I said, but I didn't really care. He was falling for me. All over again.

I didn't care about a thing, but here and now and this.

"He means eerie," Nico offered. Theo frowned.

"No," Sonya argued. "He means mysterious." Theo smiled.

"Nah-uh, babe. He means ghostly." Theo rolled his eyes and I suppressed a giggle. His gaze came back to my face, my lips, and he mouthed, "Beautiful."

I smiled, my heart aching but in such a different way than it had before. Light. Floating. Blissful.

"You're a creep!" Sonya declared and I blinked trying to keep up with the conversation.

"Ever done it with a creep?" Nico asked. "Would you like to try?" he added, hopefully.

"In your dreams," she replied haughtily.

"Baby, I could make your dreams come true."

"Nico," both Theo and I said in exasperated tones.

"What? It's all right for you two to flirt, but not me?" he demanded.

"I'm not getting on a table top, naked and covered in leaves, with you," Sonya declared.

"But have you dreamed it?" Nico asked.

"What's going on?" Isadora's voice sounded out from over by the door. Sonya yelped. Clearly having not heard the
Athanatos
walk up behind her.

"Make some noise next time," she muttered. "Creepy," she whispered under her breath making Nico burst out laughing.

"The Master has returned," Aktor offered helpfully.

"I can see that," Isadora archly replied. Theo pulled me closer, as though he could hide me, or protect me, I wasn't sure.

Isadora was not going to take to our new found overly friendly understanding. And I was certain he knew that.

"What's going on?" she repeated when no one said a word.

"Casey needs to get upstairs," Theo announced. "I'm taking her."

"Why?" Isadora snapped, as Aktor said, "I'll dig Nicodromos out."

"I'll help," Sonya offered, probably to shut Isadora up.

"I knew you wanted me," Nico preened from beneath us.

"Dreams," Sonya reminded him.

"And I'm in yours," Nico reminded her.

"Children," Aktor admonished, but his heart wasn't really in it. You could tell the old man was happy. Happy Theo and I were moving on. "Shall we all get going now?" he added.

"Good idea," Theo murmured, helping me off the table's surface, pulling vines around me to hide me from a waving Nico underneath.

Theo hadn't tried to hide me before, when we'd appeared outside singed but naked. Now he was all about the protective male. It warmed me, as it conversely left me feeling empty inside.

It didn't make sense. Theo was falling for me, like he did the first time. I should be cock-a-hoop. But I wanted
my
Theo. With
our
memories. I wanted my
Thisavros
back.

I was greedy and maybe a little too needy. But it was what it was.

We met Isadora at the door to the kitchen, her eyes taking in our undressed state - disregarding the vines, of course - and returning to Theo's face.

"So, you remember?" she whispered.

"No," he said softly and her face hardened. That ancient
Athanatos
mask they wear falling into place. The one this woman had to wear on so many occasions. When Theo had walked away all those times in the past.

"I see," she said.

"Dora," he called, as she went to turn away.

"I understand," Isadora stressed, not looking over her shoulder, keeping her back to us both.

I felt an unwanted empathy for her, one I was sure she didn't deserve.

Then she proved me correct when she threw out, "You always did like them naive."

"Dora," he growled, just as a knock sounded out at the front door.

Everyone stilled.

"Aktor?" Theo called, voice modulated not to carry through the foyer to the entrance.

"A male," Aktor whispered back, loud enough to reach us from the kitchen and the security monitor there, but not too loud. "Didn't trigger any perimeter alarms."

"What branch?" Theo demanded.

He could sense the power as well. Something fluctuating, something I couldn't quite identify, yet there was something about the
Stoicheio,
I could register on the other side of that door, that called to me.

"
Aeras?"
I asked, thinking it had to be the new Element, unfamiliar yet familiar. "Hip?" I added.

He'd come for me.

Aktor appeared at our sides, eyes blazing gold.

"No, Miss Eden," he whispered. "Not
Aeras
. Not any other branch that I can determine either."

Nico walked out of the room, Sonya on his tail. She wrapped her cardigan around my shoulders, it was long, down to my knees, leaving her in jeans and a t-shirt, and giving me at least something of a cover.

Where would I be without my friend?

"Best we find out," Nico announced. "Whoever he is, he's not hiding his power."

Theo pushed me behind him, still fully naked and not giving a damn. Sonya cowered half behind me, half in the kitchen still. Dora moved out to flank Aktor, with Nico at his other shoulder, as the butler approached the door.

Just before they made it, Nico branched off into a room at the side, and Isadora did the same opposite him. Hidden, but probably not missed. Aktor glanced back at Theo, waited for his nod, and then opened the door.

"Alchemist!" Theo hissed upon seeing the man.

And all hell broke loose.

"I come in peace," the man got out before he was blasted back by a wall of flames.

It was still raining, I noted, and with wide eyes I watched as that rain turn into a sheet of water, a wall of liquid that met the flames head on and held them back.

"I come in peace," the man shouted again from the other side of that wall of flames and sheet of water.

"Casey," Theo urged. "Vines."

Oh. Right. I stepped out onto the marble of the entranceway, still under the portico and called Earth. It took a little urging as the man was still on the driveway; he hadn't been pushed back far enough to reach the manicured lawn. But with a shudder and a heave the gravel shifted and dirt was exposed, followed by surging roots and branches as they shot up and wound around the man's legs.

Little mini tornadoes began to turn the gravel and loose leaves into whirligigs all over the driveway tearing along towards the man, and in a move that looked too precise to be real, severed the vines climbing up his legs at the roots. He jumped back and frantically untangled the rest, still maintaining that wall of water as protection against the roaring Fire.

The flames surged as all four
Pyrkagia
put their combined will behind the command. It was obvious they would break through the water wall before too much longer, but suddenly the wall became a funnel, tearing through the flames and heading straight for us. For a second I couldn't figure out what he was doing, and neither could the others, who had made the wall of Fire reunite and surge forward towards where we all assumed the man still stood on the other side.

"Blow the water away, Casey!" Theo yelled.

Freaking hell, did he think I had a handle on
all
of this already?

Sweat beaded my brow as I clenched my fists and closed my eyes concentrating with all my might. To use the lightning, I just had to visualise where I wanted to go. Maybe that wasn't necessary, but it worked for me. So I'd stick with visualisation techniques to command Air for now. I pictured a strong wind cutting through the space between the wall of Fire as it kept crackling evermore forward across the driveway to the grass and the five of us - Sonya was hiding, that girl had good sense. I aimed for the tunnel of water as it swirled and churned before us, moving like an inexorable monster closer and closer. The wind cut through the liquid, making arcs of spray spread out in a circle, some of it landing on us, the rest damping the wall of Fire.

Standing,
this
side of that diminished wall of Fire, not even wet, was the man. Dressed in jeans and a Movie World t-shirt, scuffed boots and loose hands at his sides. Blond dishevelled hair was the only indication that he'd been in the centre of a tornado of water. Pale blue eyes connected with mine and I swayed.

"I will kill you, if you step an inch closer," Theo announced.

The man ignored him, his eyes all for me. Theo noticed, flicking a concerned gaze my way and noting the paleness of my skin, I should think.

"Casey?" he said, moving to catch me before I toppled. "What have you done?" Theo demanded of the man.

"Scared the crap out of her," he replied in a broad Kiwi accent. "Hey, sis," he added, making everyone still. "Long time, no see."

"Oh, this can't be good," Nico muttered as Sonya ventured out of the front door.

"Mark?" she asked.

"Hey, now there's a surprise. Marin, looking good," my brother said with an appreciative nod of his head.

His eyes flicked over the
Pyrkagia
, landing on Theo holding me flush to his side.

"Do you greet all your guests in the buff?" he asked, eyeing Theo's naked butt and thigh as he had managed to turn himself side on, by wrapping his body around me. At least there was some modesty to be had, even if he was now wearing me like an apron.

Silence met the question and I don't think it was because no one wanted to answer. Tension hung in the air, chilling the raindrops that continued to fall on us, but somehow missed my brother completely.

Oh, freaking hell. My brother. Marcus. An Alchemist.

"Can I come in?" he asked, when no one started talking. "I did say, I come in peace, didn't I? Because I'm not sure that message got through."

His eyes came back to my stunned face.

"Gramps sent me. Guess we could have phoned first to warn you, but things are getting out of hand."

I slowly looked up at Theo, who was looking down at me with that implacable
Athanatos
mask on his face. Closed off. Hard.

"He is your brother?" he asked quietly, the undertone of every word sounded accusatory.

I nodded my head.

"He is an Alchemist?" he added, my eyes flicked to Mark where he stood unconcerned facing off against an irate looking Isadora, a wary Nico and placid faced Aktor which belied his ready stance.

"I guess so," I whispered back.

"You're telling me you didn't know?" Theo asked, but I think the question was rhetorical.

"I had no idea, he's meant to be living in Australia on the Gold Coast," I answered anyway.

"And you had no idea he was like your grandfather?"

Oh and there was the doubt.

I pushed out of his embrace leaving him exposed, although to look at him you wouldn't know it. He was as unconscious of his naked state as the rain was of where it fell.

"This is my brother Mark," I announced to the waiting crowd. Unnecessarily. "I'd like to talk to him in private," I added. "If we can't do that inside, I'll do it out here. But I'd like you all to go back in the house."

"You don't get to order us around," Isadora snapped.

"Look at you, princess," Mark drawled. "All claws.
Meowrr!
"

She glared at him. He just winked back.

Oh, God. This was not going well.

I ran a hand over my face, feeling tired all over again.

"Look," Mark said, when still no one moved. "Do you want to know what's going on or not?"

Still nothing but angry stares and doubtful scowls.

"OK, how 'bout this?" he tried. "I know who has been bought out in
Pyrkagia
."

Heat filled the air, setting the raindrops to sizzling.

"Yeah, thought you would," Mark muttered.

Theo made a low rumbling growling sound in the back of his throat. "You can come inside," he relented. "You will not see Casey on your own," he added, imperiously. "And if you so much as flash white or ice blue in those eyes, I will take your head."

The threat wasn't idle. Theo had been a leader of the Scout Guard, those
Pyrkagia
charged with keeping their kind in place. Policeman, Judge, Jury and Executioner all rolled up in one.

He'd threatened to take my head once, too. I hoped Mark could see the truth in Theo's words now. I may not have had any idea of what was happening, or whether I could trust my evidently lying brother, but he was my sibling. Until I knew one way or the other that he was on my side I'd try to keep his head right where it was.

"Deal," Mark agreed.

Theo turned his golden tinged eyes to me, then ordered, "Go get dressed." I raised my eyebrows, opened my mouth to argue back, when he said, "Or he leaves."