by W. J. May
Most of the time, you couldn’t see the people at all. You just saw flashes here and there. Bits of color, swatches of fabric. Whenever one person was struck, or fell out of it, the others would jeer at them mercilessly until they got up. Always with a smile, but always serious at the same time.
Just watching reminded Rae of when she’d first gotten to Guilder and Devon had been sent to train her. As distracted as she’d been by his stunning looks and the way those dimples flashed with every smile, she’d had to strap in for dear life just to keep up.
The man was relentless.
Never yielding.
Never compromising.
Yet at the same time, patient. Instructive.
It was one of the reasons that Julian, who didn’t have any offensive ink, was still one of the best fighters Rae had ever seen as well. Because he and Devon had grown up sparring together.
“Yeah,” she grinned, “I guess that’s one way of putting it. Hey, thanks again, Luke—for this morning and again for now.” Her eyes travelled out to where Molly was screaming at a group of trembling Knights in the back field. When she caught Rae looking, she mouthed what looked, even from a distance, to be a rather unkind word. “I don’t think everyone’s as eager to jump on board…”
Luke followed her gaze with a grin. “Nah, that’s not you. That’s the baby, I’m afraid. The thing has been waking her up all through the night, and making her sick every morning. I was going to take her to Alicia later today to see if there was some kind of…” He trailed off suddenly as both he and Rae whirled around.
There was a new kind of screaming coming from the field behind the barn. A screaming that sounded not good. At all.
They took off at a sprint, falling in behind Julian, who was already racing that way.
Angel was set to be working with a new group of hybrids out there today. The hybrids were by far the ‘x-factor wild cards’ of the group, but as possibly the most capable and lethal person Rae knew, Angel had seemed like a natural fit.
What had happened now? The three of them picked up speed as the screaming grew louder. Rae sprinted ahead using one of her tatùs, and skidded to a stop as she rounded the corner.
The other two screeched to a sudden, horrified stop moments behind her.
Sure enough, there was trouble in paradise. And by trouble, all hell had broken loose.
Angel was backing slowly to the wall, hands raised defensively, a look of pure adrenaline flashing through her eyes. Just a few yards away, a girl was advancing. A girl so tiny Rae might have mistaken her for a child. A girl with what looked like molten lava dripping down her arms.
The rest of the hybrids in the class were frozen in various states of shock; none of them looked like they knew what to do. Several of them looked up in relief as Rae and the others came tearing around the side of the barn, but most couldn’t take their eyes off Angel.
There was a large burn running up the side of her face, and a small river of blood was pouring down, through her shirt, from one of her shoulders. But what was most telling was her eyes.
She was staring at the girl not with any sort of malice, but with a look of complete devastation. An expression Rae couldn’t begin understand.
“Angel!” Julian cried, tearing towards her before suddenly coming up short.
Rae wasn’t sure if he knew he couldn’t get there fast enough, or if Angel had somehow projectile frozen him. But he stopped dead in his tracks, turning towards the little girl with a look of both terror and rage.
“Don’t…” he compelled her quietly, inching himself in between them. “Please…”
His soothing tone had absolutely no effect whatsoever. In fact, it seemed to throw the girl into an even greater frenzy. A shrill scream ripped through her chest as uncontrolled splashes of lava flew forward, one of them landing just inches from where Angel stood.
“I know her!” the molten lava girl cried, staring at the statuesque blond with nothing but pure hate. “I’ve seen her before. In Rio. At my home.”
Julian shook his head in complete bewilderment, but Rae was beginning to understand. This was why Angel had done nothing to defend herself. This was the look in her eyes.
“She came to my home,” the girl growled again, little hisses of steam spiraling up from her hands, “and took me. To him.”
Like watching a n train wreck in slow motion, everyone’s eyes shot back to Angel. Her hands were trembling now, although she still managed to stand tall. The look on her face, however, was as heart-breaking as Rae had ever seen.
“It was me,” she said in a voice so soft it was almost a whisper. “I did those things.”
The girl let loose another scream and sent a wave of liquid fire flying her way. Only through a literal lifetime of experience did Angel manage to leap out of the way in time.
Julian’s cry of horror echoed in the stillness that followed. “She didn’t have a choice!” he pleaded, lifting his hands into plain sight as he inched a step closer. “Just hold on a minute, please!” He was too afraid to even search the future, afraid that in the split second he checked out, he might lose her forever. “What’s your name?”
The girl flashed him a chilling glare, but hesitated a moment before muttering, “Caroline.”
“Caroline,” he nodded encouragingly, taking another trembling step. “Caroline, please. I understand you’re angry, just lower your hands. Please. You don’t want to do this.”
“Not another step!”
He froze in place, his dark eyes searching hers cautiously, before he continued his glacial trek to put himself between her and Angel.
Luke reached down urgently to squeeze Rae’s hand, but she just shook her head. She didn’t know what other tatù power the girl might be packing, but the lava and her strategic position were already enough. Rae had no idea how to get to Angel and Julian before one or both of them ended up a bloody memory on the grass.
“You don’t want to do this,” he said again, fixing her with his hypnotic eyes as he continued to move forward. “She…she didn’t have a choice.”
“Yes, I did,” Angel said softly from behind him. The girl’s eyes flashed up and Julian tensed in fear. “My choice was to do it or to die, but it was still a choice. It was the choice I made.”
There was a soft rustling behind them as Devon and Riley sprinted towards the barn. They had taken off the moment they heard Julian scream, and were staring at the scene in front of them with twin looks of horror.
I don’t know what to do, Devon! Rae shouted telepathically in his head. She’s set to blow. One wrong move…
He gave her the hint of a nod, before melting out of sight, circling one way around the barn as Riley automatically circled the other. From where she was standing, Caroline hadn’t seen them yet.
If they could only catch her unawares.
“I told you!” Caroline screeched again, shaking in rage. “She just admitted it!”
Angel’s sapphire eyes locked on the tiny girl, with unspeakable sadness. “Yes, it’s the choice I made. And I can never expect you to forgive me. But this is the choice I’m making now. To be here, with you. To try to set some of it right—”
“You can never set it right!” Little tears slipped down Caroline’s cheeks, sizzling against the heat coming off of her skin. “You paralyzed me! Dragged me away! Away from my family!”
Angel bowed her head. “Yes.”
There was a sudden metallic click, and Rae’s heart stopped in her chest.
Gabriel was pacing slowly into the clearing, a look of sheer murder on his face… his raised gun pointed directly at the little girl’s chest.
“Gabriel—no!” Angel cried, but he ignored her.
“Drop your hands, or you’re done.” A muscle twitched in the back of his jaw as his finger tightened on the trigger. There wasn’t any doubt he would do exactly as he promised.
Rae flew forward to stop him, but Luke caught her by the back of the jacket and held her firm. Instead, she switche
d once more into Maria’s telepathy.
Gabriel! DO NOT DO THIS! She’s just upset. We can talk her down!
But he held the gun steady, pointing it directly where he had been shot just a short time before. Right at her heart.
The girl’s eyes widened in fear and surprise, but then a flicker of recognition flashed across her face. “You…you were there, too,” she gasped. “You were there with her. I remember—”
“I don’t remember you,” he interrupted coldly. “No more than will I if you make me pull this trigger. You were one of hundreds to me. A face in a crowd. It was our job. So is this.”
“Gabriel, please,” Angel breathed, shivering as a steady stream of tears poured down her cheeks. “She’s right. You know she’s right.”
“She’s dead,” he corrected, eyes locking on the girl in rage. “Unless she lowers her damn hands this second.”
Caroline slowly shook her head. “I can’t…She can’t just get away with it.”
Devon, whatever you’re going to do—DO IT NOW!
“Gabriel,” Julian muttered, his eyes on the girl, “do it.”
Caroline’s hand moved at the same time as Gabriel’s.
At the same moment several things happened at once.
There was a sharp cry, followed by the sound of a gunshot. Riley tackled Gabriel to the ground at the same time that Devon grabbed Caroline. In the same breath, Julian leapt forward and caught Angel in his arms as a wave of molten lava crashed their way.
Rae clapped her hands over her mouth with a silent scream. There was nothing she could do to stop it
Except, the fire never got to them.
Julian looked slowly over his shoulder, as pale as Rae had ever seen him, only to see a faint, blue force field shimmering in front of him. Directly on the other side, the pool of lava was sinking steadily into the ground, bubbling and hissing as it destroyed everything in its path.
His eyes travelled up in shock to see another hybrid standing next to him, a young man none of them had ever spoken to before. The man lowered his hands and the force field disappeared into a cloud of smoke. “I’m so glad that worked. I’ve never used it against lava before.”
With a breathless gasp, Julian collapsed onto the ground, gathering Angel tightly in his arms and crushing her against him. Gabriel shoved Riley off of him and watched from a distance, a look of grim resignation twisting his handsome features. For a second, he moved like he was about to step towards them, then Rae caught his eye and he fell back. Before she could stop him, he spun around on his heel and left, tossing the gun into the grass behind him.
“Sweetheart, are you okay?” Julian said softly, stroking back Angel’s hair so he could examine the burn on her face.
She said nothing, just stared blankly out over the field after Gabriel.
A few short paces away, Devon was having similar luck with Caroline.
“It’s over now,” he said shortly, keeping her hands tightly behind her back. “It’s done. Try anything and…” He had her kneeling on the ground in a chokehold, but when she put up absolutely no resistance his voice softened slightly. “Are you alright?”
She didn’t say a word. She simply bowed her head to the ground as the rest of the hybrids quickly and quietly dispersed.
It was impossible to know what to do next.
How did you move on from something like this? How did you move forward? Despite all Rae’s frantic battle plans, she had forgotten one very important thing.
They were an army of misfit toys here. Toys that tended to backfire when forced together.
… sometimes with lava.
Luke slowly released the back of Rae’s jacket and a flood of blood and feeling rushed back into her arms. As she squeezed her wrists slowly to coax circulation, his cheeks lit with a faint flush.
“Sorry,” he muttered, soft enough that only she could hear. “I was afraid that…”
She pictured the image as clearly as he’d seen it in his head. Rae Kerrigan, rushing into the center of the fray. Getting herself shot up or burned. Him forced to tell Molly about it later, watching her crumble to the ground when she saw Rae’s mangled body.
“It’s okay,” she replied, flashing him a sad smile. “Don’t know what I could’ve done differently anyway.”
“Angel, come on, please,” Julian was still murmuring, trying to get her to look at him. “Talk to me. Just tell me you’re okay.”
She turned her face suddenly towards him, a lifeless look deadening her eyes. “You told him to do it.” With that, she got to her feet and stalked off across the field, heading back to the house.
He stared after her for a second, before his eyes clouded with a kind of numb horror. “I did.”
“Jules!” Devon released Caroline into the custody of Riley and sprinted across the grass. He carefully avoiding the remnants of the lava as he sank to his knees, tilting Julian’s face with hands that were half-friend, half-doctor as he checked for signs of damage. “Hey, man, did any of it get on you?! Are you okay?!”
Julian met his eyes for a moment, before silently shaking his head. “No,” his head bowed to his chest, “I’m not okay.”
Devon stared down at him helplessly, before his eyes flicked up to Rae’s. In them danced the same panicked question that had been racing through her head since the gunshot.
What are we going to do?!
“Ahem!” a deep voice interrupted their silent communication, and, as one, everyone turned to look towards the barn. Carter and Beth were standing on the edge of the clearing, holding hands as they took in the scene, the smiles slowly fading from their faces.
“Well, it looks like the honeymoon is officially over, isn’t it?”
Chapter 12
Training instantly was cancelled. The schedule discarded. The remaining groups were sent inside.
Rae found Kraigan on his own in the barn and quietly approached. “Kraigan?”
He was lying on a bench, tossing a ball up into the air, catching it, and tossing it up again. He didn’t bother looking at her. “What’s up?”
Rae swallowed. “I need your help.” She cleared her throat. “We need your help.”
He sat up in surprise. “What did you do now?”
She shook her head. “We’ve had a bit of a… an issue out back.”
“The one with all the screaming?”
She sat down beside him. “You heard and you didn’t come running? Seems like commotion is your forte.”
“Some days, not so much.” His face was unreadable.
“Can you take someone’s tatù away?”
He sighed and stood. After waiting a moment, he looked at her, his head cocked slightly to the side. “You coming?”
She slowly stood, surprised he wasn’t arguing or asking questions. Apparently even he knew how serious the situation was. Or he understood that the confrontation with Cromfield was going to be deadly serious.
Rae led him to Caroline, and he did as requested.
It was a testament to how far things had deteriorated that anyone was willing to place such a dangerous weapon in his hands. But as Rae watched him silently absorb the fatal power, even he seemed to know well enough to keep quiet.
After the deed was done, everyone was split off into groups. Luke and Molly went to see Alicia after Molly had a belated panic attack about Julian. Carter and Beth were sitting with Caroline in the kitchen, speaking in hushed voices and holding her hand. Devon and Julian were locked in one of the bedrooms, having what was assumedly the talk of the century. And Angel and Gabriel were nowhere to be found. Even Kraigan disappeared again.
Left abruptly alone, Rae flitted around the suddenly quiet house, fiddling unconsciously with her hands as she replayed what had happened over and over in her mind.
The way Angel had put up no resistance, the way Julian had used his own body as a shield, the way Devon had dived straight towards the action.
…the way Gabriel hadn’t hesitated before he fired the gun.
> The crack of the gunshot echoed harshly in her ears as she wandered aimlessly back upstairs.
She knew what Gabriel was—that wasn’t the problem. She knew where he came from, she knew what he’d been through, she’d seen him in action before. Even more than that, she’d gotten an actual forbidden glimpse inside his mind the day he’d confessed to being Cromfield’s spy.
As ironic as it seemed, that was the day Gabriel had earned a special place in her heart. She’d seen the heartbreak firsthand. Lived through the neglect, and the abandonment. Felt every devastating emotion rip through him as the world around him fell apart.
Maybe that’s why this is hitting me so hard. Because I’ve seen the good in him. I’ve seen what he can be.
But all that got crushed by a man intent on stealing their future.
Now Gabriel was just a boy with a gun.
And Rae couldn’t think of a single way to help him.
The low hum of voices caught her attention, and she lingered momentarily outside a closed door, listening to Julian and Devon talk within. The impulse to stop had been automatic; she had no intention of eavesdropping. But just as she was turning to go, she heard Devon say something that made her blood run cold.
“I would have done it for Rae.”
Done…what?
She held her breath and switched to a better hearing tatù, leaning against the door out of habit.
“No, you wouldn’t have,” Julian countered softly. “And not because you don’t love her enough, but because you’d never do such a thing. You’d never trade one life for another.”
“I would have,” Devon insisted firmly. “I would have shot the girl myself.”
The crack of the gun rang out once more inside Rae’s head, and she shuddered.
“And that would have been wrong, too.” Julian sighed. He sounded like a strange kind of broken, like the entire world was about to end. In all fairness, there was a chance it was. “Dev, the worst thing is…I don’t feel bad about it. I’d do it again.”
