Tag Archives: character: stone landon

Author’s Note: A different voice this time, but an important one who’s been very quiet so far, with good reason, of course.

The Earth Stirs

A part of him figured he was dead, and he’d never felt anything quite like the weight crushing his chest at the moment, but if he were dead, would he feel pain? He supposed they might all end up in hell—he doubted any religious people would see what they did with the elements as natural or anything—or maybe on the other side of the barrier. That could be it. He could have gone on the other side of the barrier. That could be why he wasn’t dead when he swore he must have been.

He couldn’t move, and for the first time in more years than he wanted to think about, he couldn’t feel the earth, either.

Could that be what it was like to be on the other side? Was that why he didn’t feel right? Something had gone wrong, real wrong, if he’d ended up on the other side. He didn’t think the gaps were that wide, but then again, all it took was one broken mirror to control an element, and the elements were supposed to be some of the most powerful things on the planet.

He tried to remember their old conversations, pinpoint what they did know of the land on the other side of the barrier, but nothing came to him. I don’t know, and I don’t want to know. Those words were familiar enough, repeating far too often in any discussion of what they were and what they could do.

He heard something rattle, and when he got his head to turn, he saw the IV stand next to him, the line hanging down and curving up to where it connected to his arm. Damn. He should have known. He wasn’t on the other side at all. This was the agency’s doing, wasn’t it?

They’d had to sedate rogues before, ones they’d stopped with the elements only to have them start fighting again as soon as they recovered. Worst one was a fire elemental that decided the summer was a perfect time to set brush fires all through the state and laugh as the firefighters were unable to contain them. He kept trying to kill them as soon as he got enough energy, and they didn’t have a choice. Cress had lulled the bastard to sleep a few times, but that wasn’t enough to hold him, and Cress was at a breaking point when Moira had intervened with the drugs. No one asked her where she got them from, but it worked.

Stone should have remembered that, figured that was what had been done to him, but he was slow on the uptake at the moment. He’d blame it on the bullets. He knew he’d gotten hit at least once, enough to figure it was as good as over. Bullets and drugs. That was it. No wonder he couldn’t think or move.

If he could move…

Did they know enough about him to know he was earth? Did they know enough make sure that it was more than the drugs keeping him from the earth? If he could get near a window or touch the walls or floor, their little prison would never hold him. He was nowhere near Cress’ league—he would have flooded the room and broken out in the time it took Stone to figure out what was going on—but he knew how to manipulate things, and anything that had a bit of dirt or a connection to the ground was enough. Some things he could do with only line of sight.

If he got out of this bed, he was as good as out of here.

“I see we are going to have to increase your medication. What part of your connection allows you to overcome that, I wonder? With me, all it takes is a quick flush. Nothing stays in my system that I don’t want.”

Stone grimaced. That sounded like a water elemental, and he knew that Cress could do that—he and Occie always seemed to skip the hangovers everyone got stuck with—and that time the pollen had gotten the rest of them, a nice biological weapon manipulated by a rogue earth elemental, Cress just kind of shrugged it off and then took out the rogue on his own.

“Well, no matter. You’re going to remain our guest for a while yet. I have a very special task for you, and you have to stay put or you won’t recover.”

“Won’t… help… you.”

“Such gratitude. My people saved your life. Yours abandoned you.”

Stone shook his head. That was not how Cress worked. He was too damn loyal for that. Even if the team would have fallen apart then—he knew his sister well enough to know she would have gone to pieces after he went down and Occie would have been struggling even with her amazing control over her emotions—Cress would not have abandoned him.

“Was dead.”

“True, but perhaps they should have made sure there was no bringing you back from that first.”

Short of Cress suddenly developing the ability to manipulate lightning, too, Stone didn’t see how they could have. Maybe Moira and Sherwin could have forced air into his lungs, but that wouldn’t have meant he’d ever have started breathing on his own again.

Stone saw the man reaching for the IV, and he tried to pull his arm free, but his body was still too sluggish. He couldn’t stop him or get the damn needle out. Something about that bastard was familiar, though. Stone didn’t know how, couldn’t remember, but he did know that man.

He’d have to figure it out the next time he was conscious.

by

Disquiet

Author’s Note: So, after I did one piece that involved the use of prompts from Three Word Wednesday, I had ideas that allowed me to use the same words again. This time it was a part of something else, something longer, though where/if it belongs in that story is debatable.

Today’s words: cumbersome, morbid, and rampage.

Disquiet

“You’re being morbid again, aren’t you?”

Cress put the phone back in his pocket, not sure how Stone always seemed to find him after he ended one of those calls. True, he’d been staring out the window for a while now, but that still didn’t explain how his brother-in-law had that kind of timing. Unless, of course, Occie had sent him, but why wouldn’t she have come herself? That didn’t make much sense.

“What makes you think I’m being morbid?”

“That cumbersome load you bear. ‘Heavy is the head that wears the crown,’” Stone said, leaning against the wall next to Cress.

With a frown, Cress tried not to fidget under the other man’s gaze. Stone had always been intimidating, intentionally or not, and he didn’t like the feeling he got from those words. That idea sickened him. They didn’t really believe he was on some kind of power trip, did they? “I’m not the king. You don’t honestly think I think of myself that way, do you?”

“No. It was just a fitting quote. I suppose a more apt one would be that you’re drowning under all that responsibility.”

Cress snorted, not bothering to remind him that it was almost impossible to drown someone like him. “Hmm. Should have given it to the one who’s a rock, then.”

Stone gave him a look, his eyes darkening. “What, so I could sink right to the bottom?”

Cress shook his head. “Just always figured you were stronger than me. Would have suited you better, perhaps.”

Stone grunted, taking out his latest carving and studying it. The details were more intricate this time, and Cress wasn’t sure he should point out that a normal carver would never have been able to get the granite to do that. “There’s a reason we look to you. Any one of us could have stood up in that role a long time ago, but no one wants to. You’re the only martyr among us.”

“I am not a martyr, either.”

“Please. Like I don’t know who you just called and why you did and how much it hurts you that you’re here and she’s there. I can’t stand having Occie out of my sight half the time, but you don’t even get to see yours more than once a year if you’re lucky.”

Cress rolled his eyes. “If you think I don’t know why you’re worried about my sister, you’re the fool. I probably knew before she did. Definitely before you did. I can sense emotions, remember? I knew she was in love with you long before she would admit it, and she didn’t have to tell me about the wedding. I don’t know how to get you or her out of this mess we’re in, though.”

“You want to send us away now, too?”

“Yes.”

“Playing favorites again.”

Cress lowered his head, leaning against the window. “If one thing went wrong in a fight, that could be it. It could all be over. These people aren’t interested in taking captives. They want us dead, though I keep thinking it doesn’t fit with some of their other actions, but how else do you explain the live ammunition? Those aren’t blanks or that other kind of bullet… The… uh…”

“Rubber ones?”

“Yes. Them.”

“Relax. We’re not military. No one expects you to know all the terminology or lead us like a spec ops team. We’re just what we are, nothing more, nothing less. True, you’re something a bit more than the rest of us, but that’s different.”

“I want you and Occie to go, Stone. Tomorrow, preferably. I’ll take the team in the other direction, lead the agents away from you, but I need you to go.”

“No.”

“Stone—”

“You need us, and you know it. You can’t do this alone, no matter how talented you are, and do you really think the team will be okay with that? Some of them can’t forgive Enya for going, and she had a better reason to go.”

Cress looked at him. “You two are married now. You waited long enough for that, and if Occie gets pregnant—”

“You’re thinking like a brother right now. An older, protective brother. You need to think of the team. She’s not an invalid, and you always stand between her and the worst of it anyway. Even if she’s nowhere near the fight—where I tend to think she should be, too, even though I know she’s strong enough—after it’s over, you need her and you know it. You can’t ignore that. What happens the next time some rogue goes on a rampage and you nearly kill yourself stopping them? Who’s going to pull you out of it if you send Occie away?”

“That doesn’t matter. If you stay—”

“We have to argue about this later. They’re here.”

The Main Story