by Elodie Colt
“A challenge. I like that,” Cole retorted, unfazed by Chris’ warning.
The door banged open again, and Scott and Josh tumbled in, both of them laughing their asses off for some unknown reason. Scott howled with laughter, tears already streaming down his face. He clapped Josh on the shoulder in a dude-like gesture, keeping his hand there to steady himself.
“Man, that was hilarious!” Josh snickered, causing me to groan. I’d bet my Fighter blood they were stoned. Count on Scott to be high like a kite any time of the day.
“What the hell is going on with you?” Chris asked, eyeing them dubiously.
“Oh, man.” Scott snickered with a shake of his head that made his dreadlocks bounce. “Josh and I were just walking down the hallway and suddenly, we both tripped over our own feet and made a simultaneous face-plant. I’m glad no one saw us.”
“A pity I missed that.”
“No idea what happened. Josh even checked the ground for a rope or something in case someone wanted to set a trap for us, but there was nothing.”
“Yeah, it was crazy,” Josh continued. “We both felt dizzy all of a sudden and fell like sacks at the same time.”
“Seriously, guys, I’m not a Tracer, but even I can smell the weed pouring from your pores,” Cole commented dryly, and I smacked his shin with my foot. Why couldn’t the dumbass keep his stupid mouth shut?
“Guys,” came Jimmy’s warning voice from behind. I groaned. Too late. “I’d rather you don’t say another word about that. I don’t want to know any of the shit you’re smoking, swallowing, injecting, or sticking up your asses. Understood?”
“Hey, what’s going on with that camera?” Chris asked, and I turned around to see where he pointed.
The camera monitoring the corridor of my room flickered. The image switched on and off, interrupted by gray and white streaks like a television missing a signal. Typing on my keyboard, I checked the connection.
“Strange. The system tells me everything’s fine.”
“I’ll look at it,” Cole offered, and with a low whoosh, was out of the room before I could reply and appeared on the screen a few seconds later.
While Cole fumbled with the device, I scanned the other screens. There were recordings of the corridors, the training rooms, and the main hall, but Haylie was nowhere in sight. As usual, my stomach made an uncomfortable flip.
“Hey, Chris. Did you see Haylie before you came here?”
“No. Why?”
“Just wondering because she wanted to train this afternoon.” And she’s not in any of the training halls.
“At lunch, she said she wanted to meditate.”
“But she’s not in the cemetery where she usually meditates. That only leaves Jenna’s old training room.” And I hadn’t seen her going there.
Chris shook his head. “Just came from there. The room was empty.”
I inhaled on a tremble as a horrible déjà-vu struck me, recalling the day Lauren had been kidnapped by the Hunters, and Haylie took off after her. I forced myself to quickly dismiss the thought. Cole’s team of guards was here now to prevent exactly that.
“Dylan, you need to stop this,” Chris pleaded in a low voice so no one could overhear him. “You’re getting overprotective. Just because you can’t see her on the screen doesn’t mean she’s not here. She’s probably in Lauren’s or Sarah’s room.”
I heaved a frustrated sigh but nodded. Chris was right. My obsession with Haylie was getting out of control. She was smart and a grown-up with a powerful ability on her side. She didn’t need me to babysit her all the time.
“No idea what’s wrong with that camera,” Cole’s voice came from behind when he returned. “And you won’t believe me when I’m telling you that I just had a similar accident as Scott and Josh did.”
On hearing this, Scott cracked up again, Josh joining in quickly. I raised an eyebrow in question. I knew Scott was permanently stoned, and it was no secret Josh enjoyed a smoke or two from time to time, but Cole?
“What happened?” Chris asked.
“I got dizzy when I got there and nearly tripped over my own feet, but I caught myself at the last second.”
“Don’t you think it’s one hell of a coincidence?” We all whirled around at hearing Cassie speaking. Ever since her return, she only spoke when being addressed—another strange behavior of hers lately, as Cassie always spoke her mind.
“What do you mean?” Cole pressed.
“Think about it. Scott and Josh are falling over their own feet at the same time. Then, the same thing happens to you. I bet all of you fell in the same spot, right?”
Scott threw Josh a puzzled look and answered for both of them. “It happened exactly here.” Scott pointed to my screen. “In front of the camera.”
“Yeah, right,” Cole agreed in a thoughtful tone.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Chris threw in with raised hands, head shaking. “Could somebody please tell me what Cassie’s talking about? What is so special about the spot? There’s nothing in that aisle except for a few rooms.”
“Just saying.” A mischievous grin formed on her face, and she clicked her tongue before adding, “Sounds very much like someone is playing with… gravity.”
I think my heart actually stopped beating for a second. My head started to spin like crazy, but this time, for a completely different reason. I recalled dropping back down on my bed earlier from dizziness, with no energy to get up again. What if it hadn’t been caused by a concussion but by something else entirely?
I jumped out of my chair so fast it toppled over, missing Chris’ foot by inches. “Cole, with me!” I instructed in a sharp voice. I’d rather have had Chris by my side, but I needed someone fast on his feet.
My heart pounded like a jackhammer against my rib cage as I bolted out. Why hadn’t I thought about it sooner? And why the fuck hadn’t I listened to my gut the second I noticed Haylie was nowhere in sight? Yeah, ‘overprotective’ my ass…
“Hey, ease up, man!” Cole urged on, already next to me a second later. “Do you think something’s happened to her?”
“Knowing Haylie and her luck…” I let the sentence drift off, desperate to reach her room. As soon as we came to her corridor, I stumbled as if someone had tripped me up, Cole following suit.
“Whoa,” Cole exclaimed, banging his shoulder on the next wall. I, too, struggled with my balance and shook my head to keep focus, swallowing down the churning of my stomach. A bunch of students mingled around, one of them already on the ground and struggling to get to his feet.
“Everybody leave the corridor. Gather in the main hall and stay there,” I instructed, urging them on. They gave me confused looks.
“Are you deaf? Go. Now!” Cole shouted, giving one of them a hard shove.
Stumbling to Haylie’s door, I pushed it open shoulder first. I wobbled before I could steady myself and quickly scanned the room.
It was empty.
“Haylie?” No response.
I checked the bathroom. Nothing.
No, no, no… No way had the Hunters snatched her away from under my watchful eyes a second time. We were supposed to be prepared for this. I refused to believe they’d found a way to take her away again.
“Look,” Cole said, pointing to the mirror opposite Haylie’s bed. The glass was shattered, broken shards littering the ground.
Dread rising up my throat, I recalled the dull thump and the shattering noise startling me awake. I hadn’t imagined it after all. My stomach did that horrible flip again. How much time had passed since then? One hour? Two? I didn’t know, but it was long enough for anything to be possible.
Rushing over to the mirror, my heart nearly burst through my chest when I noticed shards of glass dripping blood. It looked as if someone had crushed against the mirror head first.
Just as I reached down to pick up a piece of glass, something drew my eyes to the broken mirror.
A naked leg.
I hurled around. A body lay there next to the bed, half on the stom
ach, limbs sprawled out.
“Fuck!”
I was next to Haylie in an instant. She lay there, unmoving, crusted blood smearing one side of her face and forehead where it sported a large cut. Grabbing her shoulder, I rolled her onto her back and lowered my head to her nose.
“She’s breathing,” I nearly shouted in relief, putting a thumb on her eyelid and lifting it. Haylie’s jaylior eyes flashed back at me, more brilliantly than I’d ever seen.
The Flare.
And it wasn’t just a one-time flash.
It continued to glow, a hair-thin thread of gold circling her iris in a one-second-rhythm. That only meant one thing…
“Shit,” Cole cursed, apparently coming to the same conclusion.
Her Awakening had started.
“No, it’s too early,” I muttered in desperation. My hands hovered over her motionless body, helpless.
Fuck, no. We didn’t come up with a plan yet. I’d wanted to talk to Jimmy about preparing Jenna’s old training room for Haylie’s Awakening, but I’d stalled, assuming there was still time. She should have at least two more years left until the Awakening started. Lisa had warned me about the possibility it could happen sooner, but I hadn’t heeded her warning.
“I can send for Kim if you need a Regenerator,” Cole said from next to me as he brushed a strand of hair from Haylie’s cheek. Despite me knowing we had more important issues to deal with, I fought the urge to split his lip a second time at seeing him touching her.
Out of the blue, the lamp on Haylie’s nightstand started to vibrate and fell to the floor with a loud crash. My hand shot out next to Haylie’s head as I toppled over, her ability increasing gravity. The power pulling me down was so intense, I was barely able to keep upright. Cole gripped the desk for support as he, too, fought against the energy rippling through the room.
“Too dangerous,” I muttered through gritted teeth. “I can tend to her wounds. Go to Jimmy and tell him what’s going on. Evacuate everyone surrounding Haylie’s room, especially the rooms above. Gather all Regenerators and tell them to be prepared in case we need them.”
Cole’s face grew serious. “It’s not safe to stay with her, Dylan.”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll call you if I need help. Keep your phones close. Now, go!”
Thankfully, Cole didn’t waste time to ask any more questions and raced out of the room as fast as he could in his current state. Cole and I may not have been on good terms, but at least I could count on him when the shit hit the fan. And maybe our fight from earlier had eased the tension between us a little bit.
Shoving my hands under Haylie’s motionless body, I carried her to the bed, struggling against the force pulling me down. The indirect lighting behind the headrest gave me a better view of her face.
“Haylie?” No response, although I could feel her heart hammering fast in her chest. “Haylie.” I slapped her cheek a few times, but it didn’t seem to register. “Come on, baby, open those pretty eyes for me,” I whispered close to her ear.
As if my voice was what she’d needed to hear, Haylie’s eyelids flipped open in shock. As soon as that happened, gravity’s pull lifted from my body, and I took a deep breath as the invisible weight on my lungs dissipated. Haylie inhaled in panic, suddenly on high alert.
“Hey, hey, calm down there. It’s okay, I’m here.” I tried to sound as calm as possible despite the fear I felt. Haylie’s breathing slowed down a notch, but she kept shifting restlessly under my hold.
“Dylan? What… Where…” she stammered, confused. “Why am I… argh!”
Her face contorted in pain, and a bloodcurdling scream erupted from her, startling me nearly to death. She pressed her eyes shut, jaw clenched. Gravity played its toll on me again, and I stemmed my hands onto the mattress to keep from crushing her.
It took me a second to realize what was happening.
Phase one—the Inferno—had started.
Pain. Heat. Searing hot, torturous, and similar to being burned alive from within. The cells were coming to life, adapting to the invading changes and raising the body temperature to an unbearable level.
Haylie’s hands shot to her head, palms pressed against her temples, her mouth wide open in a silent scream. The wound on her forehead split open anew, oozing blood. I pulled her hand away to loosen her death grip. A splinter was still stuck in her skin.
When it was over, she exhaled loudly, the air leaving her lungs in tremors. The one good thing about the Inferno was that it came in waves. It would be unbearable otherwise.
“Dy… Dylan…?” she rasped.
“I’m here, Haylie.” I brushed the back of my forefinger over her cheek. She blinked with unshed tears, her eyes finally zooming in on me, but gathering from the way they rolled out of focus again, she wasn’t fully lucid yet. She opened her mouth, probably to say more, but I put my finger to her lips to silence her.
“Shhh, don’t talk,” I soothed before adding in a more urgent tone, “Haylie, listen to me. The Awakening started. You hit your head on the mirror and were unconscious. I need to tend to your wound. I’ll get some stuff from your bathroom and be right back in a sec, okay?” Her answer was a frown, and I wondered if she’d even understood half of what I’d said. The first wave of the Inferno had settled, but the next was sure to come.
Sprinting to the bathroom where I knew the med kit was stashed, I snatched it along with a bucket of water and a towel. Just then, the next wave of pain hit Haylie, making her writhe from one side to the other. Gravity played with my body, and I stumbled to her bed before plopping down.
Noticing her hair clip poking the back of her head, I bent to remove it, using it to free the bloodstained side of her face from any strands. I realized I’d never seen Haylie with her hair down, but as she still buried her tresses under her, squirming wildly, I couldn’t have a full glimpse of it.
Get a grip. This was so not the right time for thinking about this…
A strangled cry full of agony escaped her. It slashed through me like a hot knife slicing my skin, but I knew there was nothing I could do to ease her pain.
Dipping the towel into the water, I wiped away the excess blood around the wound. With relief, I noticed it wasn’t as bad as it had looked before, but the slash was deep and needed stitching. I could do it myself, but I’d probably cause her more pain, and it would be impossible to hold her still. A bandage would have to do for now. Sarah could heal her when this was over.
I briefly thought about calling Sarah to do her job now, but apart from the fact that I might put her in danger, she would never be able to let the healing substance flow into Haylie’s body as long as her cells fought against external influences.
In one quick movement, I removed the remaining shard, causing Haylie to bite down on her blanket as she stifled a scream.
“I know it hurts, I’m sorry.”
Her response was a feeble whimper. As soon as the glass was removed, blood poured out, and I quickly stuck a bandage on it. It wasn’t as professional as Haylie had tended to my wounds, but it would do for now.
I checked the time on my watch. There was no way to know for sure when the Inferno had started as Haylie had been unconscious, but not more than ten minutes might have passed since we’d found her. As far as I could remember, my phases had lasted for about thirty minutes each, and that was longer than the average. I prayed for Haylie’s sake it wouldn’t take that long but feared the opposite.
Haylie cried out again, louder than before, legs thrashing on the bed and stomping the blanket to the ground. It was then that I noticed her wearing nothing more than a pair of short pants and a tight tank top. Dammit. Why did she always have to tease me when I wasn’t allowed to look or touch?
Sweat formed on her face which was flushed from the heat surging through her. She clenched her teeth trying to hold in her screams.
“Haylie, you don’t need to hold back. You can let it all out. We’ve evacuated the entire floor. No one will hear you, I promise
.”
Her response was a scream as loud as the last one. It lasted so long, she started to choke at the end, and I hovered over her despite gravity’s pull, my hand on her shoulder, no clue about how to help her. When her scream finally died down, and gravity flicked back to normal once again, she frantically grabbed my shoulder.
“Need to… leave…” she croaked over her raw throat, her tear-filled eyes pleading.
My hand brushed against her forehead. “We can’t, it’s too late. If I move you now, it could put everyone in the northern wing in danger.”
Haylie shook her head as far as she was able to, telling me that this was not what she’d meant. “You… leave…”
My throat closed at her plea. “No, I won’t leave you unprotected. Not in the Inferno.”
“Too… danger… ous…”
“I’ll be fine, don’t worry about me.”
She couldn’t say anything else, because the next wave of torture already had her in its grip, forcing me to fight the pull. The pain must have switched to another part of Haylie’s body as she rolled onto her side, crossing her arms tightly over her middle, and drawing her knees to her chest. She had never looked so vulnerable, and it tore my heart in two.
Another look at my watch—twenty minutes had passed.
Droplets of sweat ran down her face and collarbone. I put a hand on her forehead—it felt like her skin was burning up. I drenched the towel with water again, then squeezed it before dabbing Haylie’s face. She let out a relieved whimper when the coldness came into contact with her face. I wiped her arms with it, wetting it now and then to keep it cool.
The tension in her body finally loosened, and her eyes fluttered open. With an exhausted huff, she yanked the towel from my hands and clutched it against her face, a muffled moan coming in between heavy breaths. But the Awakening didn’t give her any rest before the torment began anew.
She whirled onto her back again as she pressed her elbows into the mattress and arched off the bed. I knew this reaction. I’d reacted the same when the stings had trailed down my spine—a feeling like a thousand glowing hot needles with barbed hooks poking your most sensitive nerves. I pressed a hand on her stomach to keep her down, trying my best to ignore her pushed-up tank and leaving her hipbones bare.
