I also discovered that it was unusual to find one of us living so close to the location of the Cavern, and part of Hunter’s job was traveling all over the country to track us down. I hoped Dixie wasn’t going to sense someone else anytime soon. I didn’t want to lose Hunter for days or even weeks while he went to bring in a new member. If it happened, I’d offer to go with him, but I knew my offer would be refused. I was still considered a liability.
Did they send Hunter after people because of how he looked, I mused over coffee as I sat in the kitchen. He was the type of guy most other men warmed to quickly, but women would want him around for a whole different reason.
“Are you ready to get back on the horse?”
Kit’s voice made me jump and I spun around to face him. “Am I what?”
“We can’t allow one little mishap to bring your training to a complete halt.”
I lifted my eyebrows. “It was hardly one little mishap.”
“Okay, but I think you of all people are most in need of continuing your training. With the others, we’ve trained them to get stronger, but we’re working the other way with you. We need to figure out how to rein you in.”
I thought of something. “Who trained you, Kit?”
He glanced away. “No one did. I had to figure things out for myself.”
“You did? That must have been hard.”
“Yes, it was.”
I could sense that he’d clamped down on me. He might not want to speak about this, but if I was to put myself in his hands, I figured I was allowed to find out more about him.
“What was your traumatic event?”
He looked at me with a frown. “Sorry?”
“The thing that made you like you are now.”
For a moment, I didn’t think he was going to answer, but then he spoke.
“Car crash. My little brother died. You might have read about it in the newspapers.”
“Oh, God. I’m so sorry.”
I had read it in the papers. It was all over the news when it happened. The fifteen year old son of the multi-millionaire Philip Middleton, founder of the Myriad Corporation, dying in a car accident while his older son walked away unscathed. Everyone had been talking about how it didn’t matter how much money a person had when something like that happened to them. It was a tragedy for the family. You could never get over losing a son.
I remembered something else and the words flew from my mouth before I’d given thought to their impact. “You were the one driving!”
“It was an accident,” he snapped. “It could have happened to anyone.”
“Of course it could.” I put out a hand, but wasn’t sure what I intended to do. The pain in his words was palpable. He gave my hand a mistrustful look, and I pulled it back in again.
“I blamed myself for my sister’s death, too,” I said, instead. “I was the one to suggest meeting at the café where it happened. I wish every single day that I’d said somewhere else.”
“I don’t blame myself.” His tone was hard. “Now are we going to do this, or not?”
He clearly didn’t want to talk about it.
“Sure. Can we stay away from glass this time?”
I was only joking when I said it, but he nodded. “Yes, we will.”
I hesitated before making my other suggestion, unsure of how he would take it. “And maybe with fewer people around? I’d like Hunter to be there, though, and maybe Dixie. I don’t know why, but I feel more secure when they’re around.”
He fixed me with his blue gaze—a glacier of cool emotion. “Are you saying I don’t make you feel safe, Ari?”
My cheeks heated. “No, I mean … it’s not that … I just …”
He ignored my flustering. “Come on, this way.”
He led me to a part of the Cavern I hadn’t been to before—a second tunnel on the opposite side to our living area. I followed him, curious, but also wondering if my request for Hunter and Dixie had been side-swiped by a deliberate attempt to make me feel awkward. He was right when he said he didn’t make me feel safe. He made me feel the complete opposite.
We walked through the rock, heading deeper into the earth. My claustrophobia threatened to raise its ugly head again, but I breathed deeply through my nose and focused on Kit’s back rather than the walls surrounding me, and the roof pressing down on my head. The tunnel was lit; small bulbs strung across the uneven rock walls.
But when we stepped from the tunnel, only darkness stretched on ahead. I wasn’t sure how I felt about being in a dark space, alone with Kit. I could tell the space in front of me was vast, purely by the change in the air and the coolness of the temperature in here. The dim light from the tunnel lit only our backs and a couple of feet into the new area. I could make out a continuation of the rock floor and walls, but that was all.
“Where are we?” My words echoed back at me.
Kit spoke beside me, but I couldn’t make out his features. “The electricity training room back in the Cavern is just a taster. This is the real thing.”
My stomach churned with nerves. “Is it?”
“We can do so much more than turning on televisions with our minds or lifting household objects into the air. You’re something special, Ari. We all are. Sometimes it’s good to remind ourselves of that.”
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing.”
“Your brain is constantly firing out an electrical charge. You need to focus that charge and push it outward.”
“Toward what?”
“You’ll see.”
His lack of instruction was frustrating and I gave a sigh. “Okay, fine.” Nervous energy jangled through me, but after the last time, I was frightened of what I might do. Images of the roof and walls collapsing down around us, burying us, just like my sister had been buried during the explosion, filled my mind. I was holding back, frightened of pushing my internal energy outward.
Kit’s voice came from beside me. “You’re going to have to let go. You’ll never learn how to control it if you don’t.”
Why was it so important to him for me to learn, anyway? Why didn’t they all just leave me out in the real world? Surely it would have been safer for everyone down here.
“I can’t.” I shook my head, even though no one could see me. “I can’t do it.”
“Yes, you can. Just let it go.”
For a moment, I wondered if he’d do or say something to get an emotional reaction out of me, like Hunter had done outside of my house to make all the car alarms go off. But then I reasoned that Kit didn’t want to get a reaction out of me. He’d already seen what happened when I had a bad reaction to something, and if he tried anything, he definitely wouldn’t get a good one.
I had no idea what I was doing. Quite literally stabbing in the dark. But I focused inward and exhaled, trying to project my thoughts forward.
At first I didn’t think anything had happened, but then a pinprick of light appeared above my head, followed by another one, and another. I felt it growing inside me, tumultuous energy that snowballed, building momentum. But where the energy when I’d been lifting things had been bad—frightening, panicky, overwhelming—now I experienced something akin to euphoria. It tumbled from me, giving birth to a new force, and with it came light.
The handful of lights on the roof gradually spread, illuminating first one area, and spreading to the next. It was beautiful to watch, hundreds of tiny LED lights attached to the rocky roof of what appeared to be a second cave very similar to the Cavern. The energy continued to spill from my mind and still more of the lights illuminated until they stretched right to the other side of the cave. It was like looking up at the night sky, dotted by hundreds, if not a thousand, stars.
I sensed Kit glance over at me. “You did it, Ari.”
I had. Every light in the space had been lit, but still I felt the energy pour from me. It was too good a feeling to stop, but as that realization came, so did the first thread of panic.
“I’m not …” I
tried. “I don’t think I can stop it.”
“You can,” he said firmly. “Yes, you can.”
“No, it’s stronger than me.” It was as though I’d found myself caught in the rapids of a river, and I didn’t know how to fight the flow. I tried to pull it back, but my struggles only made it worse, increasing my anxiety.
Above my head, one of the lights darkened with a hollow pop. A tinkling of glass confetti sprinkled over my shoulders.
“Kit!”
He placed his hand on my shoulder. “Just calm down. This is the point you need to learn to control. This is the whole reason we’re here.”
Another light went pop, then another, and another, until a whole section of the cave ceiling was in darkness. And still it kept coming, the overload of power which I knew was causing the electricity feeding the bulbs and making them burst.
“Breathe, Ari,” Kit said, his tone commanding, similar to how he’d spoken to me last time. “Deep breath. In through the nose and slowly out through the mouth. Count backward from ten in your mind. Refocus that energy.”
I did as he instructed. Ten … nine … eight … seven …
Like corn in the microwave once most of the kernels have already popped, the bursting of the bulbs began to slow. Inside me, the storm began to calm. The final bulb burst, eradicating the small amount of illumination it had caused, but I was able to focus again.
“It’s okay,” I managed to say, though I felt spaced out from the experience. “It’s finished. It’s over.”
Kit’s lips twitched at the corners. I figured that was as close to a smile as he got. “I said you could do it.”
I surveyed the disaster I’d caused. What had been an almost magical light show was now a blotchy mess of partially lit patches. I couldn’t see the ground, but I knew tiny shards of glass covered the surface. I didn’t like to think who would be in charge of replacing all the bulbs I’d broken. It would take forever, and I had no idea how someone would go around reaching them all. They were going to need one hell of a step ladder.
I said all of this to Kit.
“We have people who can lift things without the constraints of a human body,” he said. “You could probably do it yourself, if you had more control.”
“I don’t, though, do I?”
“Not yet, but I think you can get better. I’ve never seen anyone do what you just did.”
“What? Breaking things again?”
He shook his head. “No, lighting the whole cave. Those who are able to control electricity have only managed a small corner, and that was after weeks of practice. You just lit every single bulb in a matter of seconds.”
The sound of footsteps running down the passageway behind us made us both turn.
Hunter burst out into the cave, his features thunderous. “What the hell is going on?”
“Hunter, it’s okay,” I said. “Kit’s been teaching me how to control what I can do.”
Hunter’s gaze lifted to the cave roof, scanning the once star-like illumination, and then, with a frown creasing lines between his eyebrows, down to the ground. “Doesn’t look like he’s doing a very good job of it.”
His words hurt. Perhaps I’d wanted him to tell me well done for trying, or that I was getting better. Instead, he seemed angry at Kit for letting me attempt it. I wondered why Hunter had even brought me here if he didn’t want me to learn.
“I’m trying, Hunter. I might not be perfect, but I’m trying.”
“You were going to leave not so long ago,” he snapped back. “Both of you agreed you were a danger to everyone else, and yet here you are, doing something that might have gone horribly wrong. What if you’d brought the roof down?”
“She didn’t, though, did she?” said Kit. “And deciding what happens down here isn’t your role.”
Hunter glared at him. Was he worried for our safety, or was he just annoyed that Kit had spent time one-on-one with me? Dixie’s warning about me not coming between them played on my mind.
“It’s been a really long day,” I said. “Thank you for trying to help me, Kit. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to assist with the cleanup.”
I pushed past Hunter, not looking at him. I wasn’t sure why I was so angry at him. He was supposed to be supporting me, wasn’t he?
I couldn’t figure him out at all.
Chapter Sixteen
I didn’t sleep well that night, and was happy for morning to arrive.
Movement came from the bed on the other side of the room. Dixie was awake.
“Morning,” she said, her word stretched as she yawned and rubbed her hand over her face.
“Morning,” I replied, swinging my legs out of bed. I’d been playing over the incident with Hunter and Kit in my mind the whole night. A couple of days ago, I’d have thought I’d have been taking Hunter’s side on everything, and that Kit would have been the enemy, but weirdly, things seemed to have switched around. I’d made up my mind to confront Hunter and find out what the hell was going on with him. I couldn’t help but feel like there was more going on than him being worried about everyone’s safety while I was conducting my training. After all, it had been Kit who’d voiced his concerns initially, but Kit still seemed to have some faith in me. Hunter, it seemed, had none.
I rifled through the drawers containing my clothes, picking out what I needed to get dressed. Breakfast would be on the table in five minutes, and I wanted to be there, waiting, when Hunter came in. I picked up a sweater and looked under a pair of jeans, and frowned.
I turned to my roommate who was getting dressed on her side of the room. “Hey, Dixie, have you seen my socks—the merino wool ones?”
“The pink ones?” she asked.
“Yeah. I can’t find them anywhere.”
They might only be socks, but they were the best money could buy. They were a little home comfort, and I wanted them.
“You sure you didn’t put them in the laundry?” she said with a frown.
“No. I laundered them yesterday and dried them, balled them back up, and put them in my drawer. I’m always careful with those ones ’cause they can’t be tumble dried.” Finding socks that would keep my toes snug was a big thing for me. They might only be socks to anyone else, but I hated having cold feet.
She shrugged. “I’m sure they’ll turn up.”
“Yeah, I guess so.
I finished getting dressed then went into the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth. I stopped short. My favorite moisturizer had been squeezed out all over the sink. A spark of irritation ran though me, and I clamped down on it before my surroundings reacted to my emotions.
“Dixie,” I called out.
“Yeah?” she shouted back from the adjoining bedroom.
“Did you try out my moisturizer?”
She appeared in the doorway, a frown on her face. “No. Why?”
I gave a sigh. “Don’t worry. I must have left the lid off.”
“Oh, right.” She vanished from the doorway again.
I set about cleaning up the mess, suddenly despondent again. Had someone been messing around with my stuff? I didn’t think it would be Dixie—I trusted her—but there were plenty of others down here who I wasn’t so close to.
Voices came from the corridor outside, followed by the sound of feet running.
“What’s going on?” I asked Dixie. I figured she might have picked up on some information, though I knew she wasn’t supposed to use her abilities on us.
“I think we should get to the Cavern,” she said.
Leaving everything where it was, we followed the backs of several of the others, who all must have had the same idea.
We entered the Cavern to find Franklin, the tall, skinny guy who was able to connect to electricity, doubled over and breathing hard. A small crowd had gathered around him, a murmur of unease rising from the group. I spotted Hunter among them, but he didn’t look at me.
Kit pushed through. “Give him some space, guys.”
Dixie leaned into me and spoke against my ear. “Franklin’s been out in the city. Doesn’t look like it went too well.”
“What’s going on, Franklin?” Kit asked him. “What happened?”
“I think … they’re getting … closer,” the other man said between breaths.
“Who?”
“The men … in black.” He started to regain his composure and straightened. “I just had one of them chase me right across the city. They must have figured out we’re holing up somewhere nearby. You saw one when you were bringing Arianna back here, didn’t you, Hunter?”
All eyes turned to Hunter and he nodded. “Yeah, one of them followed Ari and me, but we lost him.”
Kit stepped forward. “They don’t know this is where we’re gathering. The only reason they’d be in the city is if they’re searching for Ari.”
Damn. Why did everything seem to fall back on me?
“Me?” I managed. “Why would they be searching for me?”
“If they figured out you were one of the children from the experiments they’d been conducting on all our mothers, and then planted the bomb to see if the explosion would free up your powers—which it did—then they would have been watching you for any signs. You vanishing would have been enough for them to start wondering if you were one of the few to be affected.”
I was starting to feel as though everything was my fault. “I never asked for any of this!”
“None of us did.”
“Look.” My brain was whirring. “If they thought I might have these … talents … and was trying to weed me out, why wouldn’t they have just come to my house and taken me in from there?”
“Maybe they didn’t want to have to explain your disappearance to anyone. They thought you’d be missed.”
“But they’re happy to kill my sister and a bunch of other people,” I snapped. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“Remember, there were thousands of women given this drug, but only a few of the resulting pregnancies resulted in people like us. I don’t know, maybe there were a few women in your area who were given it, and they were trying to weed people out.”
Flux (The Flux Series Book 1) Page 12
