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Well, at least I can go run errands with the brothers,she thought. She hoped they could be sweet talked into taking her to the mall for a few hours.
ten
Alma received a confirmation email before nightfall. After telling Finn and Dylan—sheepishly—that she had joined, both were in favor. Apparently, they were both active on the forums; they had to be, as part of their job.
“There are some really good people on there,” Dylan assured her. “Maybe you’ll find someone to hang out with.”
Alma shrugged off the idea, though she had thought of similar reasons for joining. She didn’t want to get her hopes up. But since the power surge had abated, Alma dwelled more and more on her sense of restlessness—and an underlying dissatisfaction at her celibacy over the past several weeks. The reckless kiss she’d shared with Finn hadn’t faded from her consciousness as much as she wanted it to. While Alma knew any physical involvement with Finn would be a bad idea, her grandmother’s hint notwithstanding, she couldn’t rid herself of the impression it had left on her.
As she, Dylan, and Finn wandered around the mall from store to store, Alma’s mind continued to get caught up in the brief but consuming passion she had felt the moment his lips met hers. She kept telling herself she didn’t want to repeat it, but she had never experienced a connection so involving in her life. She had discussed it with Dylan privately, on more than one occasion after the fact. She wondered why she couldn’t just develop feelings for the younger of the two brothers; he was so receptive, so patient, and such a good ear for anything she wanted to talk about. But there was no spark between them—there wasn’t that passion Alma felt for his brother.
Alma had been distracted all afternoon, thinking about the way it felt when Finn pressed against her. She firmly denied the possibility of an attraction to the man himself, though she had to admit he was not unattractive from an objective standpoint. She stood firm in her insistence that she was not interested in him. She was interested in sex. She blushed as she realized that her libido was more active than it had been before and wondered just how much the power surge affected that change. She wanted to charm someone, to flirt and give him a knowing smile and cock her hip just so, to lure him into her bed. She wanted—needed—to get laid, and that was all there was to it. The difficulties associated with a one-night stand were a little frustrating, considering she would have to be guarded by Finn and Dylan, but Alma was determined to overcome them.
That night, Alma logged into the forums and introduced herself in the appropriate thread. She didn’t say much—only that she was an air-aligned elemental, that she lived in a general area, and that she was getting used to her abilities in an adult setting. She had enough caution to know better than to reveal her lineage, or that she was about to come into full possession of her power. Dylan and Finn added her as a friend on the system and commented on her post, solidifying her entrance into the social group. Alma had not avoided elementals as she had entered adulthood; one of her close friends was an elemental too. But she had slacked on networking with elementals her grandmother had introduced her to through her teen years. For the most part, Alma had tried to live as normal a life as her abilities would allow. She knew, not only from her grandmother’s reports but also from Finn and Dylan’s confirmation, that elemental politics had become fraught and tense.
She looked around the forums, reading posts and trying to get a feel for the different personalities. Some people lived in her area, and Alma responded to threads about things to do, clubs to visit, bars that were worthwhile. She knew she should be cautious, and at first, she kept that necessity at the front of her mind; after all, she was a target. She wasn’t going to be targeted by most of the normal population, who had no clue that elementals existed; she was an object of interest for certain elementals. Even those elementals without a vested interest in her due to the strength of her lineage would be interested in her because of her strength. Although Alma hadn’t given her relative power much thought as she had grown up, the surge that had awakened her, and occasioned a brief local news story about a freak windstorm, had made it impossible to avoid the realization she was more powerful than most of her family members at least.
Alma felt as though her newfound sense of caution was chafing her. She remembered the kidnapping. The knowledge she had been disarmed, captured, and carried off relatively easily, gnawed at her. She had never been the type of person to doubt herself, but in spite of her cavalier attitude, she felt more vulnerable than ever before in the wake of the kidnapping.
Out of anger, she’d sent a scathing email terminating her relationship with the client who had put her in a position to be kidnapped. There was no way to be sure how much her former client knew about the designs on her, but his willingness to put her in danger at all had made her indescribably angry. Anxiety was a familiar feeling for Alma, but rarely had she ever known direct fear. The sensation was frustrating.
When she swallowed her pride and told her grandmother what had happened, she endured the sigh of disappointment and waited for the lecture she knew would come.
“You need to find a mate,” her grandmother had repeated. “If you had taken my advice, you wouldn’t have had a problem from that man.”
Alma bit back the sarcastic retort that fought to escape. Knowing the man had wanted to marry her only to secure her power for his own ends didn’t make her feel too charitably towards the institution of marriage.
She recognized that her grandmother was ultimately right. If she found someone to enter into a serious relationship with, it might defray at least those in the elemental community who saw her as a commodity rather than a person. Alma told herself she wasn’t looking for a husband when she posted in the forum, but she was open to meeting someone—a boyfriend who could entertain her and maybe take some of the pressure off.
That night Alma talked at length to a local elemental named Alex. He claimed to be air-aligned like her and live only a city away. According to his profile picture, he was rather appealing. Six feet tall and originally from England, he had a lean, almost hungry look to his face. His bright blue eyes and dark brown hair framed an intensity that both startled and intrigued Alma. The next day, she took breaks from her work to chat with him. Like every air elemental Alma had ever met, he was charming—a trait they all embodied. She knew her own flirtatious abilities had more than once been called devastating. It was nice to talk to someone who could keep up with her banter. Although she wanted to maintain her reserve, she opened up slightly. She talked about her grandmother without naming her, told him about her childhood spent learning to control her abilities.
They exchanged stories about their childish displays of power, about the times their precocity had gotten them into trouble and talked about their families. Finn chatted with Alex’s cousin under the pretext of investigating the man Alma was talking to. Alma’s libido, along with her curiosity, were piqued. She even blushed when he addressed her as “Air” in spite of the fact that she normally hated the nickname. Alma knew she should be careful. She, of all people, knew how dangerous a charming person could be. But that didn’t stop her, she wanted to have some fun in her life. She entertained no illusions that Alex was “the one,” but the idea of having fun with him was appealing. Finn’s conversations with Alex’s cousin, Dolores, had veered from checking out a potential date of Alma’s to something more akin to a flirtation.
Dylan seemed to be the only one of the three questioning motives. “Don’t you think it’s a little bit suspicious?” Dylan asked Finn, making a slight face “I mean, no offense to you bro, but it’s kind of our job to suspect anyone who’s overly interested in getting to know Alma. I mean, basic precaution, right?”
Finn dismissed the concern. “It makes sense. Besides, Alma’s supposed to be looking for a mate. If someone’s interested in her, we should guard her, obviously—and take precautions—but if she can’t be allowed to talk to someone, then she’s never going to find a mate.”
Alma shrugged when Dylan looked at her for her input. “Obviously we can’t assume everyone is safe, but we can’t assume everyone’s a threat either, can we?”
Alma tried to read the look on Dylan’s face. It wasn’t disappointment or anger, it was concern. “I have no interest in being kidnapped again, but I also have no interest in staying put and just hoping everyone will decide there’s no point in either killing me or forcing me to marry them.”
“At least, if you meet up with these two people, make it a public place, and bring me along. I can be objective.”
Alma looked at Dylan for a moment and wondered if some of his concern might be due to him being lonely. Since Finn had chatted with Dolores, Dylan had been left more often to his own devices.
eleven
They arranged to meet with the cousins for lunch, two days before Alma’s birthday. Alma was also hoping she would like Alex enough to convince him and his cousin to attend the party she was planning for the evening of her birthday. She would travel back to her grandmother’s house a few days after her birthday, but she wanted to celebrate reaching her full abilities beforehand. She never mentioned to Alex it was her “special” birthday, instead letting him believe she had already reached her full power as an elemental. She knew she needed to be careful around him, even if she found herself attracted to him and the easygoing charm he radiated in their chats. She admitted to herself that she was hungry for attention from men.
In the midst of planning, Alma received a letter from her grandmother. The handwritten envelope was a surprise. Everything was put aside. If her grandmother wrote to her, the contents of the letter were important. She’d tried to convince her grandmother to embrace technology, but the older woman refused to get used to chatting online, or even email. On more than one occasion she’d stated the phone was her personal limit for technology. She even still kept printed books and magazines for her gardening, instead of looking online. “Oh, I’m impressed and awed at how far things have come,” she told Alma. “And I’m glad that you’re so well versed in how to use the newest technology, but I don’t have the patience to learn it myself.”
Normally Alma’s grandmother called when there was something she wanted to say. Letters were reserved for communication that required more privacy than the phone offered or for topics she wasn’t comfortable speaking about verbally. Alma wondered which of the two categories the letter would fall under.
Considering in the lingering danger—and that her grandmother had been the first one to be cognizant of that danger and insist on protection—it seemed odd that she would choose such an archaic form of communication, one that could be intercepted easily. Then again, Alma knew their code was hard to break and would look like nonsense to anyone else. She tore into the envelope.
Dearest Granddaughter,
You would probably prefer a conversation like this in person. However, I’ve never been comfortable talking about these kinds of things directly in the flesh, as they say. There is a part of your transformation into a full elemental that I wanted to explain to you. I had hoped that you would find a mate before it came time for your birthday, but since you haven’t, I thought a word to the wise would be a good idea. You are going to experience very strong—almost impossibly strong—lust as part of your transition into your full powers. As you approach the day of your birthday, it will intensify and on the night of your birthday, it will be at its most intense. I want you to be very, very careful about who you spend your time with within that period. If I did not think that Dylan or Finn were safe choices, I wouldn’t have them with you, but think carefully about any other partners.
