and place him god knows where. It has possessed the minds
of thousands of humans. It is set to destroy us because you
guys got tired of fighting it slowly? You gave it the chance
to possess a human being and now it can end the world. I
spent the first five years of my life feeling cold and hungry
and alone and all you can say is that Abraxas should have
let us die as babies?"
"Maybe I'll finish the job." He raised his hand
towards Marina.
" Kal!" Isabelle called out in her mind. " God Kal,
we're in so much trouble here. Veli has lost his mind! "
There was no answer from Kal. She needed to reach him
but she had never been able to join her mind completely to
his unless she was asleep. She had only moments. She
knew that. She closed her eyes and called out to him.
Please, she begged the universe as she had never begged
before, please, we need Kal.
Isabelle reached out her mind towards Kal's. She
didn't know if he could hear her, she didn't know what he
could do even if he did hear her. She wasn't sure if he could
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help but every instinct in her body called out for assistance.
He was her other half and they needed him. She could feel
her mind reaching for his, desperate for the connection that
they had when they were intimate, desperate for him to
answer her. He was drowsy and weak but she could feel
him hearing her.
She could feel him like a beacon in her mind and it
was becoming more and more aware as she called to him.
Kal please, hear me. Please Kal, hear me. Hear me.
Kal, Kal, Kal, she called.
I hear you, Isabelle, I hear you. I'm okay, I don't
know where I am or what happened but I'm okay.
Kal, we're going to find you. We're going to. But we
have a problem. A very serious problem.
What's happening?
Veli, he's threatening to kill Marina. He's not just
threatening. He's crazy. His eyes are red. I think he might
do it. We need you, we need you, Kal.
Isabelle, take my power. I can give it to you.
What?
I just know I can.
No, Kal.
Take it now. His mind called to hers weakly. Take
what I know I can give you.
A jolt of electricity filled Isabelle's body and she
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knew she was filling up with Kal's power. She had no time
to stop or to think of how such a thing was even possible.
Isabelle pushed her hand forward in the way that she had
seen Kal do several times, just as Veli pushed energy
through his hands towards Marina. The whole interchange,
she realized, had taken less than a few seconds to complete.
Without knowing how, Isabelle erected a force field to
block him. She could hear the chanting in her head and the
surge of electrical energy that flowed through her as it must
flow through Kal. She had no idea how long she could
continue to hold this blockage, it was exhausting and once
again she was overwhelmed by the sheer power that Kal
had to wield every time he was forced into action.
"How are you doing this?" Veli stared at Isabelle.
"You shouldn't have that power."
"Kal," Isabelle hissed with anger. "You know the
guy who is supposed to either be dead or evil. He gave his
power to me. Now stand down, Veli. Enough is enough."
Isabelle realized that she was talking to Veli as if he was
being a disobedient child but she had to trust her instincts
and they were telling her that Veli really didn't want to be
acting the way he was acting.
"How can you share powers? Such a thing is not
possible," Veli huffed.
"We were chosen, remember? We can do things that
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you can't do."
"Nonsense."
"Evidently, it is possible," Leonardo snapped. "Now
do what the lady says and stand down. We aren't going to
let you abandon Kal and we certainly aren't going to let you
kill Marina, or any of us for that matter. So stop acting like
a baby and put the power back inside wherever you store
it."
"You're the most worthless of them all, Leonardo.
All of these years, you had all of these years to find those
books and not once have you ever come close," Veli yelled.
"How long do you think the little girl can hold Kal's
shields? I'm a master, I'm not going to wear down but the
little girl there, who won't even use the name her parents
gave her but insists on calling herself Isabelle, she's going
to give out in a minute and then I'll finally be rid of the lot
of you."
"Let me ask you something, Veli," Leonardo hissed.
"When you were all messing with fate and deciding that
you were so powerful you could defy your leaders and trap
evil within your midst, did you hear the chanting voices?"
"What's your point, Leonardo?" Veli whirled
around. "You've always been so damn analytical. I don't
care what the voices think and feel; it's not up to them what
I do."
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"Can you hear them now?" Leonardo shouted again.
"Because I can hear them, loud and clear." Leonardo
stepped through Isabelle's boundary easily. He walked with
a grace she hadn't seen him possess earlier. "And I've had
enough." Leonardo placed his hands on Veli. The room
flashed white, a blinding white light that seemed to fill up
everywhere and everything. Isabelle couldn't see anything
and her ears began to ring.
Suddenly the room was filled with a sound so loud
and uncomfortable that Isabelle found herself dropping her
shields to cover her ears. Charma had fallen to her knees in
pain next to her but Isabelle could do nothing to assist her
because the noise was so all encompassing. After a moment
Isabelle realized that it was the sound of Veli screaming, a
loud wail the likes of which Isabelle had not known could
come from anything other than machinery. What was
Leonardo doing to him?
Stunned, she dropped the blockage completely and
rushed towards Leonardo, Marina and Charma close on her
heels. They all stopped suddenly, unclear about what was
happening, unclear about what to do next.
Disturbingly quiet, Veli and Leonardo fell to the
floor, panting.
"What did you do?" Marina shouted at Leonardo.
"What did you do to him, Leonardo?"
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"I took his power." Leonardo stood up.
"You took his power?" Marina questioned again,
staring at him, dumbstruck. "Since when could you do that?
Who is the one hiding power now?"
"I could always do it." Leonardo's tone was soft. "I
just didn't advertise it. I thought that it seemed like a good
idea to keep this one close to my chest for just this sort of
opportunity. I didn't want anyone knowing that I could do
it."
"We can't live very long without our powers,"
Charma whispered to Isabelle, looking sad but resigned.
"It's like living without a lung or without your heart. They
are just as essential to our central nervous system as
breathing and blood."
"Thank you, Leonardo," Veli spoke in gasps.
"What?" Leonardo look stunned. He had moved
away from Veli and had turned his back on him as if it was
just simply too much for him to even look at.
"That thing," Veli groaned again. "The Darkness, it
had infected me. I could feel it. It entered the room and
took Kal and then it was inside me, like it was the day we
brought it forth. I couldn't fight it, I couldn't win."
"Sshh." Charma fell to the floor, her compassionate
nature pulling her to his side. "Don't try to talk. Maybe
there's something we can still do to save you. I'm not a
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healer. Why can't we ever find a healer?"
"You were such powerful babies. Your power
dwarfed mine from the beginning. I rode you hard. I
thought you had to be hard and strong to defeat what was
coming to you. You have to go get Kal back. You are
meant to be all together. I had no idea you could even do
that, Leonardo. I don't think either of your parents could do
that. It's such a gift and you were smart to keep it to
yourself." Veli looked up at Isabelle and tried to sit up,
failed and lay back down on the floor. Marina was running
a comforting hand through his hair with unshed tears
threatening in her eyes.
"Tell Kal he was so much stronger than I ever was,
so much stronger than his father could have dreamed of
being. How did he give you his power?"
"I called to him and he answered me." Isabelle felt
slightly removed from the group. This man, who had once
been great and powerful, the right hand to their former
leader, was the closest thing any of them had ever had to a
father. She had been more fortunate, having been loved by
kind and gentle people. Veli hadn't been perfect, but he had
been around. Leonardo had just essentially had to kill his
father.
"Go get Kal back and then get the books. Send
Isabelle to Abraxas and get the books, Leonardo. You're in
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charge now, just as you always should have been. Keep Kal
close and protect Charma. He will always keep you all safe
and she'll keep you all sane. Marina," Veli turned towards
her. "Stop pretending that you're weak. You probably have
more power than all of them combined. Find the others.
You can beat this." He was starting to sound distant and
removed, fading from them. His eyes looked upward as if
he could see something they could not. "I can hear them
again, the voices. They're calling to me." Veli closed his
eyes and was gone. His body, no longer connected to this
earth, disappeared in front of them.
"He vanished." Marina looked around the room.
"He's gone."
"I didn't see any other way." Leonardo looked
withdrawn. Isabelle realized he was expecting them to
reject him.
"You saved us all, Leonardo. It took great courage
to do what you did." Isabelle patted him on the back.
Suddenly a terrifying thought occurred to her. "Is Kal
okay? He sent me his power. Is he dead?" Isabelle could
hardly get the words out as her throat seemed to closer
around her. It would be just like Kal to sacrifice himself for
all of them. She hadn't known he could die from it or she
would never have reached out to him.
Marina turned around, once again looking at the
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map on the ceiling that only she could make sense of. "No."
Marina shook her head. "He's alive. But I think we need to
get to him, and soon. Can you send his powers back to
him?"
"I don't know how he sent them to me so I don't
know how I can send them back." Isabelle was becoming
even more alarmed. Even if the power exchange hadn't
killed Kal, he was now perfectly defenseless to whatever
was holding him captive.
"Leonardo." Charma rose. "Do you have Veli's
powers now?"
"No." Leonardo shook his head. "My gift, dark as it
is, seems only to remove the powers, not absorb them,
unfortunately."
"Well then we're lucky you have Kal's powers,
Isabelle, because without them we could never rescue him.
We need Kal to rescue Kal." Charma gritted her teeth as
she spoke.
Isabelle took a deep breath. This was all relatively
new to her. She had her own powers to contend with and
now Kal's but she could fight her way through anything to
get Kal back to them. The rest she would figure out later.
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Chapter Seventeen
Kal awoke slowly to find that he was now tied by
the hands and hanging from the ceiling in what appeared to
be a very dark room of a house. From the noises above him
he had to assume he was in a basement. Maybe he was two
floors below because he felt as if the moon was very far
away from him—a sensation he only ever had if he was
deep underground. It smelled like mold and it was hot and
humid. He tried not to gag, reminding himself that he had
been in worse places than this. Not usually tied up, but that
was a problem that he at least felt capable of solving.
Maybe.
Vaguely he could remember rousing himself to the
sounds of Isabelle's pleas for help. He had sent her his
powers, something he hadn't known he was capable of
doing until he had done it and then it had been easy, as
everything seemed to be in regards to his lady love.
Evidently finding his soul mate had enhanced even powers
he had been unaware of. He hoped she had been able to use
them because he was feeling very vulnerable and he could
have used his powers to get himself down. As it was, his
arms were starting to hurt him. Damn, what he wouldn't do
for a Swiss army knife, he silently mused.
"He's awake."
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A whisper of a female voice filled the room. Kal
had never heard this voice before. It didn't sound menacing
but he didn't like it just the same.
I can see he's awake, A male voice answered.
Kal was fairly certain that the people who were
talking were not actually in the room with him but
watching him from somewhere else. He suspected that
video cameras and modern equipment had nothing to do
with it.
"Hello!" Kal shouted. He had considered speaking
to them
telepathically but ultimately he didn't want to tip
his hand that he could do that, better that they think he
could only hear them.
He heard us. How is that possible? The male voice
questioned. Tell Sebastian quickly. It must be part of his
evil abilities. That sounds so ridiculously cheesy. We need
a new phrase. No more evil abilities.
Shouldn't Sebastian know, since he's our fearless
leader? The female voice sounded very annoyed and
sarcastic. It seems to me we're always doing all the work
here. I dragged him through space to put him here. You
commanded him to sleep after he somehow woke up. What
is Sebastian doing anyway?
Why, Alexa, you sound downright pissed off. Are
you finally having second thoughts about this whole plan?
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The male voice questioned.
Kal had a feeling if he could just get these two to
answer him he might actually have a chance to get himself
out of there. He didn't know who Sebastian was but he
suspected he didn't want to find out.
I'm starting to think you might have been right all
along, Gabriel, the female voice answered sadly.
"I'm Kal Oberan and if you can hear me as I can
hear you then you must be one of us," Kal called out to the
empty room.
One of you? The female voice asked. We could
never be one you. There was utter disdain in her voice.
"Why do you say that like it's a bad thing? We are
the good guys, for lack of a better expression at the
moment. I'm sorry that it's me you have to talk to first. The
other members of my family are much better equipped to
make first introductions but seeing as you pulled me from
my home to bring me here I find I am in the unique
position to speak with you." He hoped his calm tone was
working because he had a feeling that if he didn't get one of
those two to let him down before whoever Sebastian was
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