Vaughn never got hit by the lightning.
When the strikes stopped, he stood there unharmed, smiling nervously, glass shards and glass craters surrounding him.
“He’s cheating! You can’t do that.” The King of Storms shouted at Lee.
“He’s controlling weather.” Lee said. “Get on with it or yield.”
Continue reading King of Storms: Part 12
“Let’s get on with it then,” Lee said.
Both Vaughn and the King of Storms turned to look at him.
“Neither of you is going to change their name so now it’s time to come up with another way to handle it. You’ll want to choose seconds and Vaughn, you get to choose the weapon if it’s a duel.”
“Duel?” Vaughn sounded incredulous.
Continue reading King of Storms: Part 11
Above us, the cloud became darker, extending across the dune toward Grand Lake.
“Relax,” Lee said. “We both know that if I were coming to kill you, I’d have already tried by now.”
“Why are you here?”
“I’m training them.” He waved vaguely in our direction.
Continue reading King of Storms: Part 10
The thing faded into the storm and disappeared. Between the darkness and the possibility that its body might have been nothing more than falling rain, I didn’t know whether it had teleported away or simply ceased to be.
Either way, the rain changed from a downpour to nothing in the space of ten seconds.
As the rain ended, the clouds thinned, letting the sun illuminate the puddles in the road and the mud across the street in the parking lot.
Continue reading King of Storms: Part 9
The noise didn’t let up for the entire period.
Whether it hailed, thundered, or rained, it never became anything that could exist comfortably in the background.
Meanwhile, I attempted to explain the situation between Lee and Isaac while simultaneously not explaining things. I couldn’t exactly tell her that the friend saying nasty things another friend was an FBI agent who acted as a handler for heroes in this region. I also couldn’t tell her that what bothered Isaac about Lee wasn’t interpersonal stuff as much as that Lee might be capable of plunging the world into an unholy reign of darkness and terror.
Continue reading King of Storms: Part 8
On the one hand, he’d said he didn’t think organized crime had infiltrated the Bureau. On the other, he’d just told me not to send him information via the government owned and installed communication systems that pretty much only the government had a reasonable chance of bugging.
Uh-huh.
I decided not to say anything, but he obviously wasn’t telling me the full story.
Continue reading King of Storms: Part 7
The point where the whole secret identity thing begins to get weird is when you start hearing about your exploits secondhand in real life.
I found myself stuck a couple people behind Sean Drucker and Jody on the way to class. Sean moved slowly on crutches. Jody carried his books. Apparently he’d had knee surgery almost immediately after our fight. I didn’t know the details. Anyway, with the hall as full as it was, it didn’t seem worth pushing past him. With my luck, I’d knock him over.
Continue reading King of Storms: Part 6
Russ brought his hands up to his eyes while Cassie dropped the cleaning liquid and mop, grabbing the sword’s hilt with both her hands and yanking it away.
Russ made grab for it as she stepped back, but stopped when she pointed the blade at him.
Eyes watering, he jumped sideways out of the building and into the parking lot, colliding with an old Chrysler Caravan that had been parked in a handicapped spot. He left a human sized dent behind and a shattered passenger side window.
Continue reading King of Storms: Part 5
I got up anyway, putting my hand in a puddle of ketchup as I pushed off.
He drew his right hand back and took a step forward. “Don’t you listen?”
“He’s got a learning disability,” Cassie said.
She stood in the aisle between the freezers and the end of the shelving unit, sword in her right hand.
Continue reading King of Storms: Part 4
“Here’s my idea,” Cassie whispered to Haley, “you find the hostages while Nick and I attack the guys in front. If you can free them, get them out. If you can’t, at least you’ll probably get a chance to surprise the guy watching them.”
Haley nodded, transforming her hands and feet to grayish claws with long, sharp nails.
I found myself a little curious if her teeth had transformed into fangs as well, but it didn’t seem like the time to ask. She seemed a little sensitive about that.
Continue reading King of Storms: Part 3