Out of the World

37. Tor-nado

Lola

“I am not going anywhere! I won’t leave my kids!” Mum’s voice was filled with determination.

Luckily, my youngest siblings slept at Grandma’s house last night and were yet to return.

“Liv, please!” Dad insisted, but Mum only gave him a look of defiance and that was enough for him to know that if the tornado could come her way, she would do the impossible to help my siblings. I wanted to do the same, but all I could feel was the fire in my veins. I was afraid, terrified and I had to step away to control myself.

Breathing deeply, I ran towards the hall, casting a little shielding spell to prevent everything around me — including myself — from flying around in my sister’s whirl. As soon as I recovered my bearings, I was surprised to hear the doorbell. Now that I could pay attention to something other than my inner panic, I realised that the doorbell had been ringing for quite some time.

Acting without thinking, I opened it and, to my surprise, Lena’s werewolf crush, Hector, rushed to the hall.

“Is Helena alright? She left my place in a hurry and even though she didn’t say anything, I noticed how worried she was,” he told me

“Wait, she stayed the whole night with you?” Even in the middle of the chaos and mayhem, this was something shocking to hear. This guy was indeed special.

“Yes, she—” he stopped dead in his tracks as soon as his startled hazel eyes roamed to the living room entrance, attracted by the noise and my mum’s screams as she was flown against a wall, “What is happening?” he murmured.

To my surprise, instead of moving away from the Lena-the-tornado, the Alpha walked towards it.

“You can’t go there!” I told him, wrapping my hand around his biceps. He could get hurt or even worse. Lena’s powers were great, but her lack of control over them was even greater and extremely dangerous.

“I have to!” he replied, moving away from me. My eyes widened as I looked once again down the hall, noticing that all the objects in the living room and even in the hall were swirling around in Lena’s wind. Dad was running in circles like a mad man, trying to make Mum stop swirling and get her back to her feet. The only still thing and person was Zorion and his sofa, both protected by the sweet blue light of Mum’s magic shield.

“Hector, you don’t understand. Not even my Dad, the King of Hell, or the other Kings can stop her. There is nothing you can do,” I insisted, fearing for him.

“I can’t leave her like that!” he said as he gained an impulse and ran towards Lena-the-tornado jumping into the middle of the cyclone.

A huge gasp left my lips as I realised that instead of hearing screams, growls and seeing blood, I saw that the whirlwind was calming down. The biggest pieces of furniture and my poor swirling Mum were now on the floor, despite everything still being chaos.

My trembling legs took me to the living room and my wide eyes roamed confusedly across the mess, but as soon as they focused on Tor and Lena, there was nothing else I could see. Moving fast through my sister’s violent winds, Tor pulled Lena to his embrace gently, tenderly.

Her powers calmed a little, the winds still dancing around them with the sharpness of a weapon. Yet, Tor held her through her internal storm, instead of starting to let her go as the winds resumed retracting, he pulled her closer to his chest, her head against his heart. My sister seemed to relax a bit in his embrace, she was slowly getting back to her right mind.

Shock and relief washed over me. I’ve never seen my sister regain control so fast, not even in much smaller crises.

It was him, it was Tor’s doing. It could only be love.

I knew well that the bravery for walking into the torment, into a growing tornado for someone, was something that people only did out of love.

Love was the bravest and tenderest of feelings. Not only a feeling, but an everyday choice. The care and determination in Tor’s eyes at the moment before he walked into the eye of the storm was something I’ve witnessed before; it was the way my Dad looked at my Mum — the way of love.

Tor loved my sister, mate bond or not. It seemed to me that love was more powerful than destiny. It was an everyday vow, an every morning choice of challenging people, even the Goddess, and persevere through springs or storms.

Fate was gloomy and pale in comparison to the light of this love.

A sad smile surged on my face. My confused heart both glowed for my sister’s luck and clenched for my own misfortune. My fated mate bent our bond and threw it away like trash, while Tor’s bond-less love was probably the only tender force in the universe capable of bringing peace to Lena’s storm.

One last abrupt blow of wind threw my sister and Tor on the floor, his arms were still around her. Taking a few steps further, I saw Mum and Dad cast against the wall, seeming as dumbfounded as me — chin dropped and eyes wide. Alpha Hector remained on the floor holding Helena’s quivering body. Only thin threads of air were leaving her fingertips now.

Tor’s fingers ran down my sister’s long blond hair in a soothing way as he pressed her head against his chest.

Moving away from his embrace, Lena opened her eyes slowly, sitting up, “Tor. Oh, you are here. Just so you know, that never happened before. It was actually no big deal, just a bad wind day,” she flashed him a forced smile, moving a few inches away/making/creating some distance between them.

“Helena, are you alright?” Tor asked, concern evident in his eyes.

“Of course, I am. What happened is a normal Witch-Elf-hybrid thing,” she added, shrugging.

A heavy sigh left me, that was Lena’s main concern, to seem normal. She didn’t want anyone to know about her Empathic and Psychic powers, not after how her ex-boyfriend reacted to them.

Mum ran towards my sister and took her in a hug, “We will help Zorion and bring Nina back home,” she reassured a nodding Lena before her eyes shifted to Alpha Tor, “Thank you,” she smiled at him.

“There is no reason to thank him, Mum. Nothing was happening. I am going up and taking a shower. By the way, what are you doing here, Tor? I said casual, remember. Bye, guys,” my sister said, standing up and rushing up the stairs. I knew how mortified and sad she was. She didn’t want anyone – let alone the guy she clearly liked – to see her like that, completely out of control and as dangerous as a ticking bomb.

“Thank you so much, Alpha Tor. She will be fine,” Mum reassured him and he nodded, saying goodbye before he left.

A groan of pain left Zorion’s lips, he was even paler than before, “I hate seeing him suffering,” I murmured.

“Me too, Sweetheart. We will find a way to help him, to help both of them. I just wonder why Nina went away so suddenly. Something doesn’t add up,” Mum sighed, looking thoughtful.

Inhaling a lungful of air, I looked around the destroyed living room and my unconscious brother. We had to find both Nina and a way to block Zorion’s powers now, to make the Darkness slow down.

~ * ~

Nina

After a long drive, the bus stopped at the place the hipster Demons mentioned, and I hopped off. My chest was clenching and I missed Zorion so much, I hated that I had to leave him. Yet, I couldn’t condemn him to an early death or an eternity of misery. He had so much love and happiness to live through, his wonderful family and, well, his amazing self.

I really didn’t know where to start looking for my parents. Did they have a public agency for adoption or files on children sent to the Human Realm? That was what I was about to find out.

Looking around the desert landscape, I found a big wooden house. Was it some kind of restaurant? The ground beneath my feet was dry and I could only see a few green points in the distance. There were also not many people around, only a few Demon-looking men and a couple of very short and cute ladies with pink braided hair, to my surprise they were wearing nearly nothing. Even less than the chicks at the night house I used to work at in Spain. They were too pretty and delicate to be demons, maybe they were Pixies. Yes, they must be Pixies!

Maybe I should be afraid, terrified, but I wasn’t. After hearing Lola and Lena saying that Demons were pretty much as bad as your average Human dude and learning that Daddy Devil was actually much nicer than King Avalon of the Wizards, Hell didn’t sound that bad.

Why was the sun still setting when it felt like it took hours to arrive here? Was the sky in hell always like that? Red and orange, and eternal sunset? It was so beautiful that my hands felt the urge to reproduce it on a canvas.

My hand reached to my forehead, wiping a thin coat of sweat. My mouth was completely dry, I was parched. The fact that this place was hot as hell also didn’t help. I was so stupid, I should have brought along some food and a bottle of water. But no, I had to leave without thinking because I knew that if I thought about it, I would give up and run back to his arms. A rogue tear slid down my cheek and I gulped hard.

At least I brought my purse and my fully charged cell phone. I knew that in case of an emergency, I could call Lena or Lola. Well, that would really be my last resort, otherwise, it could attract Zorion’s attention and ruin all my efforts to leave the love of my life behind. No, I couldn’t do that to him. His happiness came first; that was my biggest solace, and I hoped my departure could bring it to him. The fact that I had a phone connection and could call people around the Six Realms was very handy.

A pretty much normal looking man, except for his long red tail, passed by me and whistled, staring at me as if I were a cold drink in this desert-like place, “For the Fire of the Sixth Pit of Realm, female! You smell better than Pixie Pvssy!”

“Rude!” I grumbled, walking away from him and heading to the wooden house.

Just like the girls said, he was pretty much our classic human-jer.ky dude.

As I got close to it, I saw a cheesy neon sign, “Barcheron, serving a regular-tasting whiskey since Hades’ times.” At least they were honest about the quality of their drinks. As soon as I entered the place, all eyes were on me. Haven't they ever seen a human in a ball gown before? Some of the people here had a tan or colourful skin – yes, it came in all colours, from purple to midnight blue – and some others were as pale as Vamp Uncle Alexus. Maybe they were vampires as well. The place in itself, looked like a regular old bar. Maybe a bit too rustic, completely made of wood.

Ignoring the fact that I seemed to be the Elephant in the room, I headed to the counter, “May you please give me a glass of tap water or something like that. And no, I won’t show you my boo.bs, not even my least favourite one,” I told him, crossing my arms in front of my chest.

As soon as the bartender turned around, it was my time to stare like an i***t. The bar-girl had flawless brown skin and purple eyes. She was stunning!

“Don’t worry, I’ve seen enough b.oobs today!” She chuckled, getting me a glass of tap water.

“Thank you,” I sighed, first smelling and sipping it carefully to make sure it was actually water before drinking it all with a single gulp. I had to do what I’d done my whole life, watch my own back and it seemed that both in the hell of a life I had and Hell itself things wouldn’t be different.

“I am looking for some information on adoption, or demon couples sending their kids to the Human Realm,” I told her and she laughed.

“Oh, Dear! No Demon couple would send their kids to the Human Realm; we love our kids and we won’t subject them to a place with countless wars, diseases and, in many cases, a horrible health system. Yes, the dead-souls talk a lot about that Realm, so no, no one would send kids there. We do have adopted kids here in Hell and the Pixie Realm, but that’s as far as it gets,” she explained as she poured a beer-like drink to a bulky red-skinned demon beside me.

“Oh!” I gasped like an i***t. That was fair enough.

“Do you know where I can ask more about adoption or even missing children?” I asked.

“There is an agency for it in Tartarus, but you see, bureaucrats in Hell are even slower than you expect. So, it would need a lot of time, patience and to bribe them with something other than showing your b.oobs,” she laughed.

“Where is it exactly? How can I get there?” I asked, already knowing where I was to head next.

A gruff and deep voice behind me made me gulp hard, “Little bird, you aren’t going anywhere!”