by Liana Brooks
Aaron’s eyes went wide.
“I don’t have any movies lined up for the summer, so I thought we’d go on a road trip or something. Go see some national parks or something. Get out of the city.”
“We could go to Texas,” Aaron said.
“I guess. Why Texas?”
“’Cause AJ said she was thinking of moving back home over the summer if she can’t get a job here, and I figured since you two were dating we might go see her.” Aaron’s face lit up with a grin. “She has a pool. I saw pictures.”
“Why was she showing you pictures of a pool?”
“It was for a word problem; we had to figure out how many gallons of water we would need to fill the pool.”
Ty chuckled. “Yeah, I don’t think we’ll have an invite to visit her. AJ and I aren’t dating.” He hung his car keys up on the hook and headed for the fridge.
“But, you drove her home,” Aaron said, padding after him. “You let her drive your car.”
“Because it was an emergency and because I trust her not to do anything to the car.”
“She almost stole it.”
“What?”
“She said she was going to adopt the car.”
He pulled a gallon of milk from the fridge. “I think this is the first time a woman has been more in love with my car than me.” Unscrewing the lid, he took a swig of milk. “I feel really inadequate.”
“She likes the heater,” Aaron reported. “Maybe you could offer to buy her a blanket and take her for a drive.”
Of all the things he could think of doing with AJ and blankets, driving wasn’t at the top of the list. “Don’t get your hopes up. AJ made it clear she’s not interested in me.” He opened the fridge again, searching for dinner. “We need to go grocery—”
A vision replaced the contents of his fridge. AJ falling. The pyro holding AJ and dropping her. His hand clenched around the handle of the fridge so hard the plastic cracked.
“Tyler?” Aaron put a hand on his shoulder. “What do you see?”
Ty shook his head. “Nothing. It’s nothing.” He could see how to save her, where he needed to be... But Aaron needed him more. He’d call the police in the morning. If the pyro was arrested there wouldn’t be a chance for AJ to die. It wasn’t like AJ was going to go out again tonight. “What are we eating?”
***
Angela kicked a rock that skidded across the broken pavement and ricocheted off the brick wall of the warehouse. It was past two in the morning. Logically she knew she should go to sleep and then call the police in the morning. That would be the sensible thing to do. At the moment sensible and her weren’t good friends. This needed to end.
Light from a car scraped across the rough brickwork before it fell on her, casting a long shadow. She didn’t turn around as doors opened and two slammed shut. “Hey.”
“Hey,” Jacob said. “Why are we meeting here?” The lights turned off as he locked the car door with an audible click.
Angela turned. “Hey, Glee.” The actress was wearing a teeny tiny skirt and a neon green shirt that complemented her neon pink hair. She also had a baseball bat, which brought a new level of fun to the evening’s proceedings. Finally, everything felt right. “Cute toy.”
“My little friend here?” Glee stroked the wood. “This is just a reminder that bad things happen when you play rough. Friendly insurance.”
“Every girl should have a friend,” Angela said as she sent mellow vibes out. Jacob slowed, his footsteps dragging a little as he swayed under her power.
Glee kept coming with a smile. “You’re a naughty girl, AJ.” She tapped Jacob’s shoulder with the bat. “She’s trying to influence you.”
Jacob shook his head and frowned. “What? AJ? Why would you do that?”
“Why would you lie about Mikey being with you?”
“Mikey was getting ahead of himself,” Glee answered. “We helped him understand his place in the food chain. Now it’s your turn.”
Angela flexed her hands, feeling the weight of the fingerless boxing gloves. There were still a few ways to end the evening quietly, but Glee was the epicenter of rage—full of hate and anger—nothing Angela was tossing at her was getting through.
“I used to be a scout for The Company,” Glee said. “Their little one-trick wonder, kept on a leash and only allowed out for special occasions, until I met Jacob. With my ability to sense when a superhero is near and his abilities to do everything else, we figured we’d knock this town over. It was going so well until you poked your nose where it didn’t belong.” There was more between Glee and Jacob than simple friendship; Angela could almost see the emotional connection stretching between the two. Glee was holding Jacob back, keeping him from listening to Angela’s empathic suggestions.
She began untangling the psychic knot as Jacob circled around behind her.
“I didn’t ask for much, just a chance.”
Glee shrugged. “But you decided to help Arktos. Between us girls, that was a bad choice.” Her girlish giggle was out of place.
Angela shuffled backwards, trying to keep both of them in sight. “So what? I’m supposed to apologize and let you beat me senseless?” The emotional thread between her two assailants weakened.
Glee looked shocked. “What do you think of us? We’re not thugs, AJ, we’re entrepreneurs. Think of us as your local supernatural mafia. There are always entry-level positions.”
“I’m strictly freelance, sorry.” With one last burst of thought she snapped the line between them.
Jacob moved with blistering speed, a blur of hot red. He brushed against her arm. “Option two: come with me.”
Glee groaned in pain. “What did you do?”
“I cut him loose.” Angela grabbed Jacob’s arm, trying to control his attention. “Jacob, you don’t need to do this. I can help you. I can get you a new life away from The Company.”
The arm under her hand burned like a stovetop.
“What did you do!” Glee screamed. “He’s not stable.” She rushed Jacob, clutching at his other arm. “Jacob. Jacob? Come back to me. You need me. You love me.”
Angela could feel conflicting emotions of need and hate but none of them belonged to her. Jacob’s arm grew too hot to touch and she let go. “What did you do to him?”
“I kept him calm!” Glee growled. “He needs me! Jacob! Jacob, you need me.” She clung to him, hugging him close.
Red and blue police lights lit up the alley. Jacob pushed Glee aside as he turned. “What’s that?”
“The police,” Angela said scathingly. “You thought I was going to meet Jacob alone?”
“I thought you’d be smart and bring Arktos.” Anger and fear poured off Glee in a choking fog.
Flames wreathed Jacob as a car door slammed in the darkness. “Tell them to back down.”
“Turn yourselves in,” Angela ordered, using all her persuasive abilities to force them both to back down.
Jacob screamed and fire engulfed them.
Luck alone got her shield up in time. Angela and Glee both slammed into the wall. Only a bubble of magnetized air kept them from burning. “Jacob! Jacob, stop! You’re hurting Glee!” Angela choked on the fiery air.
Jacob stepped through the fire. He held out a hand. “Come with me. Now. Or she dies.”
Angela stood on shaking legs, her attention split between an unconscious Glee and the raging villain in front of her. “Do you promise to let her live?” Behind her back she turned on her phone’s GPS. If nothing else Gideon and Dad would be able to track her. “You need to turn down the heat, or I won’t be able to come.”
Jacob swayed a little, but he nodded. The fires in the alley died, although he kept the police at bay with a wall of flame. “We’re leaving.”
“What about Glee?”
“She’s not the one I want.”
Angela nodded. “Let me make her comfortable at least. I...please?”
“Hurry.”
Kneeling, she stripped off her riding
jacket and pillowed it under Glee’s head. With a sharp tug she ripped her necklace off and left it in Glee’s hand. Even if the fire moved toward her the shield would keep her safe. As safe as Angela could make anyone.
“Stop wasting time.”
They were airborne before Angela could respond. All of L.A. spread beneath her feet. It would have been beautiful if fear wasn’t overwhelming her.
Jacob’s hand was hot on her wrist. Where he touched her, the skin burned.
She tried to scream, but the wind swallowed her words. In terror she hit back with the only weapon she had left. Blocking out the pain she focused on calm. On the midnight blue clouds swirling around them. On the ocean on the horizon. On happiness...and Arktos. Tyler’s smile as he quoted Shakespeare. The way he was always making her laugh.
“Stop it.” Jacob shook her, wrenching her shoulder from its socket. “That’s not me. That’s not how I feel!”
Angela slipped around his sweaty palm so she dangled by her fingertips. “Jacob!” The words fell behind them as he flew higher. She clutched his wrist with her other hand, heart racing in terror. Out of instinct she tried to connect with the necklace only to remember she’d left it with Glee.
The bitter cold of high atmosphere bit her fingers. She tried to squeeze his hand tighter, hold on somehow so she could survive the madness, but as the freezing air engulfed Angela, she trembled. Millimeter by millimeter she slid out of Jacob’s grasp.
Tears stung her cheeks as she tumbled into a freefall high above the Pacific surf. The wind skirled past her ears. She shut her eyes, praying she wouldn’t feel a thing past the moment of blistering pain as her body broke.
And then she was sitting comfortably in the air. The city, which had been zooming towards her, hovered below without even a breeze to indicate that she was doing anything more than dreaming. Angela twisted and saw Tyler behind her.
“I thought you were staying home tonight, Lois.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck. “Get me on the ground. Please.” She didn’t open her eyes until she felt her boots sink into wet sand. Heart racing, she stepped back shaking more from fear than the cold ocean spray misting her as the tide came in.
“AJ?” Tyler started to step forward but stopped as she shook her head. “What happened?”
The lights of Palos Verdes twinkled in the distance. “I don’t know. I thought...I needed to talk to Jacob.” She rubbed the cold from her arm. “I...”
A bright light dawned on the false horizon rushing towards them. Jacob landed a few feet away on the beach, fusing the sand where he stood. A miasma of emotions poured off him.
Angela choked, drowning in the waves of bitter hate rolling off him like heat from a flame.
“Arktos, why can’t I get rid of you?” Jacob asked as he stepped forward, leaving a fiery silhouette of a man behind him. Black blisters covered his arms and face; he sank as he walked, the sand beneath his feet turning molten. “I came to Hollywood to be a star and do you know what happened at my very first audition? I went in for the part of Keith Little in the new Code Talker movie. I had the looks, the dark hair, the right skin, I even studied a bit of Navajo for the part. It was Oscar bait the whole way and what happened?” The fires behind Jacob flared with temper.
Tyler’s hand closed around Angela’s wrist, gently tugging her back. “What happened?” Tyler asked, voice even.
“I lost the part!”
A shield of ice bloomed in front of her as the flames roared heavenward.
“You stole my role!” Jacob raged. “You took away my chance at being a serious actor! All because you were born lucky. I didn’t lose the part because you were a better actor but because you were born to the right people.” Jacob spat. The wall of ice steamed.
“Born on a reservation into abject poverty isn’t the usual definition of lucky.” Ty tugged at her arm again. “AJ,” he whispered, “I can’t hold him back. We need to leave.”
“He’s hurting.” The mental anguish emanating from Jacob was burning through her mental barriers faster than it melted the thick wall of ice. Travys’s pain had hurt when she’d tried to absorb some of it, this—she staggered sideways under the assault. “Please, Jacob.” She leaned against the ice. “Let me help you. You hurt. It can be better.”
“No. It. Can’t.” He ground the words out through clenched teeth as his legs burned in the molten sand.
“You can heal. You’re a superhero.” She clutched at his pain, drawing it in deeper. It was like swallowing a burning knife. The self-hatred dimmed the city lights, made the fire so inviting. If she just stepped into the flames, let them consume her, all the fear and jealousy would burn to ash.
“He took everything I wanted. He stole my life.”
The ice wall floated away into the atmosphere. Angela fell forward, head resting in the lava-like sand that bubbled and glowed.
Another capsule of ice appeared and the lava blackened as it cracked. “AJ. Angela. Please, we need to go.”
The pain ebbed, leaving her shaking. It wasn’t so bad, balanced across two people. She gasped, watched her breath turn to a little cloud in the cold. “He’s going to kill himself. He can’t even...he doesn’t understand he’s physically hurt.” Angela pushed herself to her feet. “How can I save him?”
“You can’t.” Tyler’s sharp pronouncement made her turn.
“I have to.”
“You can’t save everyone. It’s not possible.”
She swallowed the bile rising in her throat. “I have to. I can. He just hurts. I can, can take that away. Make him happy again.”
“At what cost?”
Jacob slammed a fist into the ice shield, creating a waterfall.
“Look at yourself,” Tyler said. “You’re burnt. You’re bleeding.”
She followed his gaze down to her ripped jeans. Her shoes had burned away at some point and her feet were red, blistering from the heat. There was a hand-shaped burn on her arm where Jacob had grabbed her. “I can save him.”
Jacob reached through a hole in the ice and she screamed as her arm burned. Tyler grabbed her, trying to pull her away, but it was too late. She was caught in a maelstrom of emotion. Fear tore through her. Deep despair like she’d never felt before. All of Jacob’s emotions, his self-doubts, and bitter self-hatred tore into her.
Tyler held her close. “Let go.”
Her knees trembled then buckled.
“Angela, you can only save one life. Choose yours. Please,” he whispered. “Stay with me.”
She pulled her mind free of Jacob’s thoughts and collapsed.
Jacob screamed, his voice rising in a deadly crescendo.
Ice covered her. And then there was darkness.
Chapter Twenty
Aaron,
I’m going to be home late. Don’t watch the news.
T
Tyler leaned against the hospital glass watching the surgeon try to perform a miracle as Jacob flatlined for a third time. The doctor in charge shook her head. “Time of death, four-oh-three ay-em.”
He turned away in misery. Angela was in a room two floors down, lying in the dark alone. He’d been able to keep Jacob from burning her to death, and he’d flown them both to the hospital as soon as Jacob passed out, but it wasn’t enough.
Jacob was dead and it looked like Angela was going to follow.
She lay unresponsive under a white blanket. Monitors were hooked up to her arm but that was it. The triage nurse couldn’t find a reason. Psychic burnout wasn’t a condition the doctors were willing to acknowledge, but he’d seen it before. When he was training there had been others like Jacob. Like Angela. People who couldn’t control the mutations they were born with. People who died pushing their bodies past the limits. Humans weren’t meant to fly, or burn, or freeze.
He rubbed a hand against his thigh where he’d seared himself to the bone experimenting with his own powers. The scar had long since healed, but the memory of the pain remained.
There was a
soft knock on the door lintel. “Mind if I come in?” The light from the hall illuminated the face of a man in a lab coat. “I’m Dr. Smith. How’s our patient doing?”
Ty looked over at Angela’s pale face. “Same as she was, I guess.”
“What happened?” the doctor asked as he puttered around the bed, checking the pulse on Angela’s wrist, and tucking the blanket higher.
“You wouldn’t understand.”
Dr. Smith smiled. “Try me.”
“She’s...she’s a superhero. She can feel other people’s emotions, and she tried to take Jacob’s. He’s the pyro. Superheroes, superhumans maybe. They’re different.” Ty took a deep breath and shook his head. “She thought she could save him. I think she was trying to take his emotions away so he wouldn’t lose control. It doesn’t work like that.” He crossed his arms. “We don’t work like that.”
“Well,” the doctor said, “she’s in good hands now. Rest and fluids are the best cure for exertion. Now, ah, what did you say your name was?”
“Ty. Tyler Running Fox.”
The doctor nodded with a knowing smirk. “The one who played Hamlet? My daughter hated you in that.”
“Yeah? You’d be amazed how often I hear that.” A lump formed in his throat. He worked his jaw, chewing down the fear. “Will she be okay?”
“She shouldn’t even be alive.” Dr. Smith sighed, rocking back on his heels. “I don’t suppose you had a chance to check the news, but it’s bad. The island’s on fire. One of the helicopter pilots dropping water brought back footage of the beach; it’s glass and ceramic now. If it hadn’t been for you this young lady would be a pile of ash.”
Guilt weighed him down. “I didn’t save Jacob.”
Dr. Smith sighed again. “That’s one of those things you learn in this business; you can’t save everyone. You’ll kill yourself if you try. Come on,” the doctor said, taking Ty by the shoulder. “I’ll buy you a coffee. By tomorrow morning this will all seem like a bad dream.”
They stepped into the brightly lit hall and a shoe came flying from behind them, smacking the doctor in the head and bouncing to the floor. “Daddy!” Angela’s outraged cry.
