Inferno : Elements Series Book One

Gwen

I’m woken by a loud knock at the door and Derek’s voice in my head.

“Wake up and get dressed lazy bones! You’ve got training to get to.”

I get up and open the door, letting him and his ridiculous grin inside.

“Good morning,” he says, way too cheerful for eight am on a Sunday.

“Yup, morning.”

“I said to get dressed! If you want to get to the food court and eat breakfast then you’ll have to hurry.”

Making a point of slowly walking into my kitchen, I lean down and pull out a bowl of fruit salad that I didn’t finish eating yesterday. I hold it up to him, probably with a smug look on my face, and plant myself on the counter top to eat it, crossing my legs and getting comfy.

“Looks like I’ve got plenty of time.”

He looks good, as usual. Perfect t-shirt that leaves nothing to the imagination, it’s quite distracting really. I lift the fork to my mouth and Derek quickly walks over, places his hand on the counter on either side of my thighs and leans in, eating the chunk of watermelon just before it reaches my mouth.

“Smart arse,” I say, trying to recover my equilibrium.

“So, what are you looking forward to today?” he says, grinning from ear to ear.

“I’m not sure,” I say honestly, still recovering. “Am I meeting with everyone, or just Hank, Garret and you?”

I’m pretty excited to see if I can work with plants and animals. Mostly animals, I’ve always loved them and this would be incredible.

“From what Hank said I’d say it’s just going to be us and Garret, but who knows? I’m sure everyone else is up for it if you are.”

Remembering that I need to open my curtains and let the sun into my apartment I move his hands from the counter and push him far enough away that I can jump down.

“Watch this,” I say to Derek.

I open up all the curtains and watch his face light up when he sees all the flowers bloom throughout my apartment.

“Cool, huh?”

“Definitely, Garret certainly got creative in here.”

As I turn back I catch sight of the couch and begin to feel a little awkward about what happened between us last night and decide that the faster we leave my apartment the faster I can get a grip on my rebellious libido.

“Speaking of Garret, the sooner I see him the sooner I can thank him for this incredible place. I’ll get dressed and we can leave.”

I see him frown slightly as I leave him in my kitchen to go and get dressed. I decide on denim shorts and my usual nerd shirt, today’s print being Batman, and walk back into the kitchen.

“This’ll do right, just a shirt and shorts?”

Derek slowly looks over my body, nods and moves toward my door.

“Shall we?”

“Definitely,” I say as we step into the hallway and head off. “Where are we meeting Hank?”

“The food court, we’ll talk about his plans for the day and then we’ll get you to wherever you need to be.”

There’s some sort of tension between us today, or maybe it’s just that he’s standing really close to me, but it’s putting me on edge. If I’d known today was going to be weird then I would have kicked him out last night rather than make out with him on the couch.

We get to the food court at the same time as Hank. He grins when he sees us and motions for us to follow him.

“Good morning you two. Excited for today, Gwen?”

I go for honesty. If I’m going to be letting these guys train me then being honest with them is probably a good idea.

“A little, I’m mostly nervous. I’m not sure what you guys are expecting of me.”

Hank gives me a reassuring smile.

“You’ve got nothing to worry about. This will all just be basics today. I’ve decided that we should wait a bit for you to jump in with the elements. We know you can do some powerful things with them and that you’ll definitely be training with them, but for now we want to see if you have the ability to be trained in healing and combat, as well as Garrets field and the mind stuff. So that’s what we’re doing today. Everyone’s in here.”

He opens a large door and motions for me to step inside. The hair on the back of my neck stands up the second I cross the threshold and I instinctively jump to the right, narrowly avoiding being grabbed by some guy who launched himself at me when I walked in. I don’t have time to be surprised or even ask what’s happening because he’s coming for me again. I hold up my left forearm to ward off a blow to my head and with my right hand I grab onto the wrist of his extended right arm, pulling him forward and sweeping his legs out from underneath him. He goes sprawling to the ground but as I look up I notice two more people coming for me; a man and a woman. They are running at me and I don’t know what to do. Are they Recruiters? This is how the Recruiters came at me in my backyard. What am I supposed to do?! I look to Derek and Hank for help, but they aren’t by the door anymore and I begin to feel myself panicking. Another woman has joined my new assailants and the man I fought just a moment ago is back on his feet and coming for me. Just as I’m about to really start panicking my thoughts flick through the robbery. I was panicking then too, but I managed to get myself under control. I try to remember how and then I recall the surge of energy that I thought was adrenaline. I know now that it was actually my powers washing through my system, eradicating my fear and making me stronger. I search for it now and feel it come through, loud and clear. My mind clears and all of a sudden I’m calm again. Sending up a silent thanks to my trainer back home, I pray to every deity imaginable, and a few super heroes for good measure, just hoping I remember everything she taught me. This all runs through my mind in less than a second and now I’m ready to fight back. The guy closest to me, the man who attacked me first, grabs my wrist and using all my strength I pull him into my body, plant my hip just beneath his and throw him to the ground. I don’t have time to waste with him and I get back to my feet immediately. I kick one of the women in the stomach, causing her to double over and watch my remaining attackers draw weapons. The girl looks like she has a katana and the guy has just put on brass knuckles. I’ve never trained with weapons before and my fear returns. I try to think of any sort of defence, but that katana looks sharp enough to shred me. And then I feel it. My eyes are beginning to change, I’m not sure about what they’re turning into but I know what I want to do. I use the vibrations in the ground to locate seeds, some that are right beneath me in the soil and using some that are being magically transported faster than I can think. I send my energy to them, pulling water from the air and soil and sending it straight to the seeds and I feel them come to life. The ground begins to shake and in a matter of moments there are stalks and vines erupting from the earth, wrapping themselves around my assailants, who look completely bewildered and fearful. They’re completely immobilised in seconds. When I look up I see that the girl who had the sword is stuck in the trunk of a large tree, her head and one of her arms sticking out from the bark. The other girl and one of the men are wrapped from head to toe in vines and, it takes me a moment to find him, but the second guy is dangling from the ceiling from his ankle courtesy of some plants that sprouted from high up on the roof. I’m in shock and start to head for the door. Escape seems the best option but as I reach the door someone grabs hold of my wrist. Without hesitation I turn and throw all my weight behind a punch that lands smack in the centre of some random guys face. He yells out in pain and falls to the ground.

“Gwen!” It’s Derek’s voice. Where is he? Where is Hank? Did they get attacked too?

I whirl around looking for them and feel someone enter my mind.

“Gwen, it’s okay. Calm down. I’m Jasper, remember me? I’m the combat trainer.”

I see him standing in the centre of the room; my impromptu forest is focused on the right hand side. He has his hands up in front of him and standing to his left are Derek, Hank, and Garret. I stop trying to run away but I’m sure as hell not going to calm down. What the hell has happened here? Derek steps forward, his hands out in front of him too, whether to calm me or defend himself, I don’t know.

“Gwen, everything’s fine. No one’s going to hurt you. These guys are all warriors. They wanted to see how you’d react in a fight.”

The guy below me starts trying to get up and I force him back down, pinning him to the ground by stamping my foot down on his chest. Hard. He grunts in pain but puts his hands flat to the floor and stops trying to struggle. I still don’t understand. I think it’s the shock. I thought they were recruiters and then I thought about the robbery and I’m just too worked up to see any sense in this at the moment.

“Gwen, everything is fine. Look at me.” It’s Garret. I look up from the guy on the ground and Garret is smiling shyly at me, he clearly isn’t a fan of confrontation. He has a look of wonder on his face as he glances at the little forest I’ve created. I can hear grunts from the warriors I’ve trapped inside the plants but I just don’t care. They’re lucky I went with plants rather than fire or lightning.

“This really is just a training exercise,” Garret continues. “I promise you’re not in any danger. Try and calm yourself. You’re safe and no one is going to hurt you.”

I feel something tug at my shoulder and look down just in time to see small vines, with small beautiful flowers, begin winding their way down my arms. They connect with the patterns of water on my wrists and begin to curl around in the same pattern. I watch in awe as the flowers and vines sink into my skin as the water did and the remaining flowers bloom, bright and beautiful on my forearms. I hear a gasp and look up to see Garret in complete shock. He takes a staggering step towards me and without even realising I take a step back towards the vines and trees that came to life for me only a few moments earlier. Garret stops moving and I turn back to the others. I feel my shock subsiding, rage quickly beginning to takes its place. I feel, rather than see, thorns sprout from the vines on my arms as my anger explodes. When I speak, I’m shocked at how low and menacing my voice sounds.

“Explain. Now.”

They all look on, completely stunned, but it’s Jasper who recovers first.

“It was a training exercise. Hank and Derek said that you had some skill with fighting, so, I asked one of my warriors to set up an exercise so that we could see what you were capable of. Clearly it’s gone out of hand. You were never meant to be attacked like that, but to be honest, I’m glad you were. You kicked the asses of some of my best trainees!” He sounds excited and pleased with the idiots who decided to attack me. My expression must look downright murderous because suddenly Hank steps in to defend Jasper.

“I think this has gotten a bit out of hand. How ab-“

“Did you have anything to with this?” I ask. He doesn’t answer, so I continue. “Did you know that they were going to do this?”

This time I direct my question to both Hank and Derek.

“No! This was a shock to me too Gwen,” says Derek. I’m not sure I believe him and I decide I’m too mad to have any sort of rational discussion about this right now. I feel someone in my head, trying to figure out what I’m thinking and I snap.

“Stay the hell out of my head!” I glare at everyone, turn and walk back out the way I came.