Approaching Storm Read online

  "I'm going to tell you the same thing I told him. I am home. Now, unless you have something new you want to say, get out." I locked my jaw.

  He bent down and kissed me, much like Zephyr had at the graveyard. A kiss of missing and desire, but there was something much darker on the edge.

  His hand gripped the back of my neck, forcing me there, not letting me pull back like Zephyr had. My heart stopped, and I couldn't breathe past the panic in my body. The world started to turn black around me, and suddenly I was falling.

  Callister stood above me, his smirk the last thing I saw as I fell into the darkness.

  Chapter Nine

  The world came back to me, and I found myself tied up in my living room. I was leaned up against the back of my couch, and my wrists were in front of me. The ropes bit into my wrists as I moved them trying to get comfortable. My mind spun as I tried to assess the situation.

  I seemed to be alone in the room, but I could hear feet on the hard floor of the kitchen. No voices came from there, so I had no idea if it was just one person or not.

  Callister had done something to me when he kissed me.

  "Yes, I tried to take her there," he snarled. "I caught the stupid bitch off guard, it was perfect, but I literally cannot take her out of the town."

  That was an interesting problem to have. I licked my lips and looked around my living room. The blade that Zephyr had given me was close on the coffee table, if I could move over there.

  "She had a visitor, but I sent her away." Callister laughed. "She was easy enough to convince."

  There was another pause as I inched my way to the edge of the couch and found I could stand on my tied feet, but the room spun as I did. Whatever he did to me hadn't worn off yet. Shit.

  "He hasn't shown up yet. I think he and Ikelos are talking about how to fix her little wing problem. I don't know if he's aware of the transportation problem or not."

  I took a deep breath and moved so I could sit on the coffee table and try to reach my knife. I leaned forward and hoped that I wasn't going to crash face first and make a bunch of noise.

  I wrapped my fingers around the hilt of my blade and put the sheath between my knees and pulled.

  "No, I was planning on using her for bait, but since we can't leave, I need to figure something else out. He's smart. He won't face me one on one again."

  I used the blade to cut my feet loose first and then used my thighs to hold the hilt of the blade so I could slide the rope on my wrist over it. All my movements were shaky, but the ropes broke loose, and I let out a sigh. Sheathing the blade, I didn't waste any time. I could get out the front door and to the soda shop. Dizzy or not. I darted to the door.

  The world tilted and twirled like an amusement park ride as I made my way. I opened it and darted out to the street. Something told me Callister wouldn't pursue me in public and I needed to be safe.

  My knees tried to buckle as I stepped off the curb and into the street. Where was Zephyr? I managed to shamble across the street and to the shop. I fell to my knees as I opened the door.

  Lee rushed to me and tried to help me stand. "May?"

  "I'm poisoned or something. Callister…Callister…" The world started to disappear again. I was going to pass out. "In house," I gasped as the world came back again.

  "She's bleeding." I heard Lee call out.

  I was on my hands and knees doing some deep breathing routine. The cool tile seemed to burn my skin, and I saw red dripping down on the floor. "Where's Zephyr?"

  "The wolves saw him in the outskirts earlier. I'll have one of them fetch him." She stepped away and then Teal was at my side.

  "Let's see if we can get you sitting up." Her voice was soft and calm. "Even if it's on the floor."

  I nodded and slowly moved into a sitting position, and with Teal's help, I leaned against the wall. My head tilted back, and my eyes closed. "Callister's in my house."

  "You said that. There's nothing I can do about it. I can't call Maverick or the deputy, I can call Davina, but that might not do us any good." Teal moved my hands for some reason.

  I swore I heard a scream from across the street and assumed Callister realized I was gone. I tightened my grip on my blade. "Zephyr…" I whispered, trying to reach out to him. "Zephyr…"

  A strange wind howled outside, and I wondered if it was the sprites traveling through.

  "What happened?"

  Zephyr's voice was suddenly the only thing I could focus on. The wolves must have found him fast, and he just popped in here. I giggled at the idea of him just popping into the soda shop. He put his hand on my forehead. His fingers opened my eyes making me stare at him. He must not have liked what he saw because he frowned.

  "She's been drugged." He picked me up in his arms. "She needs to go home and rest."

  Home. I couldn't go home. Why couldn't I go home? My thoughts were fading again. This was stupid. Why could I think clear enough to cut myself out of ropes but now I couldn't form a thought.

  "She said that someone named Callister was at her house. I don't think taking her home is a good idea."

  Thank you, Teal, for remembering what I needed. I put my head against Zephyr's chest and sighed. He leaned down and kissed my hair. "Just sleep, you'll feel better when you wake up."

  "We can go to my house, and she can crash in the guest room," Lee spoke up. "I'll send some of the wolves to watch her and make sure this Callister doesn't try anything."

  Zephyr hesitated for a moment. "I can take her to the bed and breakfast."

  "Not on your life. This man knows who you are and I'm not going to have him drug her again. God only knows what he wanted with her."

  That was a good question, but I couldn't voice it. All I could do was fall asleep against him. The last thing I heard was my blade clattering to the ground as it slipped from my fingers.

  Pain split my head when I opened my eyes, but at least the world wasn't turning anymore. Zephyr's arms tightened around me as I stirred, and I was wondering when I had gotten used to waking up with this stranger in my bed.

  I looked at the green and brown comforter tucked around us, and I knew I wasn't home. Everything came flooding back to me at once. I jumped up in bed, and Zephyr pulled me back down.

  "You're warm, come back."

  "Zephyr, we need to talk." I turned to him and met his gaze.

  He nodded. "Let's have some coffee, and we can talk over that. Lee has a couple wolves watching out for us while she works the shop."

  Lee had a heart of gold and a grip of iron. Her wolves wouldn't let Callister near us in one piece if he threatened them. But then again. He was a demigod.

  "How long have I been asleep?" I rubbed my eyes and noticed the bandages on my arms. What the hell?

  "Since we left the shop last night, it's…" He reached and looked at his phone. "Ten in the morning now."

  "Okay, coffee and then we talk." I let the frustration sound in my voice. I wanted to scream and yell at him about Callister getting to me, but honestly, I should have been upset with myself. I opened the door without looking. I made the stupid mistake.

  He pressed his lips to my temple. "Come on, out of bed then."

  We both crawled out of bed and headed toward the kitchen. The rest of Lee's house was spotless with pictures of the pack up on the walls. The kitchen was done in a pale blue color with dark blue tile on the backsplash. On the counter sat two cups of coffee already made. I'm wasn't sure where the wolves were, but I knew that they would keep an eye on us.

  I dug through the fridge for milk and added just a touch to my coffee before we took our mugs to the dining room.

  Zephyr looked at the large table, an extra leaf to it sat against the wall. "Must entertain a lot?"

  "A lot of time the full wolf pack will come to eat. I think there's twenty or so in her pack." I sat down and sipped my coffee. I let the warmth chase aw
ay the aches that it could, leaving mostly just the doubt and the questions in my mind.

  "Where were you yesterday?" I kept my voice low. I shouldn't have been depending on him to keep me safe. It wasn't like me. Of course, there were rarely any real threats here in Normalcy.

  He sighed. "I talked to Ikelos about your…condition."

  Callister was right about that, how did he know? "Did he have anything new to add?"

  "No, he's not sure what is going on with you. He's certain there's a way to unlock your memories and your wings again, but he's not sure why someone would take them."

  I looked down into the swirling liquid. "Callister knew where you were."

  "How do you know that?" He reached over the table and held my hand. "What did he do?" There was a small horror in his voice that made me wonder what Callister had told him before.

  "He came to the door and kissed me, acting like nothing had happened before." I cringed remembering the feel of his lips against mine. "The world went black after that."

  Zephyr hung his head. "There's a poison or a drug transferred through skin contact like that."

  That explained a little bit. "When I came to, I heard him talking to someone. I could only hear his side of the conversation. He said that he couldn't take me out of the city."

  "The bastard was trying to kidnap you." He snarled and slammed his coffee down, sloshing it over the side. "What on earth does he want you for?"

  "I'm pretty sure it's to make you miserable. Or he wants something from you. I was supposed to be bait." I shook my head. "None of this makes sense to me. Did you know that I couldn't leave the city?"

  He shook his head. "No, if you left the city, I wanted it to be by your free will, not me forcing it. I had no idea, but Davina might have."

  The witch. I locked my jaw. I would need to talk to her about the wards and what all she's allowing in and out.

  "How did you get out of the house?" Zephyr brought me out of my thoughts. "Do you remember?"

  I nodded. "I woke up tied up. I managed to get to my blade and cut my ropes. I stumbled out of the house and to the soda shop. Everything from there is a bit blurry." I looked down at the bandages on my wrists. "And I'm judging by these, I didn't do a good job with the cutting of the ropes."

  He laughed. "It could have been worse. You didn't even need stitches. I just cleaned them up and wrapped them for you."

  I guessed I could have sliced my hand off instead. "I don't understand why I was able to do all that and then when I got to the soda shop everything seemed worse."

  "Adrenaline carried you through. It might have been some of your abilities and powers coming into play." He sounded hopeful. "Either way, you got out of there, and you're safe."

  I sipped my coffee and then set the cup down. "Well, now we need to figure out Maverick and avoid your brother. That's not going to be easy in this small town."

  "I'm not leaving your side again, that'll keep him away." He hung his head. "Ikelos doesn't know what's going on. None of the gods are talking about what is going on, but Ana seems especially happy lately."

  Of course she did because she thought she'd won.

  I didn't know where the thought came from, but I held on to it for a moment. Trying to chase the memory that was attached to it.

  Something about a white room.

  A woman standing in front of me. Long black hair that curled at the end, layered to frame her face.

  "May?"

  And with Zephyr's voice, the memory disappeared.

  I tried not to let out a sigh. "I'm okay. I was just thinking."

  "About?"

  I shook my head. "Nothing, I thought I was remembering something, and then it disappeared."

  "I wish I could fix that for you."

  I didn't say anything because I didn't think there was a magic fix for it.

  "What's the plan for today?" he finally asked after a few minutes of silence.

  "I need to talk to Allie and show her more pictures. I'm assuming that's who Callister was talking about sending away. I also need to figure out if my house is safe so I can go back or if I need to get my stuff and camp out here for a bit."

  "You'd be safe if we could go home," he muttered.

  "Well, remember that I apparently can't leave the town." I tried to keep the anger out of my voice.

  He looked up at me, almost with puppy dog eyes. "Have you tried?"

  "To leave the town? No."

  "Why don't we give it a try and confirm what he said? We know you can go to the outskirts."

  That was true, and I knew I could go as far as Teal's house because I'd been there before. "Why don't we try to go to Salt Lake and pick up some groceries?"

  "That sounds like a plan. Car or pop in and pop out?"

  "Salt Lake, they don't know we exist remember?" I reminded him. "Probably best to take the car."

  He rolled his eyes. "Okay, okay, we'll do this the human way."

  Callister's car was gone when we got back to my house. We went through the house and found nothing out of place, and Zephyr assured me that there was nothing magical left inside. We went to the garage and got in the car. I backed it out and tried to calm the nerves in my stomach.

  What if I couldn't leave the city? What on earth could cause something like that?

  I'd never tried to leave before because Normalcy had everything that I needed. It'd never occurred to me to actually travel to Salt Lake.

  I pulled the car out on Main Street and headed toward the valley that separated Normalcy from the rest of the world.

  Zephyr put his hand on my knee as I drove. "This is so incredibly human."

  I snorted. "Sometimes, human things are okay."

  "You know, we never really got a first date. Maybe I can take you to dinner in Salt Lake. I hear they have a Cheesecake Factory."

  "I thought you didn't like human things," I teased.

  "Sometimes, human things are okay," he mocked and then laughed. "I just think that some demigod things are more convenient, like not having to drive everywhere."

  I rolled my eyes. "We can go, but only if I get a slice of cheesecake."

  "It would be torture to take you there and not get a slice." He laughed.

  The buildings of the town started to get further apart, a few more miles and we'd enter the valley near Teal's sunken house. I slowed as we approached the decrepit house that Teal called home.

  The wood-rotted home was halfway under the swamp that had formed during a flood. It wasn't much to look at, waterlogged with a hole in the roof, but Teal loved it. She loved the history behind it, and not to mention it was the biggest source of water in Normalcy.

  A yard away from the house the car started to sputter and groan. Zephyr raised a brow. "You put gas in the car right?"

  "Yes. I always try to keep it near a full tank." The car slowed down a foot away from the 'Leaving Normalcy' sign.

  "You have to be kidding me." I got out of the car and marched to the line. I looked over my shoulder and Zephyr was leaning against the car, his arms crossed, and worry creasing his brow.

  I took a deep breath and tried to cross the city limits. A shock ran through me and shoved me back. I cried out as my body went numb and my heart seemed to skip a few beats.

  I put a hand to my chest and looked back at Zephyr. He was already running to my side. "Are you okay?"

  I nodded and patted myself down. "I think so. That was a hell of a shock."

  "That was magic, and not just any. That's divine magic. A god has trapped you here." He shook his head and walked over the line and then back. "And it seems that you're the only person it works on."

  I watched him move back and forth over the line as if he was waiting for the barrier to zap him too. "Pop me over there."

  He raised a brow. "I don't know what will happen."

  "I don't either, but I want to try."

/>   Callister couldn't do it, so I doubt Zephyr could, but it was worth a try. He held his hand out to me, and I wrapped my fingers around his.

  One moment his warm skin was against mine. The next it was missing. He appeared on the other side of the line, while I stood still in Normalcy.

  There would be no leaving for me.

  Zephyr came back to my side. "We'll figure it out."

  I got back in the car and started it. It whined to life, and I threw it in reverse. It let me go backwards and then make a u-turn to head into town.

  "What I don't understand is why." I finally spoke when the buildings of the town were in view.

  "You've also never had any want to leave the town. I think that's part of the barrier." Zephyr leaned his head back. "I don't understand why either. There was a reason someone placed you here."

  "Yet no one knows what that reason is," I muttered and pulled the car into my driveway. "I don't even know who to ask."

  Zephyr shrugged. "I don't either. Ikelos is the only one that I trust with you, and he's as clueless as we are."

  That wasn't very comforting. "Don't you have like a direct line to Zeus or something?"

  He laughed. "Zeus doesn't deal with petty demigods like me. He's too busy holding on to his throne."

  That was comforting. Maybe. I rubbed my eyes and sighed. "Okay, technically nothing has changed. I've always been trapped here, and I just didn't know it."

  "I told you, we'll get it figured out."

  I put the car in park and got out. I started toward the house and saw Allie standing on the porch. At least that kept me from having to hunt her down again.

  "Hey, Allie. Sorry about last night."

  She looked at Zephyr and then to me. "Does he know about the other man?"

  "Yeah, he does." Though I had a feeling it wasn't in the way she meant it.

  "He made it sound like you two were having a hell of a time. I hated to interrupt." She chuckled. "Anyways, I thought I'd check back today."

  I cringed at her words. "Okay, yeah, let's head on in. You can take a look at the pictures and see if anyone else looks familiar."