He cheerfully ignored the laws that governed the elemental

Ralph Connor- “The Major”

 

Abel, of the Stone House joined the Reprisal as a stepping stone to his future.

No pun intended.

Some people might have called his ambition crazy.  After all, signing on with an organization that’s mission statement was the destruction of the universe didn’t leave a lot of room for advancement.  In fact, it was the epitome of all dead end jobs.

Or it would have been if Abel actually intended for Chason and the rest of the Reprisal to succeed in their goals.  Oh, he completely endorsed some of their agenda:

Kill Parald and every other Air Phase:  Yep.

Topple the Water House:  Yep.

Get the Quintessence:  Yep.

End the world:   Um…. No.  Not so much.

Abel didn’t want to end the world.  If the world ended, Abel couldn’t rule it.

Chason might have led the Reprisal.  But, he was also an idiot, blinded by his own grief and rage.  He only focused on the past and getting vengeance for his damn Match.  He completely missed the elephant in the room with his preoccupation with using the Quintessence to destroy Parald.  It was like using an atom bomb to microwave your popcorn.

Whoever controlled the Quintessence became fucking GOD.  Not a god.  The God.  The world’s ultimate power.  The unmoved mover of the universe.

Whoever controlled the Quintessence wouldn’t need to worry about getting some half-ass, kamikaze revenge on every Phase who’d wronged him.  He could snap his fingers and have them all eaten by weasels from the inside out, if he wanted.  He wouldn’t have to worry about triggering the apocalypse if the Houses fell, because he’d be bigger than the Elementals.  He could wipe out the Council and never have to hear Job’s preaching again.  He could walk in every realm as its rightful master.

Abel wasn’t surprised that he was the only one smart enough to see the true potential of the Quintessence.  He was used to being surrounded by morons.  Truthfully, the Fall hadn’t done much but thin out their ranks, a bit.  Abel had lost his Match and both his parents in the Fall, but he didn’t sit around and constantly whine about it.  Not like the rest of the Phases.

Pansies.

Abel had joined the Reprisal because he’d known it was his ticket to greatness.  Enough Stone Phases survived that he would never be King of that House and the Council was a Good Ol’ Boys’ club of aristocratic ass-wipes.  After the Fall, the Reprisal had taken all comers, though.  Any Phase, from any House, who wanted to do their part in blowing up the world had a guaranteed place in their army.  It had seemed like the best way for Abel to make a name for himself.  And he hated the Air and Water Houses, so he was certainly qualified for the job.

But, the Reprisal’s endless crying and bitching was driving him nuts.  It was time to circulate the old resume and climb the ladder of success.  Abel had been just another, anonymous Phase all of his life, but now he had the potential to be so much more.  To be a galactic fucking force.

And no hairless chimpanzees were going to wreck it for him.

Abel found humans utterly repulsive.  They were an infection far worse than the Fall.  His first act when he became God would be to exterminate them all.  Well, first he’d probably have to execute Chason and the rest of the Reprisal.  Then, the Air House and the Water House would have to go.  And the Council would need to vanish.  Especially Job.  Then, the jarhead Wood Phases would mount some kind of attack and so would those Fire House psychos, because they hated to miss a fight.  So he’d have to kill them, too.  But, humans would absolutely be next.  His world would be so much better without their mortal dumb-assery.

They couldn’t even die properly.

Abel scowled down at the blood staining the cuff of his light grey trousers.  “Shit.”  He kicked the human body out of the way and leaned down to inspect the sartorial tragedy.  “Look at this.  These were hand tailored in London back in the ‘20s.  You can’t get that kind of craftsmanship anymore and now they’re ruined.”

The only aspect of human culture Abel could stand was their clothing.  In fact, after his ascension to divinity, he’d need to spare a few of the best human tailors and designers so that they could keep him in high fashion.

He flashed the dead body another glower as he wiped at the rapidly setting blood stain.  “You’re lucky that I already killed you.”

Two other members of the Reprisal were with him.  Men Abel trusted to be just as focused on the big picture as he was.  Fabian and Lansing weren’t the brightest crayons in the box, but at least they didn’t get all whinge-y every time things got rough.  Half of Chason’s pussy-whipped army would faint if they saw him butcher a human.  Why, was a total mystery to Abel.  It would be like mourning the rats after the cats got finished cleaning out the barn.

Fabian was a Magnet Phase, the deep purple at his temple off set by the black of his hair.  “Well, at least we know they were here.”  He looked around the serology lab.  “What do you think Nia was looking for in a place like this?”

Abel had no clue, but he wasn’t planning on sharing that news with his underlings.  Aside from clothes shopping every few decades, Abel tried not to associate with human culture.  Mayport Beach General Hospital may as well have been on Mars for all he understood about it.  “They were looking for the Quintessence.”  He said, as if that was the answer to everything.  “The Air House tracked Tritone here.  We tracked the Air House.  Don’t ask stupid questions.”

Lansing titled his head to one side, apparently not appeased by that answer.  He was a Dust Phase, the streak at his temple a tarnished bronze.  “Yeah, but where is the Air House?  If they’d got Ty we would have heard about it and…”

Abel cut him off.  “Just shut-up and keep searching.” He busied himself sorting through some manila folders and wished like hell he could read human.  “And hurry.  I don’t feel like killing anyone else who wanders in here.  It could screw up my shirt next time.”

The three of them had been examining the lab for ten minutes, trying to figure out where the Water House had gone next in their quest for the Quintessence.  So far they’d come up with zilch.  Although, two of those minutes had been devoted to decapitating the human lab tech who came stumbling in on them.  Abel should have just broken its neck or something, but he’d forgotten how fragile the creatures were.  He’d wasted time in lopping the bastard’s head off.

“Um, I think I just did something.”  Fabian said, suddenly.  “It was an accident.”

“You moron.”  Abel stalked over to investigate the damage.  “What did you do?  If you lost our chance to find the Quintessence, I swear…”

“No.” Fabian interrupted.  “At least, I don’t think I did.  But, I touched the computer and it went dead.”  He made a cringing “oops” sort of face.  “Sorry.  I wasn’t thinking.”

Abel squeezed his eyes shut.  Fucking Magnet Phases and their fucking energy.  “You erased the computer?”  He ground out.  Not that Abel had any idea how to use the thing anyway, but in principle he could’ve.  It may have been vital to the mission.  Why was everyone else so fucking stupid?  “What if Nia left some clue as to where they were going next on there?  What if it was the next step to finding the Quintessence?”

“Why would Nia do something like that?”  Lansing demanded.  “She’s not a moron.”

Abel shot him a glare.  Once he became God, both of these idiots were on his hit list.  Banished from the garden of his universe.  “Just keep looking.”  He ground out.  He headed for the office in the back of the lab, wanting to escape their death spiral of ignorance.

The minute he passed the threshold of the office, he felt something.  The echoes of power.  A lot of power.  Had Job been here?  Had he discovered Nia’s plan and come to drag her back home?

Abel noticed that Job paid a lot of special attention to Nia.  Really, Abel had always sort of wondered if Job wasn’t planning to secure himself another kingdom by trying to Phaze with her.  Ty may have been the queen, but everyone knew that Nia was the real boss of the Water House.  This whole Quintessence scavenger hunt had Nia’s brazen fingerprints all over it.  Maybe Job thought he could convince Nia to give him a shot in the sack and see if they were a Match.

Or, maybe, Job was just a condescending, meddling old fart.  Because, honestly, every time Abel tried to picture their Phazing attempt, his mind came up with a bed, some porn style lighting and two Phases staring at each other in awkward silence.  Nia seemed like she’d be an incredible lay, all those red curls and that soft flesh.  That audacious spark of challenge that begged for a man to bend her over and show her her place.  But, Job?  Nope.  It was like imagining an android having sex.

Still, someone had used a huge amount of energy in the office.  Abel leaned back into the main office and called for Lansing.  Dust Phases could sometimes read all the invisible little specks floating in a space and tell you about things that happened there.  It was a handy talent to have.  Abel much preferred his own abilities as a Stone Phase, though.  The power to solidify anything just rocked sometimes.

No pun intended.

“What happened in here?”  Abel demanded as Lansing stepped into the office.  “Can you tell?”

“Someone used a shit load of power.”  Lansing summarized, instantly.  “Gion?  I mean that would make sense if the Air House was here.  He or Job would be my first guess.  Then, maybe Teja or Yuan.”

Abel held his temper with such a supreme effort of will that he might as well have already been God.  “I don’t care about your guessing I want to know what you see.”

Lansing rolled his eyes and took another look around the office, his power fanning out in a smooth blanket of energy.  “Darkness.  Blood.  A Woman.”  He tilted his head.  “Nia.”

“Nia and blood?  She’s dead?”  Well, damn.  Abel hadn’t realized how much his little Nia porno imagery entertained him until now.  If she’d only waited to die until after he was God that curvy little body would have been at his beck and call.  God could take any woman he wanted, after all.  And everyone knew that the Water House bred some of choicest, plumpest ass in the Elemental realm.  Abel’s own Match had been a stick figure.  Plus, Nia was his best lead on the Quintessence.  Her death was a setback no matter how you looked at it.

His disappointment didn’t last long, as Lansing shook his head.  “She’s alive.  The Air Phases are dead, though.”

“Good.”  Fabian muttered.  “How’d the Water House beat them?  Did Uriel…?”

“Shadows.”  Lansing cut in.  “That’s the power we’re feeling.  I haven’t felt it in so long that…”

Abel was the one to interrupt this time.  “Shadows?  You mean Cross?  He’s insane.  The weight of the House drove him nuts.  Everyone knows that.”

“He was here and he’s with Nia.”  Lansing inhaled deeply as if he was smelling the room.  “Holy Gaia.”  His tone went from surprise to shock.  “Do you feel that?”

Abel’s brows rose and Fabian’s gaze cut around the perimeter of the room.  “Feel what?”  They chorused.

“The energy.  Fuck.  He’s Nia’s Match.  He started Phazing with her.”  Lansing’s eyes drifted over to the desk.  “Right there.”

Abel frowned, slightly.  He could visualize Nia spread out on that desk, but with a lunatic like Cross?  That was even worse than Job.  Cross was feral.  Little more than an animal or even a human.  At this rate, she’d be grateful to personally worship Abel when he became God.

Fabian’s breathing got deeper.  He stared at the desk as if he was picturing Nia perched on it, too, and liked what he saw.  “That crazy bastard gets a Match like her?  When so many Phases have nothing, why should he have a woman?  Especially a woman like that?”  His arousal quickly switched to anger.  “I have no Match.  I’ll probably never have a Match, since there are so few of us left.  And Cross gets to Phaze with Nia?”

“She’s from the Water House.”  Lansing shrugged.  “Odds are, she’ll renounce him, anyway.”

A beeping noise sounded from the corner of the room.

Abel shoved past the other two and went to investigate.  A small, human, radio-ish devise was sitting on a desk.  He picked it up, trying to figure out what the hell it was and why it was chirping like that.

“It’s a fancy walkie-talkie.”  Lansing explained, coming up behind him and seeing his confusion.  “You think Nia and the others left it here?  Maybe we can use it to track them.”

“Maybe.”  Abel agreed, softly.  Then, because the ends really did justify the means, he lowered himself to ask, “What does it do?”