by Berinn Rae
He kneaded her shoulders absently until something clicked. It was only a hunch but it was all he had.
He removed his hands from her shoulders and brought them to rest atop hers where they gripped his hips like a lifeline.
“What are you doing?” she mouthed.
Any other time he would have found her reluctance to release him amusing.
“Trust me.”
He pulled her hands from him and let them drop by her sides.
She gave him a funny look. “What was the point of that?”
Had it worked? He didn’t feel any different, but then again, he never felt anything when Sydney used her powers either. “It was just a theory,” he said.
His eyes widened.
“I made noise.” He looked down at himself, amazed she was able to take all sound from him.
Her arms waved. “Why am I still silent?”
Panic was starting to set in. He reached out to grab her and stopped himself short. If he touched her again, her powers would leak over to him.
“Don’t panic. Getting control of your powers is the hardest thing to deal with.” He wracked his mind for some kind of instruction to give her, trying to remember back to those first cursed weeks when he’d discovered his power and had been abandoned and ridiculed by his “friends.” When nothing helpful surfaced he went with his gut. “When your power first manifests, it’s usually brought on by strong emotion.” He bit back a smile at what must have triggered them. “Do you have a weird prickling at the back of your neck?” It was the only common symptom that he knew of.
Cali nodded.
Should he try what he’d done with Sydney all those years ago when they’d found out about her ability? It was worth a shot. “I need you to try and relax.”
She gave him a dead stare. Are you serious? it said.
His lip twitched. “Close your eyes and picture yourself releasing all the tension in your body. Trust me. Just … let … go.”
She eyed him balefully for a moment as if to convey that if he was pulling her leg she’d amputate his. Finally she closed her eyes.
He waited, watching as she inhaled, held it, and slowly let it out.
A few cars sped by and still she kept her eyes closed. “Did it work?” she whispered.
He threw his head back and laughed. “I can honestly say with some confidence that it did.”
She punched him in the arm. “You jerk. That was not a laughing matter. I was terrified.”
He rubbed his arm. “So does that count, then?” He held up a finger much like she had earlier. “That was one.”
Her eyes flashed with the challenge. She raised her chin, not saying anything, and he took it to mean that he had indeed evened out her little scoreboard. But he was far from finished with it.
“How’d you know what to do?” she asked after a few more cars pass by.
He stepped back to give her some room, his shoulder rising in a careless half shrug. “That’s the only thing that seemed to work for me.”
“When did you first learn about your … ” She faltered. “Your, uh, ability?”
It was not a time he liked to remember, but it looked as if she was opening up to the idea of having powers, so he’d do what he could to help her. “I was twenty-one. It was after finals. I went out with a bunch of my buddies and we got drunk. We were leaving when one of them made the offhand comment about my current girlfriend at the time being a whore. I got pissed, there were angry words exchanged. I wanted to fight.” He shook his head at his idiocy. He should have left it. Maybe then he’d never have lost his friends. “Jeremy kept blowing me off. He went to get into his car, and I remember wishing his car would vanish so he couldn’t leave without me knocking in a few of his teeth. There was this strange sensation at the back of my neck.” He placed his hand there absently, as if he could still feel that first time. “I was too angry to notice it, and when I raged at Jeremy again, waving my arms at him … His car just disappeared.”
“Did they know it was you?”
He exhaled. “Yeah, they were so freaked that they came after me. They ran me back into the bar we’d been drinking at calling me a freak, and when they couldn’t get to me inside, they smashed my Jeep to bits.”
“Fucking bastards,” she whispered.
That about summed them up. He’d known those guys for years, and all it took was one night to ruin the very foundation of their friendship.
“Were you too new to your powers to bring that guy’s car back?”
He gave a humorless laugh. The question was always inevitable when it came to his powers, and the answer always left a bitter taste in his mouth. “Once I Erase something, I can’t bring it back.”
He waited for the shock.
Check.
He waited for the horror.
Nothing.
He kept waiting.
It never came.
Cali leaned her head back against the cement column, exposing the long expanse of her neck. Felix’s gut clenched.
“Well, shit,” she said. “I guess there’s no denying it, I really am a — what did you call me, a Silencer?” She shook her head in disbelief. “It makes me sound like some kind of deadly assassination weapon. That’s gotta be a plus, right?”
Sydney poked her head out the front door. “Are you guys still alive out here?”
Felix frowned. “We’ll be in shortly.”
“All right, but you’d think that if someone was looking for Cali that keeping her on the side of the road where anyone driving by could see her would be a bad thing.” Sydney dipped back into the clinic.
Felix groaned and ran a hand through his hair. He knew Sydney was right but damned if he didn’t want to steal a few more moments alone with Cali. “Come on,” he beckoned. “We better get inside before we get reprimanded again.” He winked at her.
She gave him an amused expression and he took it as progress. At least she wasn’t running away from him. He went to put his hand on the small of her back as she passed him and she jumped out of his reach.
He sighed. At least she wasn’t running far, he amended.
Sydney had been busy cleaning while they’d been outside. The lobby was swept, the chairs put back into a neat order, and the lights inside the patient rooms were off.
Everyone was waiting for them.
“We need to figure out what we should do with Cali,” Sydney said as soon as they were both inside. “It’s not safe for her to go home. I’m guessing if they found her parent’s house then they’ll be able to find where she’s living just as easily.”
Cali walked over to the chairs on the opposite side of the lobby, no doubt trying to put space between them. He let her go. “She can stay with me,” he said.
Cali stiffened in her seat. “No.” The rest of the group eyed her at the immediate response. She shifted uncomfortably. “I mean, no … thank you. Can’t I stay here?” She gave the lobby the once-over and barely managed to hide her revulsion.
Felix wanted to call her out on it, but he didn’t have to. Joel beat him to it.
“You want to stay here?”
The comment earned him a hard elbow to the ribs.
“There’s a futon in my office,” Sydney said.
“She can’t stay here alone.” If she didn’t want to stay at his house that was fine, but she couldn’t remain at the vet’s all by herself.
Cali crossed her arms. “No one followed us.”
“It doesn’t matter. If they have a Dreamer — ”
“If they have a Dreamer,” Niella cut Felix off, “then she’s screwed no matter where she goes. But I doubt that they have a full-forced Dreamer, so let the woman stay where she wants and someone drive me home already. Syd?”
“I don’t have a car,” she said forlornly.
“What happened to your car?” Joel’s hands tightened around her waist in concern.
Felix braced himself as Sydney pinned him with a look. “Felix Erased it.”
Joel’
s jaw bulged. “He what?”
He held his hands out in peace. “Syd blocked herself in when she parked in the driveway. It was the only way to get rid of any evidence so whoever Collette was working for couldn’t trace her.”
Joel’s anger eased at the mention of protecting Sydney, just like he knew it would. One obstacle avoided. Now he had bigger problems to overcome, like getting Cali to quit being so bull-headed.
“There’s too much risk if you stay here alone, Cali. It’s not safe.”
She weighed his words, but all hope of her coming home with him was blown out of the water when Sydney decided to open her mouth. “If you’re worried about Cali then I can always stay at your place, Felix. You live closest to the clinic, and if anything happens, she can call. As soon as I’m within range I can Shield the place.”
“No.” He and Joel spoke up at the same time.
Niella rolled her eyes and dropped her head back.
“What do you mean ‘no’?” Sydney asked Joel.
He looked at her as if the answer should be obvious. “I don’t want you staying the night there alone.”
Felix cut short the retort he had ready. He and Sydney had been friends for years. Well before she met Joel. However, Joel was the overprotective type, and he couldn’t begrudge the guy’s not wanting his girlfriend to spend the night at another man’s home, no matter how ridiculous the idea of him and Sydney getting together sounded. He checked his temper. “She’s not staying at my house,” he said, making sure to convey that to Sydney. She could be just as stubborn as Cali was turning out to be. “If Cali wants to stay here then I think Syd should too. That way she can Shield if anything happens.”
“I don’t need a babysitter,” Cali spoke up from her seat in the corner.
“Agreed.” Niella seconded the comment.
Felix didn’t appreciate her interference.
Sydney instantly adopted the role of mediator. “How about I stay here until Cali gets settled, and then I’ll crash at your place?” She turned to Joel. “We’ll all crash at Felix’s place.”
“I’m sure as hell not crashing there,” Niella muttered.
Felix ran his hand through his hair. He didn’t want any of them crashing at his place. Yet, his fate was sealed when Cali gave a cross between a nod and a shrug in accordance.
Of course she’d agree. It wasn’t her home that was about to be invaded.
Chapter 6
“You’ll love it. Tom’s pizza is the best.” Sydney continued to gush as she led Cali out of the vet and two shops over to the little pizzeria. Felix, Joel, and Niella had left in the Hummer, leaving Cali alone with the very talkative and energetic Sydney.
“You really don’t have to stay with me,” Cali told her for what was perhaps the fifth time.
“Nonsense.” Sydney brushed her comment off as she had all the others. “I promised Felix I’d get you settled, and I will.”
She held the door to the pizzeria open as if this were part of getting Cali settled. Cali bit the inside of her cheek to keep from saying anything untoward. She didn’t need to be coddled.
They’re trying to help.
She had to constantly remind herself of that lest she go crazy from the constant hovering. With the rest of the group gone it was a little better, though she hated to admit that the sight of Felix leaving left an ache in her chest that refused to go away.
The pizzeria was a quaint little place. It was done up in a red, orange, and white color scheme that had Cali thinking only of pizza. The smell of fresh garlic bread and tomato sauce permeated the air. She tried not to drool on the floor.
“Hey, Sydney, what are you doing here so late? I’m about ready to close.”
The man behind the counter could have passed for Sydney’s older brother. A dirty blond mop of hair stuck out from under a visor that read: Tom’s Pizzeria. He had laughing green eyes and a sun-tanned face, accentuated by the white uniform he wore that was dotted with red pizza sauce stains.
Sydney grinned at her male doppelganger. “The hunger calls, Tom. It’s not my fault you make the best pizza in the city. If I bother you so much, you should really look into lowering those standards of yours.” She placed both hands on the counter and leaned forward until she could kick her legs out behind her like a little kid.
Tom placed the palm of his hand flat against Sydney’s forehead and pushed her playfully off his counter. “I’m afraid I’ve built up quite the immunity to you and your flattery.” His attention left Sydney and held on Cali. “Where’s your manners, Sydney?” He wiped his flour-covered hand on his pants and held it out to her. “Thomas Larkin,” he introduced himself.
Despite his attempt to clean the flour and dough from his hands they remained as if ingrained into his skin. “Cali Crazar.” She took his hand.
“New to the city?” he asked.
“Uh … ” Her gaze darted to Sydney before returning to Tom. “Kind of. I’m really only here visiting for a few days, hopefully.”
Sydney’s expression clouded but Cali didn’t know what else to say. Was she supposed to tell Tom she was going to join their little group? Did Tom even know?
Hell, she hadn’t known until a few hours ago that people with powers existed — that she was one of them.
She couldn’t help but remember that feeling of terror and awe when she’d used her powers outside the clinic with Felix. One moment they were kissing and the next —
Her chest ached at the thought of Felix. Why did she want him near?
Her traitorous mind thought back to the moment before her powers had kicked in. The feel of his lips on hers, the taste of his tongue in her mouth …
“ … so what do you like on your pizza?”
Cali blinked.
Tom and Sydney both stared at her with expectant expressions on their faces.
Shit.
“What was that?”
Sydney huffed. “What do you want on the pizza?”
She glowered right back at Sydney. “Pineapple and green peppers okay with you?”
Sydney bobbed her golden head and turned to Tom. “And can we have an order of those tasty chocolate, cinnamon, funnel cake stick thingies?”
“They have a name, Sydney.”
She waved him off. “Yeah, but who wants to remember that? Funnel-ly cake thingies sound so much better.”
With an exaggerated sigh Tom disappeared into the back to make their pizza. He called out, “Would you mind flipping the sign to ‘Closed’ so I don’t get any more late nighters?”
Sydney dutifully went to do what he asked. “You know your life would be a bore without me,” she called back.
Cali thought she heard a muttered, “If only,” from Tom but couldn’t be sure.
Sydney took the chair across from where Cali was now seated at one of the circular tables. “So?”
“So, what?”
Sydney leaned forward. “Come on, you have to have some kind of questions about all this.” Her hands gestured around her as if to take in the pizzeria but Cali knew better.
And she did have questions about what had happened that day. The only problem was she didn’t know how to phrase them, and those that she did know how to phrase she was more than a little apprehensive about hearing the answers to. There was also that small part of her that wanted to wait until Felix could answer her questions.
“How do you know Felix?” she asked. It was as good a place to start as any.
“Ah, you’re going to go the old history route first, huh?” She got up and took a Vanilla Coke from the fridge. She tilted the bottle toward her like an offering.
“Don’t you have to pay for that?”
Sydney took another bottle out despite Cali’s lack of answer and handed it to her.
“Nah,” she said as she sat back down. “I’ve been pilfering sodas from Tom since I was a teen. Why do you think he keeps the Vanilla stocked for me? Anyway.” She cracked the plastic cap off and took a drink. “I met Felix when I was nineteen.
We were in one of those combination first aid/CPR classes together. I stumbled across him when he looked like he could use some help. He was huddled into this ball in his chair, and I thought he might be injured. Turned out he was trying to control his powers.”
“I take it that there’s no destined age when we, uh … ” She lowered her voice. “ … come into our power?”
“Nope. My powers started manifesting when I was twenty, almost six months after I met Felix, though it took us close to four months to figure it out.”
Cali took a sip of her own soda, the smooth vanilla flavor sliding down her throat. “And you’re what, exactly? A shield?”
“Shielder,” she corrected mildly. “Think of it as if I sent out a giant bubble that enveloped everyone around me, and while I’m actively using my powers no one else around can. Make sense?”
Tom came around the counter holding a large pizza box with a smaller one perched on top. He stopped short when he saw the soda in Sydney’s hand. When his eyes fell on the one in her hand Cali felt an immediate flush of guilt. “I’ll pay for this,” she said instantly.
Tom gave her an easy grin. “No worries. I didn’t expect Sydney to engage in her bad habits in front of guests.” He gave Sydney a mock scowl.
She saluted him with the bottle before getting up to take their food off his hands. “Old habits die hard,” she told him. “Thanks again for the pizza. You’re the best.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he said, “now get out of here, I have to close up.”
Back in the vet clinic Sydney directed Cali around the corner of the lobby to where a door was labeled “office.” This way they were able to escape the smell of dog food that seemed to be rooted into the walls themselves.
The office itself was decorated with dark furniture and an aqua and white color scheme. The faint scent of vanilla drifted around the room, a nice change from the combination dog food, bleach, and animal smell of the lobby. There were pictures on the walls, most of them beautiful tropical beaches that hung on the wall right next to Sydney’s doctorate diploma and certifications. A yellow futon was pressed to the wall on Cali’s left. Though the room was filled with all sorts of furnishings and decorations, somehow Sydney had organized it in such a way that it didn’t feel crowded. Instead, the office was warm and inviting.
