Amy Blankenship - Blood Bond

Storm rubbed his neck having to be very careful with his words, “I’m a time walker within this dimension, but if there is an area where the dimensional walls have thinned or ruptured… it rejects my power.” That was putting it mildly.

Reading Storm had become a science to him and Ren suddenly understood Storm’s reason behind not knowing who would win the battle. “I’m following you so far,” he hinted.

Storm walked over to the huge window that was facing the ocean and tapped the glass. “This glass is a step beyond bullet proof.” He sighed as he turned around and leaned against it. “But it’s not evil proof.” He nodded his head toward the sofa he had just vacated and whispered words long forgotten by history.

Ren gasped when the ceiling and floor lit up in a wide circle surrounding a large area on the right side of the room with the sofa directly in the center of it. He could even see the luminescent barrier walls connecting the circle on the ceiling and the circle on the floor.

“What is that?” he tried to keep the amazement out of his voice but failed miserably.

“In Layman’s terms… it’s a demon trap.” Storm answered basking in the fact that he had officially awed Ren, which was a very hard thing to do. “Go ahead… walk through the barrier. It won't hurt you.”

Ren reached out but paused before touching it. “Am I expecting a demonic visitor?”

Storm tilted his head, “Let me remind you of something. If a child of the fallen comes near you, then it is you that becomes… the demon.” He lowered his voice making it creepy while saying “the demon”. He and Ren didn’t quite agree on the subject. Ren was still prejudiced against anything he didn’t understand.

Ren took a step back from it as what Storm said sank in. It even took him a few seconds to think of a good comeback, “At least I’ll be the one who knows where the key to the cage is. Question is… how do I get them in it, put demon treats on the sofa?”

Storm smiled and pushed Ren into the circle.

Ren whirled around and started back toward Storm but ran into what reminded him of ice. Backing up, he shoved his palms against it and blinked seeing the walls of the barriers ripple where he touched it as if the surface of the barrier was made of water.

Smacking it again he growled at Storm, “I am not a demon!”

Storm cocked an eyebrow, “Well, I’m glad we got that out of our system.”

Ren smacked the wall of… whatever.

“Relax, I tweaked the spell enough to where it traps anything not human and since you’re a succubus and I’m within range…” he smiled again knowing this was one lessen Ren needed to learn, “Unless you want to call me a demon?”

“I got it. Shove the thing in the circle and don’t step in my own trap. Now let me out.”

Storm said the spell again much the same way he did the first time with just a couple syllables difference.

Ren was a quick study and had already committed both spells to memory before he made it back to the safety of his desk. The silence stretched before Storm felt the humor of the prior moment fade and he began to talk again.

“This castle used to be in Scotland. I had it brought here brick by brick and reconstructed during the land rush but the upgrades are more recent. There are demon traps in almost every room and you are the only one who can trigger them.”

“It’s very beautiful,” Ren nodded wondering what Storm was getting at. Sometimes his stories were longer than an old man's as he drifted through his timeless memories. He was allowed to talk about the past as much as he wanted but it was dangerous for him to say anything about the future.

He’d once asked Storm why he didn’t spend his time going back in time and correcting all of mankind’s mistakes like offing Hitler. That’s when Ren had told him that his powers had limits… it seemed trying to change human history was one of them.

“This castle was a wedding gift for a very close friend of mine.” Storm looked out the window that held the view of open land falling off into the ocean… it truly was breathtaking. He swallowed, pushing the haunting memory aside for now.

Gazing back at Ren, Storm realized that for once someone besides him needed a hint of what was coming. Since his power decided to come with annoying rules that kept him from seeing some of the most important things and barred him from tampering with affairs of the heart, he would have to come up with a very good reason for Ren to want to stay.

He could already feel the pain slice through his mind because of the rules he was about to break but he ignored it.

“This place won’t be here much longer unless I can make the future change.” His voice took on the anger he was feeling as he fought the pain, “Before I decided to bring you here, I stepped into the future several times… only a couple years from now. Every time was a different outcome and it’s because of a dimensional shift… or a lot of them, happening right here in LA.”

Storm swiped at the blood that started dripping from his eyes and nose. “The last time I tried to walk here… part of the castle had collapsed and the walls that were left standing had sun dried blood baked into the brick.”

“Shut up,” Ren glared at him not liking the way the color had just drained from Storm’s face as the bleeding started. Storm had always made jokes about not being able to tell anyone their future... saying it would kill him, but Ren didn’t think it was funny seeing it was the truth. “I get the gist of things and the rest I’ll figure out on my own.”

Storm staggered back to the chair holding his head, “I’m trying to even the odds by bringing LA as much backup as I can.”

Ren got up and walked around the desk, gripping Storm’s shoulder and in an instant they were back on the island. “If you ever try to tell me the future again, I’m gonna kick your ass.”

By the time Storm was steady enough to realize where he was, Ren was gone. Feeling the splitting headache that would probably last for days he smiled knowing it had been worth it. Ren was in place, and now that Angelica was within the city limits, she should draw in another hidden power that could turn the tables completely in their favor… they needed the gods on their side.

*****

Ren had spent the last week mapping the city by walking the streets. He knew from the download of the PIT files where some of the non-humans were but as he walked or drove his motorcycle, he could feel power riding him that didn’t belong to the things on that list.

He turned on the huge screen that covered one wall of the study, pulling the grid map up on it and leaned back in the chair behind the desk. To anyone else, the map might have resembled a Christmas decoration since it was littered with pinpricks of different colored lights.

It was the colors he was studying now. He could see exactly where the shifters were… had even visited Moon Dance and Night Light. The corner of his lip twitched at the memory. He’d made the mistake of ordering Heat and had done fine until he’d called it a night and come home. By the time he’d made it half way home, he was way out of the range of the shifters and completely drunk.

The shifter’s territory was backlit mostly by green lights with a couple pinpricks of red and blue… blue was the PIT team stationed in that area and everything that happened there he was leaving to them… the same with the wolf pack.

Michael, Damon, and Kane were all loose cannons as far as he was concerned, which had earned them yellow and their soulless progeny that were slinking around in the shadows city wide were tastefully a blood red. At least that cowardly group was nice enough to bed down during the day in groups and tended to stay in groups at night which made it easier to track their feeding ground.