“Why? What’s it got to do with him?”
“He thought you’d put us in danger if you got upset.”
“Do you have a habit of upsetting women?”
He didn’t answer.
“Plus, I didn’t want him watching over us. I doubt he’d have allowed me to come on this excursion if he thought we were an item.”
I lifted my own eyebrows. “We’re an item?”
He shrugged. “You know what I mean. A thing.”
I couldn’t hide my sarcasm. “Wow. A man of true commitment.”
“Ari, you know I—”
“What are you two up to?” Natasha’s shout interrupted our conversation and it took all of my self-control to stop myself glaring at her.
Hunter leaned in and spoke close to my ear. “We’ll continue this later.”
He stepped away from me. “Just figuring out what we’ll do when we find somewhere to stop and work with Ari.”
Natasha’s expression tightened with disbelief. “And what will that be?”
“That we’ll put Ari through her paces. You know I’m a taskmaster.”
With that, he walked away, leaving me standing there, still feeling the press of his mouth on mine and the taste of his tongue. Damn, that guy was infuriating. I still wasn’t totally convinced he was actually into me, or if he just kissed me whenever the hell he felt like it.
I needed to stop letting him kiss me, I decided. This was all on his terms, and that wasn’t the way I worked.
Dixie skipped out of the store, Sledge close behind. “Okay, so which one of you was responsible for the alarms?” she said. “The clerk thought we were trying to shoplift.”
“Sorry.” I lifted my hand in admission. “It was an accident.”
Sledge grinned and hooked an arm around Dixie’s shoulders. “No worries. I gave him a lecture on racial stereotyping and he was soon apologizing.”
A knot of tension inside me relaxed. “Good.” I remembered I’d planned on calling my dad as soon as I could. I had my cell phone in my pocket, so I pulled it out and waved it at the others. “I’ll just be a minute.”
I stepped away from the small group, giving myself a modicum of privacy. My home number was the first on my contacts list, so I swiped the screen to call it. Dad was normally home around this time, having enjoyed a leisurely breakfast before heading out for the day, so I hoped to catch him. I longed to hear his voice, and to let him know I was okay. Texts and emails were fine, but nothing beat a real conversation.
The phone rang in my ear and I waited, eagerly anticipating the sound of his voice. But instead of my dad’s, I heard my own as the answering machine cut in.
I waited until I’d finished telling myself what to do, and then left a quick message.
“Hi, Dad, only me. Everything’s fine. I just wanted to hear your voice. You should be able to catch me on my cell this morning, if you want to give me a call back.” I hesitated in case he was somewhere else in the house and was now rushing to pick up. He didn’t. “Okay,” I continued. “I’ll try again in a little while. Love you.”
I hung up and made my way back to the car.
“Are we getting out of here?” Hunter called from where he stood beside the open driver’s door of the car, his forearm rested on the roof.
“Sure.”
“Everything okay?” he asked, catching the despondent expression on my face.
“Yeah, I was just hoping to speak to my dad, but he’s not picking up. He’s normally in at this time.”
“Try again in an hour,” Hunter said. “He’s probably popped out for something.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I will.”
I shouldn’t let not getting hold of him spoil my mood. We were out of the Cavern, and Hunter had kissed me again. Today was a good day, and I was sure I’d get to speak to my father later.
We all piled back in the car. Hunter took the 580 toward Tracy, but before we reached the town, we left the highway and turned north. The surrounding area quickly grew more remote. This was farming country, flat plains hemmed in by hills. Yellowing crops stretched for miles around, with the occasional farmhouse or ranch dropped in the middle like an afterthought. I figured Hunter was playing things by ear. I had no idea if he knew this area. In fact, other than what had happened in his childhood, and what he could do now, I realized I knew little about him at all.
“There,” said Natasha, pointing down a lane. It led toward what appeared to be an old quarry for construction sand and gravel, though the boards across the road and signs were faded and broken. The place must have worn out its usefulness years ago.
“Good spotting, Tash,” said Hunter, and turned down the gravel track.
The dry terrain become more extreme, any vegetation giving way to rock and dirt. A chain link fence stretched across the opening to the quarry. This place hadn’t been mined underground, but instead huge quantities of the earth’s surface had been dug out like a giant scoop of ice cream out of a tub. The result was a massive dip with rock walls rising on either side. The entrance to the quarry was on the same level as the lowest part, so we’d be able to walk right into it, once we’d figured out the chain link fence. Signs warning against trespassers had been attached haphazardly to the wire, but were bleached by the sun and looked as though they’d been there since humans had started walking the earth.
Hunter drove in as far as he could, then stopped the car. We climbed out, standing to look at the fence. A large padlock hung from the double wide gate blocking the way.
“Do we climb over it?” I asked, doubtfully. It was at least ten feet high.
The others all looked to me, and Dixie laughed.
“Why would we do that?” said Hunter.
He turned his attention back to the gate. His face took on the similar expression of concentration I’d seen before. The padlock began to vibrate, sending the shock waves through the metal of the gate, the chain rattling like a cheap Halloween decoration. Then the padlock popped open with a clunk.
“No climbing needed,” he said with a grin.
I laughed in return.
Hunter untangled the chain and pushed open the gate enough for us to be able to slip through, one after the other. Hunter went back and drove the car through the gates and into the large, empty space.
The quarry seemed even bigger now we were standing in the middle of it, the rocky walls looming up on three sides. A couple of pieces of machinery sat like the skeletons of fallen dinosaurs, abandoned and rusting.
“This place is perfect,” said Natasha, turning a circle.
Sledge pulled Dixie to his side and kissed her. “Shame we have to work when it would be more fun to play.”
“We can always combine the two,” Dixie suggested.
“What are you suggesting?” he waggled his eyebrows.
“All right, get a room!” Hunter shouted, but I felt him glance over at me, and my cheeks heated. “We’re here to train Ari, remember?”
Dixie poked her tongue out at him. “Spoilsport.”
Hunter got a glint in his eye. “Okay. Who can hit this?”
His head whipped around and his gaze focused on one of the large boulders at the foot of the steep rock face. The boulder—easily the size of a small car—dislodged from its position, rolling slightly, before lifting into the air.
Sledge punched one hand in the other with a smack. “All right, man. You’re on.”
All around me, stones began to move, the sound of cracks and rock hitting rock filling the air as they dislodged from where they’d been resting. One of the smaller stones hovered for a second, before suddenly flying toward the boulder Hunter was suspending in midair. The boulder dropped several feet, the smaller rock flying past it and hitting the quarry’s cliff face behind.
“Ha! Missed!” Hunter yelled.
“It’ll be the last time,” Sledge called back, laughter in his voice.
The boulder immediately rose back into position, only for a second stone to shoot tow
ard it. This one cracked on the surface and Dixie gave a whoop of triumph.
I quickly ascertained this game consisted of Hunter levitating one rock, while the others tried to hit it with smaller ones they were lifting with their own thoughts. They launched smaller rocks at Hunter’s boulder, which he maneuvered up and down, left and right, in order to avoid their assault. If they managed to hit, that was a point for them, though I had no idea how many points it took to win or lose.
I wondered how Natasha would play—as far as I knew, she couldn’t actually move things. But then I saw her focusing her attention on one of the rocks Sledge had lifted. It only took her a moment to get the stone glowing red with heat. A second later, it exploded into a shower of dust and gravel.
“Hey, no fair!” Sledge declared. “How come you’re on his side?”
“I’m on my own side,” she laughed.
The game came to an end with Natasha exploding Hunter’s boulder. Chunks of rock rained down, and I was thankful we were far enough away not to be hit by pieces of it.
“Damn, you always win,” he said with a chuckle.
She grinned. “Your skills might look more impressive, but mine are more powerful.”
“Bullshit!” he said, but I could tell he was only messing around.
They seemed to remember me standing there. I hadn’t dared try to join in. I’d probably only have ruined everyone else’s fun by doing something extreme and embarrassing. Besides, I’d enjoyed hanging out without everyone’s attention being focused on me. Looked like I’d run out of luck on that front.
Hunter turned to me. “Your turn, Ari.”
I screwed up my face. “Does it have to be?”
“There’s no glass walls to crack here. Nothing you can break.”
I looked doubtfully at the rocky slopes around us. I wasn’t so sure about that.
He must have picked up on my doubts. “And there are enough of us to combat anything else you throw at us.”
I knew I was going to have to give in. We’d come all the way out here for me. I couldn’t back out now.
“Okay, okay. Tell me what to do first.”
“Let’s start with some old fashioned moving objects. We already know you’re strong, so I’m not going to start you on something small.” He scanned the quarry. “How about that?” He nodded over to another boulder similar to the size he’d been lifting.
I exhaled and nodded. “Okay. I’ll try.”
He smiled. “Good. You can do it.”
I remembered the instructions Kit had given me the previous day, about building the energy inside me and then pushing it forward and out. Could I feel it intensify now, like a rising up through my chest to condense in a focal spot in the center of my forehead? Maybe this was what I needed in order to be able to direct my abilities instead of having them direct me. In order to concentrate more, my eyes slipped shut and I centered all thoughts into that spot between my eyebrows.
My third eye.
As the energy built inside me, I pushed it outward.
A gasp came from Dixie beside me and my eyes shot open. I started back in shock, though I wasn’t sure why I let any of it surprise me anymore.
All of the lose rocks and boulders that had been lying around the quarry were now hovering in the air, twenty feet above ground. They were completely static, just floating in midair.
“You need to pull it in, Ari,” said Hunter beside me. “Your energy is spread too widely. You’re working like a blanket when you should be an arrow.”
“I can’t,” I said, starting to feel panicky. “I don’t know how.”
“Fix your eyes on the largest boulder and use that as your focal point.”
The usual feeling of the power getting away on me filled me. The walls of the quarry began to shift, rocks dragging free, causing other stones to dribble down the sides in miniature landslides. The panic started to rise inside me. What if I couldn’t control it, and we all ended up buried under piles of rubble?
Hunter must have sensed my fear.
“It’s okay, Ari. We’re here to help you. We won’t let anything bad happen.”
The landslides began to reduce, the rocks no longer dislodging. I realized the others were working against me, but for me, preventing my power from doing any more damage. They wouldn’t let the walls of the quarry collapse on us. I wasn’t alone. Hunter and the others wouldn’t let anything bad happen.
The knowledge caused the knot of energy inside me to loosen. I remembered Kit’s instructions from the starlit cave, and forced myself to slow my breath, inhaling deeply through my nose and slowly releasing the air between my pursed lips. In my head, I counted backward slowly …
Ten … nine … eight … seven ….
I did as Hunter had said and stared directly at the largest rock still suspended feet above the ground. It felt strange to be fighting something that came so intrinsically from inside me, but that was what I had to do. I had to pull the energy in. Gradually, from around the edges of all the suspended rocks, smaller stones began to drop like rain, hitting the dusty ground with audible thumps. A number of rocks were above our heads, and Dixie and Sledge whipped them away before they could hit us. Anything they missed or got too close, Natasha pulverized.
Hunter focused only on me.
“That’s it, Ari. You’re getting it. It’s working.”
And it was. More of the rocks fell away, until finally the only one still hovering was the boulder I forced my will upon.
I was finally in control.
Chapter Eighteen
My strength suddenly vanished and the huge boulder dropped to the ground with a resounding crack. The impact it made on the ground shuddered up through the soles of my feet, and dust filled the air in a cloud around it. I imagined there would be a substantial crater beneath.
I sagged, my muscles going limp, exhaustion make my mind foggy. Hunter caught me around the waist, holding me up.
“Okay, time for a break,” he said.
I nodded. I needed to sit down. I felt lightheaded and dizzy, and desperately needed a drink of water.
Dixie and Sledge had bought snacks from the store, so we sat in a circle on the ground and passed around a couple of bottles of soda, and a bottle of water—which I eagerly gulped down—followed by snacks. I crunched salty chips, starting to come back around. What I’d done had sucked a huge amount of my resources from me. It didn’t seem to affect anyone else in this way. Perhaps not allowing it to drain me was just another thing I needed to learn.
Looking around at the others, I noted how none of them seemed affected by what we’d done. Their mood was bright and they were enjoying themselves. I hoped this wasn’t yet another thing that would separate me from the crowd. I was starting to hate how everything was always an uphill struggle.
“You okay?” asked Hunter, dragging me from my thoughts.
“Yeah, better now.” I gave him a smile. “You mind if I go and try my dad again? I’m sure he must be home by now.”
“Of course. You don’t need to ask.”
I scrambled to my feet, brushing the dirt off my jeans, and, as I walked from the group, I pulled out my cell phone from my pocket. I checked the screen, in case I’d missed a call or text from him, but there wasn’t one. He hardly ever used his cell phone anyway, just kept it in the car in case of emergencies, but I’d hoped he’d have kept it a little closer now I was away.
I swiped my home phone number and called again. Once again, the phone rang out. What was going on? Where was he?
Nerves twisted uncomfortably in my stomach. If my father was one thing, it was predictable. I meant that in a good way—he liked his routines and rarely strayed from them. Had something happened? Had he fallen ill, or had an accident, and was stuck in the house with no way of getting help? I tortured myself with the possibility of him lying a matter of feet from the phone, hearing it ring and my voice on the machine, but unable to reach it for some reason.
“Everything all right?” Hunter c
alled over to me.
I turned to him, my features pinched in worry.
“She’s worried,” said Dixie, almost to herself. “It’s her father.”
This time I didn’t mind what she’d picked up from me. “Yeah, it’s really not like him to not answer the phone. He’s always home for lunch. He never eats out if he can help it, unless it’s a dinner he can have with the guys and a couple of beers. He refuses to pay ten bucks for a sandwich.”
Hunter frowned and bit his lower lip as he thought. “I’m sure he’s fine, but if you want, when we go back, we can drop the others back at the Cavern then head home to check on him.”
I nodded. “Yeah, that would be good. I’ll keep trying him, though. If I get hold of him, it won’t be necessary to go to the house.”
“Sure.”
Just beyond Hunter, Natasha got to her feet, her head tilted to one side, a frown marking her normally smooth brow. “You guys hearing that?” she said.
We all stopped, listening out for what she meant. The quarry was surprisingly quiet—with no trees around to rustle their leaves and branches in the breeze, which meant no birds or insects either. The only sound was the occasional hollow grind and thud, thud, thud of a rock coming lose and falling down the side.
“I can’t hear—” Hunter started but then clamped his mouth shut again.
My ears strained. I could hear something now, but I couldn’t say what it was, or even which direction it was coming from. It felt like approaching thunder, a change in the air pressure. I wondered briefly if I’d done something to affect the atmosphere, but then what the noise was clicked in my head.
Hunter must have realized it at exactly the same time. “Get under cover! This isn’t good.”
But we were in the middle of a quarry. There was no shelter.
The noise grew louder, emerging from a distant thrum to the more distinct thwack of helicopter blades.
Everyone scrambled to their feet and Hunter snatched at my arm. “Get to the car!”
Flux (The Flux Series Book 1) Page 14
