Air: Elementalist Book 1 by Rebecca Wolf (christmas read aloud .TXT) 📗

in with an old musty blanket she kept on hand. “I’ll be up to check on you in a bit, use the bedside bucket if you have to puke.” I nodded with a drunken head roll, which was all I could manage before completely passing out.

Chapter 13

I woke up the next morning with a groan from the grave. I willed my eyes to open, and then instantly regretted it. The sun’s normally cheerful rays skewered my eyeballs in a decidedly malevolent manner.

Then I remembered the details of the night before.

Shit.

I needed to come up with a plan, and quick. I grimaced, just trying to think made my head feel like it was going to explode.

“PENNY!”  I croaked hoarsely.

“Hello, Sunshine!” Penny chirped.

“Ugh. Shut up! I hate you.”

“I brought you coffee and some pain meds,” she said.

“You’re a goddess, I love you.” I said as I took the cup and tried to sit up enough to drink it without spilling. Penny handed me the pain reliever, and I swallowed it. Twenty minutes later I finished the last dregs of my coffee, and started to hydrate in ernest with a bottle of water.  Feeling better, I began to think coherently again, something that I immediatly regretted.

“Penny, things are way worse than I ever thought possible,” I groaned miserably.

“Yes, I meant to ask you about that.” Penny said, a strange tone in her voice. “Is there a reason that a surveillance car is parked across the street?” I moved aside the curtain and peered out. Sure enough, there was a black sedan parked right across from our place. A guy leaned against the side of the car, staring up at our house. He wasn’t even trying to be discreet.  I closed the curtain and looked back at Penny. Well, here goes nothing.

“Jonathan Cole is Thomas Cole’s son.” I explained, “remember? Rapist Thomas, the guy who fathered me? I thought hiding here would protect me from that family. If they knew Thomas fathered me they would think that I owed them allegiance. They would coerce me to use my abilities, and marry me off to someone for their own political gain. Which is RIDICULOUS. I mean, its not enough that he raped my mother, but then to allow them to use me, the result of that rape, to gain more power. NO FUCKING WAY. I’m not interested in becoming one of their political pawns. There is NO WAY I can tell Jonathan the truth... but if I don’t tell him he’s going to think I’m fair game to blackmail into a mating.” my voice rose louder the longer I talked until I was in full screeching mode. “Ouch,” I said as I cradled my head “too soon for angsty yelling.”

“Wow” was Penny’s only response.

“Wow is one way of putting it.” I agreed.

We were quiet as we thought. My brain kept feverishly trying to think of possibilities, only to discard them as heavily flawed. It was too late to run. He was expecting me to run. The surveillance guys were an obvious warning on that front. I needed to do something he wasn’t expecting. I needed an ace up my sleeve. The more I thought about it, the more I resigned myself to the one solution that filled me with both surety and dread. I needed to call Aiden.

Damn it.

And then I realized, to my horror, that I didn’t even have Aiden’s number. I never needed it before now. This was going to be so many levels of embarrassing.

I called Sam up on the phone. He picked up on the second ring, his familiar voice a balm to my shredded emotions.

“Hi Zephyr! Its so good to hear from you, sweetie!”

“Hey Sam!” I said trying to muster up a cheerful tone, “how’s your retirement going?”

“Fantastic!” Sam said enthusiastically, “I can’t wait to show you the pictures! Just me and my boat and the great blue ocean. The occasional beach town visits dotting my travels. I can’t believe I’m finally living my dream!”

“Wow, Sam, that sounds amazing,” I said, swallowing back salty tears.

“Did you need something Zephyr, or is this just a pleasure call because you miss me?”

“I DO miss you, Sam,” I said sincerely, “but I was also wondering if maybe, you have Aiden’s number?” my voice rose warbling at the end with nerves.

“That boy hasn’t flaked on you, has he?” Sam asked sternly.

“Oh no, nothing like that,” I reassured him quickly.

“Good.” he said succinctly,  “because I would come back there and whoop his ass if I needed to.”

“Everything’s fine Sam, I just need his number,”

“Alright, alright, Let me see if I can dig it up,”

There was some fumbling noises and then quiet for about ten minutes.

“Zephyr? You still there?” Sam asked finally.

“Yeah, did you find the number?”

“I seem to have misplaced my address book in one of my random paper piles. Want me to call you back if I find it?”

“You didn’t save his contact in your phone?” I asked incredulously.

“You can save contacts in your phone?” Sam exclaimed in disbelief.

“Never mind Sam, I’ll show you how to do that when you get back. I Have to get going now Sam! I'm so happy to hear your finally enjoying yourself. Have a great time! Love you!”

“It was wonderful hearing from you Zephyr! Love you too!” he hung up. I shook my head quietly to myself. This situation kept getting worse and worse.

Penny looked over at me with pity, “I take it, that was a dead end?” she said sympathetically.

“Yup. He doesn’t even know how to save contacts in his phone.” I said, “It boggles my mind how he functions in today’s day and age.”

Penny shrugged, “well, you can always call Aiden’s family business,” she suggested, “he probably has an office there.”

“I just don’t think they’ll put me through,” I hedged.

“It can’t hurt to try.”

I shrugged. It actually could hurt. But my pride was already trampled, one more beating wouldn’t make a difference at this point. And if he didn’t answer well, that