Chapter 23: Control

  After breakfast, Erik, and Sophie left the hotel together to see the sights of Leicester. Honestly, it wasn’t much and most of their time was spent in a mall. Erik needed some additional clothes and with the UBAF covering the bill, he didn’t hesitate even a little.

  Sophie enjoyed helping him pick out some clothes, meaning she decided what he should buy. He felt alright wearing his current clothes for the rest of the day, so all the new stuff went into bags.

  At one point, Erik wanted something to drink, so he split up from Sophie to get a soda from a vending machine nearby. As he returned a minute later, he saw Sophie sharing heated words with another man about their age.

  He had a buzz-cut and wore a way too large hoodie, a bit like Jessie used to. His jeans were loose and dangled precariously low around his hips. The guy grinned at the shorter girl and moved closer to her, bringing his arms around her waist. She attempted to push him away, but he clearly overpowered her. She slapped him on the chest, but his thick hoodie stopped most of the force.

  “Come on, We’ve had a long break. I want you back now, babe,” the guy said, grabbing Sophie tighter and pulling her close. She turned her head as far away as she could from him, ending up in an unwilling hug with the man.

  “Stop! We’re done, you ass! You made sure of that when you dumped me for mourning my sister,” Sophie said, grossed out at the man’s actions and closeness.

  “No, babe, I just wanted to give you some space. Let’s go out tonight, I’ll show you how much I missed you.”

  “Please, you were just sick of not getting anything, so you swapped me out with a random skank. It’s a small city, jerk!” She finally managed to push the man away from her.

  As she did, Erik stepped between them, looking the taller man in the eyes. He wasn’t alone, as two guys had been standing around behind him, talking and looking at them. As Erik intervened, the two other guys took a step forward.

  “Excuse you, what do you want? I’m talking with my girl here,” he said, looking Erik up and down. Judging by the smug look on his face, he wasn’t impressed.

  “She isn’t interested. She told you to stop,” Erik said in what he hoped was a calm voice.

  “Just get away from me, Brad. And stay away,” Sophie interjected.

  “You and me gonna have a problem?” Brad asked, sticking his face closer to Erik in an attempt at scaring him. It didn’t work, much to Brad’s dismay.

  “Not so long as you leave Sophie alone.”

  “This your new guy, babe? Doesn’t look much. Guess you couldn’t get any better,” Brad laughed and so did his two friends. “Never seen you before. You don’t look like you’re from here. Maybe he’s just your cousin, right babe? Tell him to get out of my face and we’ll get out of here. He’ll find his way home.”

  “Please just leave, Brad!” Sophie shouted, her voice cracking up as a tear made its way from her left eye.

  Erik glanced at her, noticing the pain in her voice. He also noticed that they had gathered quite a few onlookers. He didn’t want to start a fight in public.

  “Leave. Now,” Erik said, not bothering to keep a calm demeanour anymore.

  Guys like this shouldn’t exist. He briefly considered how Sophie could have been this guy’s girlfriend. How much of a thing did she have for rotten boys?

  “No, I want her back. If you want to stop me, try it,” Brad said, pushing Erik with both hands against his chest. Surprisingly, Erik didn’t even budge.

  “Leave.”

  Brad shot back with a wide-eyed scream, bumping into one of his friends. The friend fell backwards onto the floor, but Brad endured. His legs faltered but squeaked by. He breathed in gasps, worrying his second friend, who looked back and forth between the new guy and his friend.

  Brad retreated backwards and eluded a stumble until he tripped on his fallen friend. He hit the ground a moment later. The second friend helped Brad up, then his other friend, and the three scurried off after that.

  Erik didn’t turn from them before they were well away and out of sight, then turned to see the surrounding people. Most were pretending nothing had happened, and the rest nodded their acknowledgement his way. Everyone had seen him not doing anything other than stand in their way. That was lucky.

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  He turned to Sophie, who stifled a sob behind him. He hugged her tight, one hand around her shoulder and on her back, the other on the back of her head, holding her close to him. Neither of them spoke for the next minute and soon after, no one watched them anymore.

  “Thank you,” she said into his chest with a torn voice.

  “Let’s get out of here, okay?” Erik asked and Sophie nodded her head up and down before he let her go.

  He saw her red and puffy eyes, and she had makeup smeared across her face, which Erik tried wiping away. He only made it worse.

  “I must look horrible. Give me a minute,” she said and headed towards the bathroom, wiping away tears on the way.

  Five minutes later, she returned from the bathroom, the makeup gone but her face still red.

  “I’m sorry, I can’t reapply it like this,” she apologised.

  “I don’t care. How are you feeling?” Erik asked.

  “Better. I’m sorry you had to see that. He didn’t use to be that gross.” She eyed the spot where the boys had vanished from.

  “I believe you. Can’t imagine you being with someone like him.”

  “He’s always been a jerk, but he was good to me. Until my sister died and he didn’t get the attention he needed,” she said, wiping away a new tear, looking mad.

  “You’re cute when you’re mad,” Erik commented, wiping another tear from her she hadn’t wiped away herself.

  “Stop,” she giggled, giving him a smile.

  “Let’s go back to the hotel, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  As the two returned to the hotel some forty minutes later, Sophie had cheered up. She’d told Erik more about Brad and how they broke up, but he already knew most of the situation. The rest of the way they small-talked, but outside their hotel, Sophie asked a question she had held on to for most of the walk.

  “Back there with Brad… Was that your aura thing?”

  “Yeah. It kind of lashed out of my control a little. But it was just a glimpse! I managed to keep it back for the most part. I didn’t intend for that to happen, but I’m glad it just seemed to affect him. It was better than hitting him in public, I suppose. Did you feel it?” he asked.

  He’d only seen Brad react when he felt his aura slip as he got increasingly upset. The moment it broke free from his control, it crashed into the man for a fraction of a second until Erik got it under control once more. The accidental aura attack didn’t target anyone, but Brad felt it because he was the closest.

  “No. He just looked a bit like Jessie did yesterday. Thank you for keeping it to a bare minimum,” she said, shaking her head.

  “I don’t understand why you’re thanking me for that. He assaulted you back there,” Erik said.

  Sophie looked down on the ground. “He shouldn’t have done that, but that doesn’t mean his life should be ruined. He isn’t acting like himself. I heard the girl he replaced me with has a drug habit. He’s also stupid enough to get pressured into drugs himself. I guess he has enough to deal with as it is without you scaring the hell out of him like you did with Jessie.”

  “If you say so. You’re too kind, you know that?” Erik asked, opening the outer door of the hotel for her.

  She entered before him, and they both walked towards the stairs. “Maybe. But if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have joined you today, so it works in your favour as well, right?” she said with a wink.

  “That’s true. I’m sorry about last night. I was exhausted, and I should’ve explained that to you.”

  Sophie stopped in the middle of the stairs, staring at him. A second or two later, she continued, walking past the halted Erik.

  “Jessie talked to you, didn’t she?” she asked with a rare frown visible to Erik as he caught up with her.

  “She… Yes, she did.”

  “That’s why you asked me out today, isn’t it? To make it up to me for last night?”

  “Not entirely, but it was part of it. I did say we could hang today yesterday, right?” Erik said, feeling honesty was the best move.

  The two reached their floor and turned to the right, entering the hallway leading to their rooms.

  “I can’t believe this,” she said, huffing as she increased her speed.

  “Sophie, let me—”

  “Not now. Please, let me be alone for a while,” she said. In a haste she reached the door to her room and slid the keycard into it. She lunged inside. Erik said nothing as she shut it behind her.

  The man returned to his room after wondering whether he should knock on her door. Letting her have her space seemed the better option.

  The pile of gems tugged at his being as he sat on his bed and turned on the TV. It only took a minute before his ringing phone interrupted him. Who even had that number? He’d taken the phone from his friend’s remains and had it charged at Bridgefort. He’d only given the number to Angela and Emma after they both demanded it.

  The privacy of the phone had only been protected by a ‘Slide up to unlock’ screen, which was terrible security for something as personal as a phone. He looked at the number making the call. It had a UB country code. It might be his friends, or it might be some family of his friend that had managed to escape. Either way, it must be important. He answered the call.

  “Hello?” he started the conversation.

  “Mr Fried, this is Major MacLeod, of the UBA-”

  “What do you want?” Erik asked with a bit of a rude voice due to the poor timing the call.

  “Sorry. There are a couple of hounds that got through our barricades at the shoreline. They’re wreaking havoc further inland,” MacLeod’s stressed voice said.

  “Where are they heading?” Erik asked. He was already up from the bed and headed out his door.

  “They’re headed in a straight line towards Cambridge as far as we can tell. Evacuation is under way, but it’ll be too slow. They should be there in about twenty minutes, given their current speed.”

  “What about Jessie, did you reach her?” Erik asked as he rushed down the hallway and stopped outside Sophie’s room.

  “She’s not in Leicester, but she gave me this number. I’ve got a chopper touching down on your roof in two minutes. You’re what we’ve got,” the major said.

  So Jessie somehow got his number? Must’ve been Angela that gave it to her.

  “I got it. I’ll head up right away. Talk later,” Erik said.

  “Thank—”

  Erik hung up the phone call. He was still outside Sophie’s door, wondering whether he should let her know. He knocked.

  “Sophie, there are Hellbeasts headed towards Cambridge. I’ll be back,” he blurted, and ran up the staircase towards the roof. The reason this hotel was chosen was because of its helicopter access on the roof. He was already sprinting up the stairs with incredible speed when Sophie opened the door in panic,

  “Wait—” she said, but no one was there. In her hands were Erik’s trusty bag with all his magical stuff.