Fate (Drift Series Book 4) (12 page)

“So is this what you’ve been up to while I was out?” I asked.

“Sure have. Sandra and I decided we needed a little hobby together, so, we both wanted to learn how to ski, well, snowboard, and came up here. We’ve gotten pretty good at it. We wanted to include Shade, but in her current state that wasn’t an option. We’re hoping after the baby arrives, the two of you can get free from time to time to join us up here. We’d love that.” He held up his bottle and we clanked them together.

“So…how have things been between the two of you?”

“Pretty good…really, really, good actually. As you know, I snagged an apartment and have been learning another craft in my MMA classes. School is great, work is great. Sandra has decided to live at home until we marry, then we are going to move in together in my apartment. Hopefully we can find a little something like you and Shade did shortly after that.” He took another gulp.

“Cool deal…and the wedding between the two of you? Have we locked down the date yet?”

“Yep…sure have. You and Shade got married in June last year. We are tying the knot in July this year.” He grinned.

“Congrats, my man.” I raised my bottle to clank with his again. “Have you guys picked a location for the wedding?”

“That we have! We are going to do it at the convention hall in Mountainside.”

“Sweet!”

“Guess where the reception is going to be held.”

“Where at?”

“Right up here…at the clubhouse.” Scruffy pointed out the window in the direction of said location.

“That’s going to be awesome, bro. Looking forward to it.”

“Heck yeah it is. I mean, it won’t be snowing here that time of year, but the scenery, with everything in bloom, is going to be off the charts…can hardly wait.”

“I bet. I’m happy for you, bro. This has truly been a time of joyous change as of late.” I reached over and squeezed his shoulder.

“Thanks, Leo. It sure has.” He grabbed my arm as I clung to his shoulder lovingly.

“It is frickin freezing in here. We’ve gotta get that woodstove up and running.”

“Thank goodness they do the work for us here. I spent an entire night chopping wood for Shade and me the other night.”

“No doubt. Let’s get that thing fired up, then we can head on over and get you a snowboard to rent. Do we need to set up some lessons before you go down the bunny slope tough guy?” He smacked me in the back.

“C’mon now, you know what a bad-ass I am. I am precisely designed to perform at a high level in the human world. I’ll rock that snowboard out in no time flat and be going kamikaze down the double black diamond before you know it.” I winked at him.

“Yeah, that is a perk, and a downside, to being a brother to a superhuman figure. It’s taken me this whole winter to get this down enough to where I can hit up a hill or two that was rated more dangerous than the bunny slope. You suck.” He grinned.

“No I don’t, I rock. Now c’mon, let’s finish up here and get to that clubhouse so I can show you up.”

Scruffy shook his head at my teasing arrogance and we went to work carrying in the wood for the woodstove. After we got it going and let it burn for a little while, we made our way over to the clubhouse. We found the right snowboard for me, following Scruff’s recommendations of course, and headed for the lift.

“You know, if there weren’t people everywhere, I could have just flown us up there in no time. Sure would make it a lot faster in getting around.” I teased my brother as we slid onto the lift.

“Take it easy, Batman. I’m glad you can’t fly us around. Riding the lift and taking in the sights is a big part of the skiing experience.”

We joked around until we got to the slope Scruff wanted to go down. He was anxious to get started so he could see how I would do my first time ever. We got off the lift at our stop and strutted over to a slope.

“Since you are cocky, and I’m only feeding your ego more because I know you can handle this, I didn’t hit the bunny slope first on your accord. We are going down a slope a notch or two up from that. Think you can handle it?”

I just mashed my lips together in sarcasm and glared at him in assurance.

“I thought as much. Well, tell you what, I’ll go down first and you can at least watch and see how it’s done. When I get to the bottom, I’ll wait for you. I’m afraid to go down with you at the same time. Somehow I feel you might get competitively aggressive with me.”

“Me…nahhhhhhh.” I grinned.

Scruffy signaled for me to watch him put on his snowboard. After he locked it in, I followed suit and did so under his instruction.

“All right, let’s do this! I’m out. See you at the bottom.” He wiggled his way towards the slopes edge and started to go down.

“Try not to kill the other skiers on your way down.” I messed with him.

“You’re telling me? Apply that to yourself there, chief.” He screamed back at me.

I watched him squiggle and squirm his way down the hill, trying to learn a little bit about how to do this snowboarding thing. I may be a demon, but that doesn’t mean I won’t bust my ass doing this. He fell a time or two, eating a mouthful of snow one time. I took great pleasure at that. It took a little time but he reached the bottom in pretty good shape. I saw him wave at me to do my thing next.

I hopped my way to where the slope started and began to make my way down it. Instantly, I fell down. Although I couldn’t hear him, I just knew that Scruffy was having a field day with that one down there.

I got back up and gave it another go. This time I honed in my demon instincts for advantage. I started out a little slow, but once I knew the beast within me had taken the wheel, I didn’t hold back.

I started slashing through the snow, kicking it up in every direction. I think I might have been scaring the crap out of the other guests on the slope as I passed them, but I didn’t care. I was making that hill my…well, I was owning it. About halfway down I decided to show-off for Scruffy. I turned in the direction of some trees and bobbed and weaved between them at warp speeds. I rocketed out from the gap and found a small mound of snow piled up and decided to jump off of it.

I hit it fast and began to twirl around in the air before I landed. I hit the ground in a fury and shot down the rest of the hill to an awaiting Scruffy who has shaking his head. I turned just before I got to him and blasted him with snow. He spit and wiped the snow off his face and body.

I stood there staring at him with utter confidence. Then all of a sudden the other guests around us began clapping at my performance. I looked around at them and bowed in thanks as they stroked my ego.

“I hate you.” Scruffy turned around and walked away from me.

“Hey, I need help figuring out how to get this board off so I can walk…wait up.” I called to him.

“Figure it out yourself there, Mr. All-Star.” He slung his arm up over his head in dismissal of me.

Once I got the board off, I ran to catch up to him.

“You should be grateful to have a brother like me. You can bask in the glow of my stardom.” I teased him some more.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got something for you.”

“What’s that?” I grinned.

“Double black diamond. The most dangerous run at Wolf’s Pass. I’ve never seen anyone go down it. I know you can do it. At least I don’t have to worry about you getting hurt or anything. You up for it?”

“Show me the way, baby.”

CHAPTER 11

DIAMOND

Scruffy got me to the lift that took me up to the most dangerous slope in the resort. If one didn’t get the clue that it was dangerous by just the looks of it from the bottom up, the fact that I was the only one going to the top of that slope on the lift was the sure tip off.

“Okay man, there’s no way I’m going up with you on that bad-boy. I’ll wait for you down at the bottom here. Do your thing. I can hardly wait to see this.” He pointed up to the top of the slope as he spoke.

“Will do. I’ll see you in a little while.” I hopped up on the lift.

As the lift took me higher and higher, I began to see the dangers involved with going down this sucker. There was a first aid station at the base for starters. The hill was extremely steep and huge rocks were poking out from it here and there. There were also a lot more trees in very inconvenient spots all over the place that would require some pretty solid navigation. I could see why only the most seasoned veterans of skiing could take this hill. Even then, it was risky.

When I got to the top and walked to the edge of the slope to go down, I got the grasp on just how steep it was. It was almost a straight down run. If I was human, there would be no way I could handle this thing. Luckily, I’m not, but it still didn’t change the fact that I felt a bit nervous. I put on my snowboard and got ready to hit the hill.

I stood there for a moment, staring at where Scruffy was standing, he looked like a dot. A handful of other skiers had gathered around him, I assumed curious to see who this maniac was that was about to do this idiotic act. I hopped off the ledge and away I went.

This was much different than the other slope Scruffy and I went down for sure. The speed picked up almost instantly and I was swishing from side to side down it trying to regulate my speed. In no time I found myself ripping around a few trees. Then by accident, because I didn’t see it coming, I shot off the top of one of the snow covered rocks. When I hit the ground I turned end over end for a second. Again, if I was a human, this would have spelled the end of this run for me. I would have surely tumbled all the way down the rest of the mountain, but I didn’t. I recovered nicely and got back to standing position. Just in time to hit another rock and launch off it.

This time I had full control and did a back-flip landing precisely on my feet and into a nice slash move. I purposely positioned myself to go in between some more trees and curved around a few of them at break-neck speed. When I reemerged into a straightaway clearing, I lowered down and leaned forward for more speed. I could see another, much larger rock, closing in on me fast. I braced myself and hit it perfectly. When I went airborne, I back-flipped three perfect times and landed without a hitch.

I was near the bottom now and there weren’t any more obstacles in my way. I leaned forward again to gain speed and aimed myself right at the awaiting Scruffy. I saw him, and the people around him, get nervous as they moved out of my way just slightly. When Scruff moved, I went towards him and before I got to him he stumbled backwards and fell on his butt. Like I did before, I turned right in front of him and fish-tailed a plume of snow that almost completely covered him. Yet again, he spit out snow and wiped it off of his face as he sat there buried in it.

The small crowd roared and clapped in approval at my accomplishment, even walking up to pat me on my back in congratulations. Scruffy just stared up at me with a sheepish grin the entire time. When the people left us, he got himself back to his feet and glared at me.

“Did I mention that I hate you?” He sneered playfully.

“You did…but I didn’t think you were sincere.” I teased back.

Again, he turned his back on me and started to walk away.

“What about my board?” I called to him.

“Shut-up!”

Like before, I had to wrestle my board off and jog to him in order to catch up.

“Hey…look on the bright side, maybe one day you can be a demon too.”

Scruffy paused for a moment and fired his head in my direction, looking at me like I was crazy. I could only laugh as he started walking towards the lift again.

“You know what’s a trip?” He asked.

“What?”

“The fact the no one ever notices that you’re the only one who doesn’t have breath steamrolling out of your mouth like everyone else does. It as if they don’t see it, or just don’t say anything about the fact that you don’t exhale.” He chuckled.

“That’s why Drift Demons have a field day convincing humans to do things against their better judgment…all the time. For some reason, the human mind, most of them anyway, seem to never pay attention to what is hidden in plain sight. When unbelievable facts present themselves right to your faces, most of the time it gets dismissed. You people only see what you want to see. For whatever reason, you find it more rational to dismiss things you don’t understand. It leaves you naïve to what is constantly lurking around you. That is how the spiritual world thrives and remains in your presence constantly.”

“Yeah, but, someone has to see something like you not exhaling in the freezing cold, especially when everybody else has a constant fog ripping out of their mouths.”

“Again, I’m sure someone notices, but they never question. Immediately they assume I’m human and must be breathing or it just isn’t showing somehow. I mean, even if they asked me I would lie about it to keep my cover of course. Sadly, most of you humans will accept that and move on and more than likely…forget. That is why something like me can thrive among you. What can I say?” I swatted his chest.

“You’re right. Sometimes seeing isn’t believing,” he added as the two of us plopped back on the lift.

“I do have an idea for you though.” He smiled.

“Ah-oh, what kind of an idea?” I glanced at him in suspicion. Anytime Scruffy has an idea, it seems to always be some sort of half-witted, not well thought out, venture. Once again, I was correct in my assumption.

“Hear me out. After seeing you on that ski-run, why don’t you use your talents to do something like that? Take up pro sports? It may be a little dishonest, granted, but it is a dog-eat-dog world out here. Don’t be the one wearing the milk bone underwear. You could kill it at sports like football, basketball,” he turned his head towards the double black diamond as if I was stupid for not thinking of this for myself, “…skiing. You could be a millionaire in no time man. Hell, you could play ping-pong and probably make millions.” He chuckled at me like I was an idiot.

I could only grin with surety at him.

“Scruff, you act like I’ve never thought of something like that before.”

“Well, okay, if you have, why haven’t you acted on it?”

“Besides the fact that it isn’t fair in anyway…a demon matching up against humans…physically.”

“Yeah?” Scruffy urged me on.

“You’re not thinking about the outside responsibilities of something like me doing something like that.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, not to mention that if I hit someone with full strength playing something like…football. I’d probably kill them. Then you’d have a field full of dead humans all over the place. I think that would create suspicion, bro.” I chuckled.

“Okay, so…you hold back so that doesn’t happen. Just enough to get an edge.”

I chuckled again.

“Remember what I just said about humans always overlooking what’s right in front of them?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, again, you’re overlooking the little things that humans must do in order to get into sports.”

“What?” He looked confused.

“I would have to take a physical, get blood work, stress tests for the body, and so on.”

“So?”

“So?” I exclaimed. “What do you think a doctor would do the first time he put a stethoscope up to my chest to hear a heartbeat and got nothing?”

I saw Scruffy’s face begin to shape in understanding of my logic.

“Or how about that fact that I don’t breathe. What about when a doctor went to prick a finger or shove a needle in me, besides the fact that I don’t bleed, the needles would break or bend every single time a doctor tried to stick me with one. I think all of those things would be a dead giveaway that I wasn’t like everyone else he or she had seen before. Ya know?”

“I didn’t think about that.” He came to terms with my facts.

“You humans never do. But that’s all right, now you know why you don’t see crazy athletes with mythical like abilities in human sports. Not only is it forbidden for us to do that through spiritual law, but because it would draw too much attention. We must remain in secret.” I winked at him.

“I see what you’re saying. Bummer, I was hoping I could have been your agent.” He huffed in laughter.

“I bet you were.” I laughed with him.

For the remainder of the day, we continued to hit the slopes and have fun. I turned it down a notch so that the two of us could snowboard together. When it was time to pack it in for the first day, we went back to our cabin for a couple of brews.

There was a serious conversation that I wanted to have with my brother about my soon-to-be arriving daughter. When we finally settled in on the couch next to the woodstove for some relaxation for the evening, I figured it was time to bring it up.

“I was thinking about the conversation we had before I went out to seek…War, also known as, Darryl.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, I am appreciative and very honored by the fact that you will be watching over those that I love so much if something was to happen to me. I can’t thank you enough…again, bro.”

“I told you man, no worries. I love Shade like a sister and I have no doubts that I will love my little niece just as much. It’s what brothers do. Not a problem.”

“I know. That is why there is one more piece to this puzzle that you can only fit into place. Something more that I must ask of you.”

Scruffy stared at me with concern. “What’s up man? Everything…okay?”

“Everything is fine.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“Oh, there isn’t a problem. Mark, I want you to be the Godfather to my child. I know there is no one else, other than Shade and I that would protect her with every part of their lives.”

Scruffy smiled at me with assurance and reached over and grabbed my knee.

“My brother, it is you now that honors me with a noble duty such as that. I will gladly accept that responsibility and I promise to watch over her with everything I have in me. Thank you for that.”

“Thank you.” I playfully slugged him on the shoulder.

“You know, Leo, I’ve been thinking about something.”

“And that is?”

“What Argento said about you not being able to kill Christian with the Demon Dagger.”

“What are your thoughts?”

“Well, he said the only way that he could be defeated is through love…right?”

“Yeah?”

“What if the angels meant that it has to be something else that has to kill Christian, maybe some kind of blessed item, you know, blessed in love, by someone who loves you or something. Maybe a human has to kill him…I don’t know. I’ve just been thinking about how I could help you in this matter. I don’t want to see Christian kill you man. That just can’t happen.” He sat up and stared at the floor between his knees as he double clutched his beer.

“I appreciate that and maybe you’re right in some way. I’m open to all ideas because I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure that little riddle out myself.”

“I just wish they would come out and tell you instead of teasing you with it.”

“Tell me about it. I’ve brought that up to them myself, but I know it’s something that I must figure out for myself…something that I do on my own. I get that now.”

“That may be the case, I just wish there was more I could do for you. I’m not afraid of that jerk.” He looked to me with some anger on his face.

I knew what he meant by that.

“Scruff, we’ve tackled this subject before. Christian isn’t your wooden fighting dummy. You, a human, cannot hurt him or do anything to stop him. If you want to help me, truly help me in my quest, stay as far away from him, or any evil being, as you can get. If you encounter him or anything else, run for your life. That is best thing you can do to help me. Like I once told Shade, I can’t fight him if I have to worry about protecting those I love at the same time. That would seal my fate without a doubt. I need to be of clear mind when the time comes to confront Christian. It must be that way. Understand?” I stared at him as sternly as I could.

Scruffy just turned his head back to the floor and nodded in acceptance. “I understand…it just sucks…that’s all.”

“I know it does, man. You must realize that since Christian can kill me, but a human like yourself can’t even make me flinch, what can you really do to stop Christian physically? Nothing man, nothing. Just hang back and protect yourself and the ones dear to you. That’s the best thing you can do in this situation.”