“Play time,” the drenched giant beamed, edging past me while he flexed his right hand causing the knuckles to crack in a rapid staccato. Both of them had to have been freezing since they were wet.
Marsala placed his open palm in the center of the door. I wondered what he was going to do for a fraction of a second, then his ample hand began to close, fingers digging into the metal as if it were made of nothing stronger than tinfoil. The door folded in off the hinges with a crunching groan like an empty beer can. He tossed the mangled metal behind us, then stepped aside. With a half bow he gestured us to go on in. Tanaka took off running up the stairs.
“Thank you kind sir,” I said, laughing as I rushed past Marsala.
I’m definitely glad he’s on our side.
Running up the stairs was easy. I’ve never felt so alive before. The adrenaline was pushing me on giving me an unlimited amount of energy. So much energy in fact, that I was ahead of Tanaka after the first flight of stairs. My old body was never like this. My new body worked like a well-oiled machine. So, this is what it’s like to live with a healthy body that’s been kept in shape. I like it!
There were two flights of stairs for each floor. As I turned the corner after the seventh flight of stairs, the door to the fourth floor came into view. I bounded up the last flight of stairs towards the door on the fourth-floor landing. This is so easy.
Just before I cleared the last step the doors burst open, followed by a column of fire. I ducked back down the stairs by reflex, running into Tanaka.
“Use your shields to protect you from the fire!” he yelled at me as he pushed me back towards the doors that closed when the fire stopped.
I took three steps towards the doors. Suddenly, they exploded off their hinges into the stairwell.
A charred body had been slammed into them by another column of fire. The fire continued to pour through the doorway pushing the body to the other side of the stairwell before subsiding. The corpse was smoking, filling the stairwell with a sickening smell; burnt hair, singed clothes, and the stench of cooking flesh filled the air like a summer barbeque gone horribly wrong. Burnt remains of a police uniform covered part of the body. I felt like I was going to be sick.
I forced myself to focus, ignoring the corpse, imagining the aura of the psionic shields around me deflecting the fire. The smell disappeared. Are my shields keeping out the smell? That’s convenient.
I was able to focus better now. I cleared the top step and flattened myself against the wall in order to peer around through the hole where the doors used to be. As I slowly stuck my head around the corner, another wall of fire was approaching. By reflex I leaned back away from the fire as it spilt through into the stairwell. The flames next to me were warm, but not hot.
Concentrating on my shields, I lifted my hand and hesitated before slowly placing it in the wall of fire. It didn’t burn, in fact it barely felt warm. I stared at my hand in the fire expecting it to combust at any moment. But nothing happened, my hand wasn’t burning.
Again the wall of fire stopped. Slowly I peered around the corner at the two hallways. Down the hall to the left, there was a single man. He stood there untouched while everything around him burned. He was turned away from me. It appeared he was listening to someone at the other end of the hall I couldn’t see.
“Sniper in position, need to clear the flames for firing solution,” a voice I’d never heard before suddenly declared in my earphones.
“Kieran, you’re the safest against fire. Go see what you can do about putting out those flames,” Tanaka ordered. He can really be pushy at times.
I stepped into the hallway intersection. To the left was our target surrounded by fire. To the right was . . . a fire extinguisher. It was halfway down the hall, but it was a fire extinguisher. It could take care of the fire by the windows. But how do I get close enough to use it?
“What do you see?” Tanaka asked from behind me.
“There’s a fire extinguisher halfway down the right hallway,” I whispered to him as I was starting to edge my way towards it.
“Use your shields to get it. We can’t risk drawing his attention. Just like the juice earlier, use your shields to bring the fire extinguisher to you. Hurry!” He was even more pushy now, especially for a trainer. He was starting to get on my nerves. I was supposed to be the leader, after all. Well, eventually anyway.
Just like the juice earlier, sure. But I dropped the juice, or did he forget about that?
The man was still not paying attention to us, yet. I sighed to myself. A glass wouldn’t work, so I imagined a hand, a hand grabbing the fire extinguisher from the wall. Somehow inside I knew it was working. Then the fire extinguisher started to shake. It broke away from the wall and came hurling towards me. Concentrate! I’ve got to concentrate! The fire extinguisher came to a stop and hovered just inches from my head. It worked!
“Good, now here is what I want you to do. Use your powers, move the fire extinguisher up next to the target, then rip it open. The spray should put out some of the fire, so the sniper can get a clean shot,” Tanaka spouted orders to me as he crouched in the doorway with his gun drawn, pointing right at the pyro’s back.
“Wait a minute. We’re behind him with a clear shot. Why in the hell don’t we just shoot him?” I asked through clenched teeth forcing myself not to yell.
“Because WE have our orders. Now do what I told you!”
Now he did it. I’m officially ticked off at him.
Following my “orders”, I focused on moving the fire extinguisher up next to the target, Brian Thompson. Everything was going fine. Then for some reason he decided to turn around. The fire extinguisher was floating three feet from him, and he was staring right at it.
So much for the element of surprise.
I focused on the shield-hand, digging its fingers into the fire extinguisher, ripping it open in a cloud of white. The flames around Brian died down some. I hoped it was enough. Now he was staring right at me.
“You really think that will stop me?” he asked, surprisingly calm for a mass-murderer.
He raised his hands towards me. Deep inside, I knew what was coming. The fire flowed and expanded from his hands, instantly filling the hallway. The wall of fire was on me in a second. Again, I ducked down covering my head by reflex expecting the worst.
The fire never touched me. I forced myself to look up. The fire was being deflected away, a few feet from my body. In my glasses rearview I saw Tanaka and Marsala crouched in the stairwell, waiting for something.
Why aren’t they helping?
The voice was in my earphones again. “Sniper is unable to take down the target. He’s generating too much heat. The damn bullets are vaporizing in midair before they hit him. Someone take this guy out!”
This is bullshit! We had a perfect chance to take him down from behind and no one would take it. Now we’re pinned down without a chance!
I’d finally had enough, now I was totally pissed off! If they weren’t going to help, I’d take care of it myself.
To hell with Tanaka’s orders!
Dammit, if I’m going to be the fucking leader, there’s no better time to start!
I stood up, my shields expanding as I did.
This is going to end now!
I began to walk down the hall into the flames. The wall of fire parted away from me as I walked. It wasn’t even warm anymore. I felt perfectly calm and in control despite my growing anger. I somehow knew that the fight was over, and I’d already won. I kept walking until I could see the tips of Brian’s fingers through the flames.
Now I end this.
The body reacted without my mind telling it exactly what to do. I could feel my shields folding out from my body to envelop the pest. Instantly I had Brian inside a bubble created by my shields. The fire curved back around him, contained inside my shields. Nothing was getting out.
“What the hell is this! You fucking bitch, what’d you do to me!” he cursed at me. He continued to try to pu
sh with his fire at the bubble my shields had made. I wasn’t letting him go.
“You can’t hurt me. I am a GOD!!!” Brian declared throwing his arms out above his head as if to call down a wrath from the heavens.
“Alpha team here,” my earphones buzzed again with a sultry female voice this time. “We’re in room 415. The place is torched. No one got out in time. So far we have thirty-four confirmed casualties, no survivors.”
This guy had burned his parents, and his classmates alive. He killed them all. I had never felt so angry, such rage, like a great beast had been awakened inside me.
Why?! Why kill so many innocents? This scum doesn’t deserve to just die. He needs to suffer. He has to pay.
“Don’t give in to the anger. You can control this. You have a job to do.” Marsala’s booming voice over the comm system was surprisingly soft, like the police would talk to a jumper.
I was shaking. Almost angry enough to lose control. Almost.
“Marsala, we’re to stop this guy by any means necessary correct?” I asked through my clenched jaw as I fought with my growing anger.
“Yes. Summary Execution has been approved if containment is impossible. What are you planning to do?” His voice was still soft with a growing hint of worry.
“My job!!!” I spat the words out.
I raised my hands fingers spread. Through them I could feel my shields still flowing around me and this murderer.
He has to be stopped, and I can stop him. Permanently!
I slowly brought my hands together. The closer my hands got, the smaller the shield-bubble became. I was slowly shrinking the shield that surrounded him. When the bubble had collapsed enough that he had to crouch, the fear finally showed in his face.
“Wait! You can’t do this!” he screamed.
I continued to shrink the shield around him. He moved himself into the fetal position. Trying to make himself as small as possible. I was tuning out his screams now. CRACK!
The first bone gave under the pressure of the shrinking bubble in a sickening sound. His screams never reached my ears as other bones started to break one by one.
“Stop her!” Marsala yelled from the stairwell.
I glanced at the rearview.
Tanaka moved further into the hallway raising his rifle at me.
He fired.
The bullet slammed into my shields right at the center of the back of my head. It flattened into a small disk then fell to the floor.
My anger turned into pure uncontrollable rage.
I slammed my hands together. With one thunderous CRASH, the shield-bubble collapsed.
The screams stopped. All that remained of Brian Thompson was a tiny floating orb, where I’d compressed him to the size of the head of a pin.
The orb plummeted to the floor as I turned to face Tanaka. I threw up my hand expanding my shield out. I jerked Tanaka towards me with my shields. Keeping him suspended in the air by his throat. Slowly I began to squeeze the shield-hand holding him, crushing his throat.
Marsala came steam-rolling down the hall on all fours with a feral growl. I had just enough time to switch my focus before he trampled me. Tanaka crashed to the floor coughing as he rubbed his throat. Marsala pinned me to the ground with one giant hand across my chest, still towering above me.
“ENOUGH!!!” he roared in my face with enough ferocity that the very ground shook beneath me. His fangs bared as he snarled at me. “Yes, we must kill! It is the job we have. But you must have control. We do not torture anyone, no matter how much they may deserve it. Tanaka fired at you to get you to release that boy from his pain. Your shields protected you as he knew they would.
“You were right, we could have easily stopped the boy earlier. Once we arrived on scene it was decided that this would be a test for you. Forcing you to learn to use your abilities while lives really depended on them. Alpha team could have stopped Brian Thompson at any time. But you needed to do it. This is what we do, it is who we are. Sometimes we must follow orders that make no sense. But, sometimes we must act for ourselves and be willing to accept the consequences of our actions. Kieran was our leader. You are to be our leader. Either you will calm down and work with the team . . . or I will crush you now. DECIDE!!!”
Something about a seven-hundred-pound, angry vampire holding me down while he snapped his fangs at me had calmed me.
Why’d I get so angry, and start to lose control? I never got that pissed before in my old body.
I took a deep breath and forced myself to relax.
“I’m okay now. You can let me up.” I felt exhausted. Marsala got off me and helped me back up. Once standing I turned to Tanaka.
“Sorry.” We both said it at the same time.
“Shooting you was the fastest way I could think of to change your focus. Now you understand how easy it is to go rogue,” he said still rubbing his neck.
“Can we go now?” I wanted to get out of that place. I was so tired, and I was developing a massive migraine.
What happened to me?
Alpha Team met us in the hall. Each of them took turns inspecting the spot
where the tiny remains of the pyro had fallen. The tiny orb still glowed in the glasses’ thermal vision against the cooler floor. The three men all looked like normal humans armed to the teeth, but the leader of the group was the woman with the raven-black wings from the cafeteria.
Chains rattled in crisscross patterns over her black leather bikini as her thigh-high stiletto-heeled boots clicked on the tile. She crouched down over the crushed body a second, then stood butt first, shoving her ass and wings in my face while she took off her glasses. The feathers tickled my skin as she turned to face me with her liquid molten-copper colored eyes.
“Interesting kill. Not much mess, is there?” As she spoke, her words caressed my skin like a coating of liquid passion, bringing an uncontrollable lust to my body. Once I heard her voice, she was suddenly the most amazingly beautiful woman I had ever seen.
“Cut the voice tricks Sorrow,” Tanaka glared at her.
She laughed, a deep, open, seductive laugh that pulled at my very being. Every inch of me desired her touch in an unnatural way. It was if I couldn’t even breathe without touching her body. I couldn’t help myself. My hand stretched out for her. The instant my fingers brushed her skin we both shuddered with pleasure. Every nerve instantly became alive with delight. Pure physical joyous bliss, like I was caught in a loop of never ending orgasm.
Tanaka lifted his rifle, using the top of the barrel to gently push my arm away. The instant my fingers left her shoulder the pleasure was gone. No fading, just gone, and I felt even more exhausted than I had before I touched her. Sorrow turned her head to me slowly, like the victim in a horror movie turns to look at the monster. But her look made me wonder just who the monster was.
Her liquid copper eyes were gone along with the whites. The eyes were glowing pools of blood. As her head turned she opened her mouth as if to take a bite. Her mouth held wicked looking vampire fangs.
I was frozen in place as those fangs moved closer to my neck. My mind was screaming to run, but my body simply didn’t move. I shivered when her breath landed hotly on my bare skin.
BAM!
The butt of Tanaka’s gun slammed into Sorrow’s head forcing those fangs away an instant before they brushed my neck. I was still frozen in place. This time from fear of what she would do to Tanaka, not me. It took her a full count of ten before she lifted her head from the blow. Her eyes were back to normal with a look of puzzlement in them as she rubbed her head where Tanaka had hit her.
“Sorry. I usually only have that effect on men. Alpha Team, pack it up!” With a glance over her shoulder she glared at me behind her wing as they hastened down the hall. Her face held a look of confusion, with just a hint of fear.
“W-w-what just happened?” My voice sounded shaky even to me.
“Sorrow’s gift,” Marsala snorted beside me where he was sitting on his knees because of the ceiling bein
g too low for him to stand.
“What?”
“Sorrow is a Succubus. She feeds on the lust she raises in men. It’s a form of vampirism without the problems of sunlight or the thirst. Of course she also drinks blood from time to time, but only for fun. She can’t feed on blood,” Tanaka explained while he watched her storm off around the corner. “She calls herself Sorrow because her gift is also her curse. No man can touch her without having the very life sucked out of them. She can’t stop it. Since she’s strictly hetero, her life is spent alone without the comfort of a lover. Any man that touches her she drains of life by sucking the essence of their lust. That’s why I didn’t touch her with my hands. No telling what she could do, even to me, when she gets that drunk.”
“Even to me”? Is Tanaka a vamp like Marsala, or shifter, or perhaps he’s something else entirely?
“She was drunk?” I asked trying not to sound prudish. It was only ten in the morning, but who am I to judge?
Marsala’s voice thundered even though he was only speaking normally, “Drunk with power. You can tell by the eyes. When a vampire is drunk with power their eyes glow blood-red. That is when vampires are the most dangerous.”
What an interesting group I work with, and by choice no less.
Chapter 3
The tilt-wing had landed on the far side of the parking lot. By the time we reached it, my head was splitting with pain. I was tired and hurt so bad, that I couldn’t stand on my own anymore. Marsala effortlessly scooped me up in his arms. He climbed in and crouched down taking his seat. Then he placed me on the floor of the transport between his legs. His large hands wrapped around my shoulders like a blanket. The HUD display was making my head hurt worse. I took off the glasses closing my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to will the pain away.
I barely heard Tanaka tell the pilot to take off over the noise of the engine. The transport gently raised skyward, flipping my stomach on the way.
I don’t remember ever feeling this sick.
Survivor Reborn (Kieran Grey Psionic Hunter) Page 4
