by Abby James
I rolled to my back and looked up at the tower of cars I’d just slid off. Around me were similar snow covered towers colored by graffiti on the side paneling and doors, a wrecker’s yard. Great place to hide if you weren’t tramping through snow.
Getting to my feet was an act of courage, forcing myself into another limp jog was an act of endurance. My legs were working, so neither them or my hips were broken, but geez the pain was such that I swore only my adrenaline kept me upright.
I’d not long got to my feet when I heard shouts behind me. I scooted behind a car tower, then peeked out from the bumper to see two guys making their way down this side of the roof. Of course they would not have been fooled by my stupid plan.
I pressed myself against the bumper and wanted to cry. There was no point in running, not in the undisturbed snow. I bit my bottom lip to stop feeling sorry for myself and to harden my concentration. Scullion wanted to make me hard so I could survive. Well he was succeeding all right. Asshole wanker. The supe world sucked, but I could do nothing but find myself a place and play along, become better, since everyone seemed to want a piece of my ass.
I pushed off the bumper and, bent double, jogged to the next car tower, running a circle around the base before I headed for the next. At the second, I took the time to slow and listen for what the two guys were doing. I had a quick peek around the side of the tower to see the two were on the roof still, discussing their way down, so I darted off for the next tower, scuffing up the snow as best I could. After that I darted to another, then headed back the way I’d come. Every instinct in me screamed for me to keep running, but I ached all over, no way could I keep up any sort of pace and with the snow… It was best I faced them and fought. I crouched behind a car and stared back at my handy work. It looked as though a horde of children had played chase around the car towers, which should hopefully confuse my pursuers enough for me to launch a surprise attack.
Heavy thuds told me the two had made it to the ground. One swore, hopefully that meant he’d twisted his ankle.
I took big breaths and clenched my hands to steady my nerves and listened for their approach. First they ran, then when they spied the churned snow they slowed.
“There’s no prints anywhere else by the looks of things.”
“Spread out. She’s got to be here somewhere.”
I pressed into the cold metal paneling of the car, breath held as one of the guy’s footfalls came my way. The snow did a good job of muffling the noise of their feet, but this close I could hear his breathing. My legs were like coils ready to unleash. The first sign of him around the side of the car and I would spring. Time turned to slow motion, except my heartbeat, which leaped to triple speed.
His arm came into view first, and with that sighting I launched from my hiding spot. The guy wasn’t much taller than me and so my attack sent us both onto the snow, both of us landing on our sides, me partially on top of him. I stared into his widened eyes as I sucked the power out of him.
“Here, here, Simon,” he bellowed as he fought to throw me off.
I wasn’t a heavy weight, so he had no problem, but all I needed was one point of contact, which I kept by digging my nails into his jacket and holding on like my life depended on it, which it did.
The energy flared up inside of me, both the burn of the mark and what I took in. This was a new power, moderately strong, and as cold as the snow we lay on. The burn from the mark on my thigh spread across my leg and ignited with the energy I’d stolen.
The guy had nearly succeeded in dislodging me, behind me the pounding of the other guy fast approached. I gritted my teeth and yelled, yelled so hard my throat hurt in seconds. The noise would draw the other guy’s attention, but instinct made me do it, use it as a way to expel the energy, whatever that would be.
The ground below us vibrated, the car tower beside us wobbled. The vibration turned to a violent tremor, forcing the car towers around us to topple. The air was filled with the noise of creaking, groaning and then the metallic crunch of cars tumbling to the ground. I looked over my shoulder in time to see a crushed car that had already hit the ground roll toward us as it tipped to its roof.
I let go of the guy and scrambled away as fast as I could. Behind, the car finished its roll on its roof. Shocked, I stayed on my ass as around me cars groaned and creaked as they rocked in their new positions; a dominos of cars sent tumbling.
Losing my contact with the guy meant I lost his ability, but as I looked around I heard neither of them moving. Shit. Oh my god, but I couldn’t stop. Scullion and everyone else would be heading this way.
I closed my eyes as my mind screamed for me to run. It would mean leaving these two. Maybe there was nothing I could do. And taking the time to check on them would place me at the mercy of Scullion.
I hated myself for leaving them, but I needed to think of myself. Scullion would spare no thought for any of the people he lost. They were his collateral damage, as Rosta so eloquently described it. I’d be collateral damage too if I wasn’t so precious to his plans.
I ran, ignoring the pain now radiating through every inch of my body, I ran. I would’ve gone faster but this was all I had in me. I felt wrecked inside, the devastation I was leaving behind. The men in the temple and now these two. But it would not stop, Scullion and McManus would not stop. And I would not be their experiment, their weapon.
A guy appeared in front of me, next another skidded into view behind him. Shit. I veered right, weaving around the dead car bodies no longer stacked in towers. He had to have been an earth elemental for me to create a tremor like that.
More shouts took up the hunt. I burst out of the wrecker’s yard and into the street. Like the doomed escapee I was, I ran down the paving with a bunch of guys on my heels, gaining because they were fresh and I was wounded. I couldn’t think quick enough. There was no plan adequate, nothing a girl with no ability of her own could muster that would get me out of this mess.
I was running, next minute I was flying backward, propelled by an energetic punch to the chest, a punch so great it felt like my ribcage had collapsed. I landed on my back and skidded along the snow within feet of Scullion’s men.
It had not been there before, but now I saw a shimmering wave of light, tinged a faint green, rising like an opaque wall in front of me. My eyes followed the ripple up into the sky, over and behind. It stretched out over the buildings enclosing all within an energetic dome.
That was why there were no cars, no people, why the area had felt deathly quiet and isolated. It was protected by an invisible dome, a cage to keep me in.
“That was fun.”
I swiveled on my ass as Scullion stepped through his men.
“Some light exercise to keep us warm.” He grasped his hands behind his back. “I was impressed with your display. Your tenacity is commendable. But this little stunt has cost me time and time is precious to me.”
I looked over my shoulder at the dome. Energy, that’s what it comprised of, and energy was my weapon. Ten feet, no more, that’s how many strides it would take me to reach the dome. What I did once I got there, I had no idea, but once I touched it I had myself a source of energy to play with.
“Get your ass out of the snow. You won’t be much good to me if you have pneumonia.”
If there was a telekinetic amongst them, he’d catch me before I made that distance. But this was my only option. He’d be smarter next time. There would be no easy escape. I had to do this, run as fast as I could or face life as a dog to Scullion and McManus.
“I want to be nice, but your stubbornness leaves me no choice.”
I was off. My sudden speed, Scullions belief in his superiority, everyone’s disbelieve in my stupidity, whatever, no one attacked. Maybe they were all smirking while they watched me run for the dome. I just ran. I ran and ran, until I felt the static of the energy reach out for me. I stretched my arms out and braced for the impact. Stay open, stay open.
The onslaught of the energy seared up my a
rms and throughout my body in a nano second, detonating the mark to life in a fiery stab of agony. I cried out as I swallowed the pain and burned in the flow of energy, but the burn was a cleansing fire, making me feel alive and powerful. Sublimely good, I wanted to stay lost in the feeling forever, but something impacted with the energetic dome, something immense and powerful. It rushed over the surface of the dome like a tsunami, then rushed into me. I knew this. I knew what I was feeling, but before I could name the energy my world exploded. I felt fragmented as the dome was blown apart, the resultant energy radiating outward, sweeping across the ground. My vision filled with white as the energetic blast sent eddies of snow into the air. I closed my eyes falling into the power of my pain.
The cold seeped through onto my back as someone brushed the snow from my face, then rested a hand on my cheek. My eyes fluttered open at the soft touch. I looked up into Luca’s wild eyes, a tumbling mixture of two colors, one to denote his fury, one to denote his concern.
“About time.” I moaned.
25
Bailey hovered, giving me the final once over and then hovered some more like he expected me to deteriorate if he did not stand by my bedside on a twenty-four hour bases.
McGilus spent a good portion of the morning with me, asking questions I answered for the most part. I didn’t tell him about the men in the wrecker’s yard, I couldn’t do it, couldn’t even admit it to myself. The other secret that blocked my throat was the mark, how it flared to life when I took in energy and how it was able to move through my body freely. If I held on to the darkness the mark provided for long enough I was sure it would make its way to my heart, take the reins on my decisions, turn me into the darkness that was at the center of its essence.
“I’m fine, Bailey. You’ve worked a miracle once again.”
“You still look pale. I think it’s best if you stayed in medic until at least this afternoon. We can keep an eye on you better in here.”
Both he and the other medic on duty late yesterday afternoon puzzled at my symptoms. According to them my body was suffering from shock, but not the normal sort of shock. My body was responding to a massive overload. Bailey had likened it to short-circuiting an electrical system on a major scale, like country grid major, which made him scratch his head. Neither myself or McGilus had been straight with either medic. They weren’t supposed to know that that was exactly what had happened to me. No one was supposed to survive having a mini nuclear bomb detonate inside of them. But I was a channeling, an energy sucker, so my internal system was wired differently. I survived these shocks when most would be crispy bacon on the ground. But I was still not strong enough to weather that sort of energy intake. If Luca had not turned up and destroyed the dome, I probably would be crispy bacon because my body would’ve sucked and sucked until it did short-circuit itself, or worse, fry me from the inside.
“Sorry, Bailey, but I’ve been given the all clear by your superior.”
“She wants to kick you out so she can have the bed, that’s all, but I think the patient’s health should be central to the decision process.”
I was the only one in medic.
“Nice try. How about I promise I will stop by tomorrow for a checkup?”
My words dried in my mouth when I spied Luca heading my way. Bailey looked over his shoulder, “Oh I see, and this is the reason for your need to get out of medic?”
“Hey…what?…no.” Luca was too distracting.
“I guess I will leave you to talk.”
I didn’t hear Bailey go.
Luca slid himself down into the visitor’s seat beside my bed, the one McGilus had vacated half an hour ago. “You’re alive. Good to see.”
“Thanks to you.”
“I didn’t realize you were connected to the dome’s energy. I wouldn’t have taken the risk.”
“If you hadn’t I would still be stuck there.”
“That was too much, Samara. The energy of the dome and my energy as well. It’s any wonder you aren’t ash.”
And why wasn’t I? Yes, I was a channeling, my gift was to take in supe abilities to manipulate, and supe abilities were all about energy. But, as McGilus and Luca kept reminding me, I was not experienced enough at the moment to be able to manage such massive doses of energy influx. But I had. Sure I was in a pitiable state when Luca returned me to medic, and likely survived because the healers had begun work on me straight away, but I was handling more energy than either McGilus and Luca thought I could.
McGilus said the dome was created and maintained with an immense power source as its base. He believed Scullion had pooled resources with many of his caster followers to form the dome. Few could’ve managed such a feat alone. Then Luca had infused his own power along with that of the dome when he destroyed it. The sudden injection should have been catastrophic to me.
And now he thought I was more powerful than I was. My ability wasn’t as strong as he thought because it had not been my ability alone that absorbed the energy. If not for the mark sucking up a big portion of the influx that entered me, I wouldn’t be sitting here having this conversation. As much as I feared it, hated it, I was alive because of the mark.
“How is Merlin?” I asked, wanting to change the subject because Luca’s face had darkened and the amber in his eyes receded making way for the crimson.
Ms Lane’s little pet was exposed thanks to his desperate bid to alert someone to my kidnapping. He’d risked been exiled back into the fae realm to save me. Lucky he’d turned to the one person with a heart as caring as Ms Lane’s, McGilus.
“Banished to Ms Lane’s room. If he’s seen by any of faculty McGilus will have no choice but to send him back.”
Which meant the little pain in the ass was bound to show up here anytime to see how I was doing.
“What is McGilus going to do about Emrol?”
“There is not a lot he can do?”
“But the fae are involved. He can kick them out of Darkwells.”
“He may be Dean, but his decisions are not final. Many don’t believe your account or say this fae was acting on his own. Truth is they don’t want to believe it. They do not want to anger the queen. We all live on fragile ice. It wouldn’t take much to create cracks. Faculty are afraid of causing a split with the queen.”
“Keep your enemies close.”
“Exactly.”
“But she knows where my father and Scullion are.”
“Unlikely. They wouldn’t risk exposing themselves like that. The queen will do whatever benefits her people and if that means betraying one side for the other, she would do that in a blink. Scullion and McManus know that. Your location was a temporary one and so they risked little bringing the fae there.”
In the quiet between us, the weight of what had happened in the wrecker’s yard reared within my mind. I wanted to push it away, leave the memory behind, but I couldn’t.
“I think two men died chasing me.”
Luca sat forward, placing his elbows on the armrests of the chair.
“It was because of something I had done. I didn’t stop to see if they were all right. I was too scared of being caught. I didn’t want to be—“
“It’s all right, Samara. You don’t have to excuse yourself.”
“Collateral damage,” I said absently.
Luca slowly shook his head.
“It is, when you think about it.”
“I know what your choices would be. They would not be to hurt anyone. But would you give up your own life to spare’s someone’s?”
“That is too hard to answer.”
“Because the truth is you would say no.”
Our shared look was too intense for me to maintain. He was right, and it saddened me to believe it.
Luca stretched up and dug into his jean’s pocket, pulling out what looked like the ugly lump of rock he’d given me for Christmas. In his hand it glowed a vibrant green. No longer the ugly rock, it was mesmeric sitting in Luca’s palm activated by his ability.
/> “I should’ve explained the use of this when I gave it to you.”
“It registers energy?”
“It’s a very rare form of crystal known for its conductive properties.”
“Crystal? Never would’ve guessed that.”
“Not the prettiest of crystals but the most useful for someone like you. It doesn’t just conduct energy, it harnesses it as well. I’ve enhanced its harnessing capability to increase its capacity, but I think you will find it enough.”
“What am I supposed to do with it?”
“Store energy.”
“Take people’s ability and house it in a rock?”
“It’s temporary. The energy will dissipate over time, the speed dependent on the strength of the ability. But it means you won’t have to rely on a connection with anyone to be able to protect yourself.” The left corner of his mouth drew up at the edges, a half smile of sorts. “Although, I would say you seem pretty capable of defending yourself without any help in storage. It just means you have backup if you find you need it. Here, take it.”
He rolled it into my palm. The residual warmth from his hand remained in the crystal. Beyond that I felt the pulse of Luca’s energy buried within the core. Luca placed his hand over mine and all of me flared awake. Vitality seeped through every space within. “Touch it when you need it, otherwise you will drain anything stored until such time as you learn to shut the gate on your own ability.”
He took the crystal from me and placed it on the trolley close to my bed.
“That’s really thoughtful of you.”
“It would’ve come in handy this past twenty-four hours. I should’ve told you before I left. Your father and Scullion will not stop until they have you. They’ve nothing to lose and everything to gain if they succeed. They are banking on us keeping your ability a secret from the council, which of course we must if you don’t want to become an experiment, locked away because everyone is frightened of what you are capable of.”
