Page 12 of The Elementalist (Four Elements #1)

Nature Boy

I needed some air.

In truth, I always preferred the outdoors.

Must be that one-of-a-kind connection I had with nature and all.

Anyway, I pushed the coffee shop’s door aside and stepped out for some fresh air with Michael trailing behind me.

My head buzzed. Like seriously buzzed, so much so that I doubted it came from the mocha latte. I said as much to Michael.

“You’re tuning into Nature, Max,” said Michael.

He fell in step beside me as we strolled down the street into town. Admittedly, I kept an eye out for the guy who came a-knocking last night. Had he been a vampire? I mean... what was the deal with his hands, or lack thereof?

“What, exactly, does that mean?” I asked. “Tuning in with Nature?”

“Max, think of yourself as an extension of Nature... a very important extension. And think of yourself as having woken up from a very long sleep—”

“Except I feel like I’m dreaming now.”

“On the contrary, Max. You have been sleepwalking through life, until now.”

“Until the meteor’s arrival.”

“Other factors, too. There are some elementals who never awaken.”

“Why is that?”

“They are not needed, most likely.”

“So Mother Nature peppers the Earth with potential elementals... just in case?”

Michael shrugged. “Hard to say, Max. But there is evidence that Elementals are basically regular humans—albeit people who are in touch with nature—waking up to find himself or herself being used as a tool... or a weapon. Perhaps, in this case, an assassin. Nature’s assassin.”

“First of all, I’m not a killer. I’m just a private eye, and not a very successful one.”

“I suspect you are an honest man. A good man. A moral man. Hey, follow me.”

He gave my sleeve a tug and I turned off the somewhat busy sidewalk and into an alley.

He led me deeper within... all the way down to a dumpster sandwiched between a bar and the town’s only grocery store.

The alley was surprisingly ominous for a small town.

I’d heard of drug deals going down here, and, yes, a body or two had shown up in that very dumpster.

We weren’t the unofficial murder capital of the state for nothing.

A warm wind swept down the narrow corridor, bringing it with the smell of slightly rotten food and not-so-rotten beer.

Mostly, though, the wind felt good, and my body tingled from head to toe.

That old feeling of longing returned, that feeling that I was somehow separated from.

.. a place I needed to be. A sense that I had been missing something overwhelmed me, like I’d been a twin in the womb, but my brother never made it, a connection forever lost.

Michael opened the dumpster lid and peered inside, then nodded to himself.

“It’s mostly empty, just some cardboard.” He scanned the immediate surroundings. “All brick in the alleyway. Nothing should catch on fire.”

“Say again?”

But he ignored my question. “We’re pretty deep in the alley. Not a lot of foot traffic. I think this is the spot.”

“The spot for what?”

“Why, to practice.”

“Practice what, exactly?”

“Max, I don’t think you realize that you’ve painted a target on your back last night. That little wind demonstration at the bar didn’t go unnoticed by your enemies.”

“I don’t have enemies.”

“You do now. The guy who came knocking? The guy with no hands? He is almost assuredly a vampire. And he didn’t show up to hire you.”

I swallowed. “How... how do you know he was a vampire?”

“Because vampires don’t show up on film, in mirrors, or on camera.”

“But parts of him did...”

“Makeup, Max. He was wearing makeup... everywhere but his hands.”

“But why is he looking for me?”

“Why indeed, Max? A social visit... or was he going to fix a potential problem?”

“Fix a problem?”

“You, Max. You’re his problem. You’re about to be all of their problems. Which is why we need to get you up to speed on who you really are.

And before you ask, you’re an elementalist, Max.

You have been given access to elemental forces, and the vampires are not happy. Now, are you ready for your training?”

And train we did...

With Michael’s help, I learned how to summon fire and rain, and to shake the ground.

Not too much shaking. Just enough to rattle the dumpster.

I both started fires and rained them out, all while wind whipped faster and faster down the alley, howling like a living thing, which I’d come to believe it kinda sorta was.

All the while, I stood there with my hands out and my eyes closed, looking very much like something out of a Harry Potter movie.

As I worked on forming a ball of fire, noise arose in the distance. Voices, I think. No, whispers. Either way, they were so faint that I could have been imagining them. Try as I might, I couldn’t make out the words.

“Do you hear that?” I asked, just as I doused the latest fire with a mini rainstorm, complete with mini thunderclouds. I thought it to be actually quite cute. With a wave of my hand, the clouds dispersed in a burst of rain. “Voices. On the wind.”

“Ah. You are hearing nature itself, Max.”

“I don’t understand.”

“It is all of life that surrounds you, from the critters in this alley, to the great oaks that stand outside of town. It is the birds in the air and insects everywhere. All are here to aid you.”

“To help me fight the vampires?”

“In a nutshell, yes.”

“And I’m here to do what, destroy them?”

“No, Max. You are here to restore balance.”

“I’m just one man,” I said.

“One man who has nature on his side. Now, why don’t we take this outside the city? Do you happen to know of somewhere we could go for some privacy? Perhaps an old cabin or something no one would miss?”

I didn’t have to think long. “Yeah… there’s a spot with an abandoned shack. Been there for years.”

“Perfect.” Michael clapped.

***

It sat about three miles outside town, a little ways off the beaten track.

I’d seen it on many a hike; interestingly, I often wondered what it would look like to watch it burn. Such thoughts had concerned me at the time. Now, I sorta understood where they had come from. Either that, or I am a natural pyro.

With the coast clear, I alternately set fire to the shack, then doused it with rain water. More than once, I found myself staring in awe at the fire... or at the mini rain clouds. That I did all of this from powers inside of me went well beyond anything I could imagine.

“Good,” Michael said after my latest round of fire and water. “Again.”

I did it over and over until I mastered all forms of making fire.

.. from smaller flames that could light a cigarette, to fiery winds that could level forests or buildings.

I also learned I could change water to ice and back as well as manipulate the ground at my feet, raising stones from the earth or even shaping columns of rock.

When the shack had finally burned to the ground and Michael and I stood together under a localized thunderstorm, dripping wet from the pouring rain, I turned to Michael and said, “I’m not dreaming, am I?”

“No, Max.”

“This is really happening?”

He nodded. “You have been given great gifts, Max. Use them wisely.”

“But how do I use them? You said to restore balance... what does that mean?”

“There is no easy answer, Max,” said Michael, as the storm continued drenching the burned-out shack... and us. “You will have to use great care and wisdom.”

“Does Nature realize that I’m just a normal guy?”

“Normal guys are part of nature, too, Max.” He paused, rain dripping from his nose. “Let me suggest this: on some level, you very much wanted to be here, in this place and time, to restore order, to do what you can to right a great wrong.”

“And vampires are a great wrong?”

“Some, not all.”

“What if I ignore these gifts?”

“Then I expect they will fade away... that is, if the vampires let you live. Remember, you are very much on their radar.”

“And we’re certain vampires are real?” I asked.

“I guess you are about to find out. At least, you are equipped to handle them now.”

“By unleashing fire and lightning and rain upon their heads?”

“In a word, yes. And anything else within nature at your disposal. There is a reason why elementals are used to restore balance. They are literally a force of nature. Some might even say unstoppable.”

“Me, unstoppable?”

“Yes, Max. Think about it... you can level towns with fire, floods, earthquakes and storms. You think one vampire—or even a host of them—could match your power?”

“Maybe not, but if they are as devious as you say they are, they might find other ways to attack me.”

“Are some clever? Definitely. Will some seek to outwit you? You can bet on it. But correct me if I’m wrong, don’t most private investigators have some sense of street smarts?

Some sense of taking care of themselves?

Not to mention having seen the seedier side of life.

I am sure you have a few tricks up your sleeve, along with your newfound powers. ”

“My last case was looking for a lost labradoodle.”

“Did you find it?”

“I did.”

“Thus employing your street smarts and tenacity.”

Hmm. The poor little guy had been dognapped by the woman’s ex-boyfriend.

A series of clues and hunches had led me to the critter being kept in Spencer Heights, a good ways south of here, at an RV in a trailer park.

I had kicked a little ass breaking into that RV.

Street smarts? Toughness? Hard to say. But yeah, I guess I could take care of myself.

And with these new skills... maybe I could take on the undead. .. if they really existed.

I thought of the young man who had shown up at my office door last night, the young man whose face I could see through, and who sported invisible hands.

Yeah, that defied any explanation I could come up with in the rational universe.

I had never encountered anything like that before…

at least that I remembered. Could vampires be real?

I didn’t know, but ‘hollow man’ at my door offered pretty damning evidence. Perhaps I should investigate the guy.

“I can say with certainty that the vampires will be coming for you, Max.”

“Well, that’s just great. There’s always a string attached, isn’t there?”

He nodded, then studied me. “Perhaps I should tell you a thing or two about vampires.”

We headed back to town, stopping at Pedro’s.

I’d been going to that Mexican restaurant since I’d been a kid.

As far as I know, it didn’t actually have a name.

Just a big sign on the front that read ‘eat’ in all caps.

Not sure where the name Pedro’s came from.

Shit, I hope we weren’t being racist. Actually, I think that might’ve been the name of the owner.

Anyway, the food was awesome, cheap, and it gave us an inconspicuous place to talk about conspicuous things.

Michael and I spoke well into the night about things I really didn’t want to believe in.