gifted

by Charmaine Ross

  Kings Bridge still stood, carrying a tide of cars over its arch. There was Melbourne Aquarium, although it had gained some stories. “I went there and saw King Penguins.” I remembered the icy enclosure and the beautiful, stoic penguins on show. Somehow I’d managed to sneak through their security. I’d spent the entire day there, engrossed as much by the parents taking their children out as by the beautiful sea life.

  “They hold all of the endangered sea life in the Southern Hemisphere now,” Julius said. “It also goes below the water level where you can see into the Yarra through giant windows.”

  “You can see into the Yarra?” I asked.

  “It’s been cleaned of fuels and litter. It took a decade or so, but fish eventually came back into the river. It’s quite busy down there.”

  I shook my head, trying to take all the information in. Melbourne had come so far, grown, and shone. I watched lines of cars heading in all directions through the sky. “How many people live here?”

  “Twenty million.”

  “I’m used to four million.”

  “It’s around the same size and width as it was a century ago, but with the invention of magnetic-gravity, it meant the people could live in taller buildings and still be able to drive around. Most apartment buildings have their own garages so that people can park their cars no matter how high up they are.”

  I studied the huge buildings surrounding us. As he spoke, I noticed cars slowing and entering sections in buildings. Garages. It reminded me of bees coming into the hive.

  A gentle breeze plucked at a wave in his hair. His features had relaxed since we’d been talking. His shoulders had rounded from the tight, straight line they’d been in. He seemed calmer. Less the doctor trying to keep me alive and more the man who’d let his defenses down a little. I liked watching the man. I found myself staring at him.

  “You like it here.”

  “This has always been my favorite place,” he admitted softly.

  The sun was beginning to set over the tops of the buildings. The light blue of the sky merged with iridescent pinks and oranges.

  “How high are we?”

  “Only about fifty stories.”

  I peered over the balustrade, looking at the street below. Still high enough to kill you if you fell.

  As though reading my thoughts, Julius said, “You can’t fall.”

  I frowned at him.

  “There’s an invisible force field about a meter out and beneath the ledge. It’s standard on any direct-to-air opening. If you fell, you’d only suffer a bruise or two. Only the elements like the wind, sunshine, and rain can penetrate. Natural things. We’re safe here.”

  “Safe. That sounds nice.” I sighed and folded my arms on the railing, resting my chin to watch the sunset. For the moment, I could relax. I was safe. For now. I felt tension slide from my limbs. I angled my head to look at him.

  “Thank you, Julius,” I whispered.

  A frown pulled at his brow. “What for?”

  “For helping me. For bringing me here and sharing this place with me. For ... liking me.”

  He watched me with a mix of amazement and shock. “You don’t have to thank me for liking you.”

  I uttered a self-recriminating sound. “I do when everyone else wants me for their own purposes. I know the difference. I appreciate it. You like me just because you do. You don’t even need a reason.”

  For a moment he watched me, an indefinable expression clouded his eyes. I knew he was seeing a bony woman with horrible sunken eyes and sallow skin. Although the protein enhancers he’d put into my food were working at an incredible rate, I was still too skinny, too gaunt. I’d never cared what I looked like, but I didn’t want him to see me like this. I looked out over the Yarra. I lost myself in the peace the garden brought me. It was a precious reprieve.

  As I rested, dark thoughts invaded my mind. More unanswered questions. The man who’d assaulted me in the alley. Seth, one of the men had called him. He’d been too calm when I’d used my thought-energy on him. As though he’d expected me to use it. Had known that I possessed it. And that was a problem.

  But how? I’d always kept it a closely guarded secret. It had taken me months to be able to work up the courage to even tell Heather, and that was only after a close call when Victor had nearly found me. I’d told her for her own safety.

  Seth had gone easy on me. He’d only been in that alley to give me a message. Be ready to fight. I stifled an internal chill and swallowed the helplessness that engulfed me. Although I knew it was a complete illusion, I coveted the small amount of comfort I’d found here. I watched as cars passed below me.

  From the corner of my vision, a flying car peeled from the line of traffic. It sped toward us, coming way too fast. An arrow streaking toward its target. Too obvious for my mind to be playing tricks. I pointed, “That car!”

  It turned sideways, sliding through the air until it stopped suspended in midair directly in front of us. The side door lifted. My heart pounded. All I could do was stare, my breath hard in my lungs. “What the fuck ... !”

  Chapter Ten

  Seth looked straight at me, baring his teeth. Maybe he thought it was a grin, but it was more a movement that contorted his face into something demonic. In the wind, his hoodie whipped off his head, revealing a tattoo that covered half of his bald skull.

  My mind spun. Logical thought beyond me. Seth tugged a black, heavy looking device into his hands and aimed it toward us. Fingers dug into my shoulders. Julius tugged me down a millisecond before buzzing tore through my skull. I cried out. Felt my voice in my throat, but heard no sound.

  The diameter of a glowing blue circle emanated from the end of the device. A heat shimmer distorted everything around me. Electricity pulsed, and a deep reverberating sound penetrated my ears. Spidery cracks appeared in the force field that protected the garden from the outside elements, starting at the base and quickly climbing upward. It was going to shatter. Julius pulled me to the ground, covering my body with his.

  An explosion boomed all around me. Silvery shards rained around us. One sliced my leg. The force field had been destroyed, and we were going to be cut to shreds.

  Protect. Live. I cocooned our bodies with the thought-energy, willing it to be strong with every ounce of concentration I possessed. Shards hit the energy bubble and slid harmlessly to the grass.

  Silence screamed. I took my hands from my head, visually going over my body. No pain. No blood. Julius hunkered over me.

  “Are you hurt?” he yelled.

  I shook my head.

  Seth stepped onto the balustrade and leapt over a bush, aiming the device straight at us, black eyes glinting with lust. Julius grabbed my arm, tugged me to my feet, screaming, “Run! Run! Run!”

  Somehow, we managed to stagger through the garden together. Every cell in my body prickled with the knowledge that Seth was behind us, aiming that gun right at our backs. If it managed to shatter a force field made to withstand the weather a kilometer high, then it would pulverize our bodies in half that time.

  We bolted down a path as a blast hit the ground next to me. Dirt and grass exploded over us. I staggered, but Julius kept me upright and running. We reeled into the first garden we’d entered from the elevator. So many people here. Innocents who didn’t know a thing about Seth or myself.

  “Get out of here! Move! Run!” I screamed to shocked faces.

  Julius put a hand on my arm, and together we ran toward the elevator, yelling at people to escape. I saw the female jogger crouching behind a bush and shouted at her to get the hell out of here. I glimpsed behind me and saw Seth step around a shrub, the sneer locked on his face. Somewhere in the background, I registered a siren wailing. People screaming, running. Commotion all around.

  There was a scream and I slipped to a halt, spinning around. Seth had his fingers wrapped around a little girl’s neck, the gun pointed at her temple. She could have been ten or eleven. Her face was pale. She shook all over, her mouth pulled
in a grimace. She looked down at a man lying sprawled unmoving at her feet. Her father taken down by Seth.

  Rage ripped through me. He was not going to hurt that child. I screamed as a surge of power left my body. The gun exploded in Seth’s hands. Crumbled into a million pieces, flew through the air and scattered over the ground. Seth dropped his hold of the girl. She scrambled over to her father and lay over his prone body.

  Seth looked at his empty hands, bloody and cut, and then right at me. He didn’t seem to feel any pain! Julius tugged my arm, and we staggered away.

  “Run, little rabbit! I’m enjoying this game,” he called in a singsong voice.

  Half of me wanted to stay and fight and work the anger out of my system. The other half—the terrified half—kept on tripping, locking arms with Julius, trying to make sense of what had just happened.

  We reached the elevator, and Julius stabbed the button. The doors opened, and we bolted inside. The emotionless female voice asked us where we wanted to go. “Basement,” Julius said.

  In a second, the doors closed, and my stomach was somewhere in my throat as we descended. I sank to the floor, hunched over, hands on knees, dragging breath into my lungs. I heard Julius breathing as hard as I was. I looked through my hair, saw him place a shaking hand on the wall of the lift.

  Next to him, my image was reflected back. Dark wide eyes, long black hair dangling in strands about my shoulders. My face, pale and shell-shocked. Contorted with a pain that seared me on the inside.

  The lift settled to a stop, and the doors opened into a garage. I guessed apartment complex car parks hadn’t changed in the last century. Julius grabbed my hand, stalking through the cars.

  My toothpick legs refused to take my weight, and I wobbled against him. He put his arm around my shoulders. I let myself lean against his stable warm body. I put my hand onto his chest and felt his heart thundering inside him.

  The vast car park didn’t fill me with any sense of safety. The stark light created harsh shadows that anyone could hide in. Seth could be here at any moment, and we would be sitting ducks with little protection.

  “Let’s get out of here,” I whispered.

  Julius picked me up, as my legs refused to move. We rounded a corner, and I stumbled from his arms to collapse against his car, out of breath and dizzy from the aftereffects of the energy dump.

  The door slid upward, and Julius helped me into the seat. In a moment, the door closed and Julius was next to me. The car lit inside. “Drive. Anywhere. Level three,” Julius said.

  The only way I knew the car started was that it moved automatically. We slid through the parked cars and toward a circle of light. Sunlight washed over me as we moved onto a street at ground level and merged into a line of traffic. We approached a ramp and maneuvered into a line of traffic about three stories from the ground.

  “Auto-drive,” Julius said.

  “Destination?” the metallic female voice asked.

  “Just drive.” Julius’s hands slipped into his lap as the car automatically merged into traffic. He leaned the back of his head onto the rest and briefly closed his eyes, before turning to me.

  “Are you hurt?” Julius asked. He watched me, concern etching lines around his face.

  “No. You?”

  He shook his head, “No. I ... I don’t know how we weren’t hurt. Hell. It wasn’t meant to be like this ...” he whispered before I’d noticed he’d spoken more to himself than me. He turned his attention to me, face taunt, eyes dark and intent.

  A wave of exhaustion crashed over me, and I was unable to block it out. My emotions backhanded me with a swift slap. My nightmare was still living. It was happening again. Against all odds, somehow, somewhere, they’d found me. And now Julius was involved. Now I had more to lose than just my own life.

  “Tell you. I’ll tell you ... everything.

  I’d put his life in danger. Whatever he had to tell me was nothing compared to the bombshell I owed him. After his kindness, I’d brought him into my world. A world he didn’t deserve any place in.

  It would be stupid of me not to think he wouldn’t have questions. He’d taken me from the capsule, seen me in the alley, and now had been with me when Seth had attacked again. Hell, he’d been in as much danger as I was.

  There was a war in my head, struggling against the urge to tell him and the mantra I lived my life by. Don’t get involved. Don’t become affectionate with anyone. Don’t get caught. But I’d done all three. And put all those people in the garden in danger. I’d become complacent, selfish enough to feel comfortable even for that moment, come out into the open longer than I knew I should. And this Seth—whoever he was—had found me because of that.

  And now, by allowing myself to seek comfort with Julius, I’d also put him in more danger than I had any right to do. I sighed, knowing that I had to tell him for his own safety, but that this would be the last time I’d seek comfort from him. After I told him about myself, I’d disappear. I would never see him again.

  I had a lot to be grateful for. He’d healed me, body and mind. Had given me sanctuary, kindness, a moment of peace. I was thankful. I had something to remember.

  I watched him as we drove. I wanted to memorize what I saw, his face, mannerisms, the way his muscles slid beneath his skin on his arms. His gaze rested on mine, nonjudgmental and patient, and my heart lurched. I recognized trust when I saw it. So stupid of him. I swallowed before I made myself stop, before I could think too much about what I was going to tell him.

  “You’re going to think I’m crazy.”

  “Katia ...”

  I cut him off. “I’m not who you think I am, Julius. There’s a reason why this is happening to you. Why it happens to everyone I ...”, what was I going to say—love?—“ ... my friends. There’s a reason why your life’s in danger, and it’s because of me.”

  I had to tell him, and I had to tell him now. Before he might say something to me to make this all right. To make me think that him being in danger was just a part of being with me. Because Heather thought that way, and I only brought her torture and death. I’d learned that lesson well. Everyone was in danger around me, and he at least deserved to know why before I disappeared from him for good.

  I glanced at him again, judging his reaction, but only read openness and a desire to listen. No judgment. I licked dry lips. It was a temptation to unleash my secrets. I’d carried them for so long. I hadn’t even told Heather about the full extent of my abilities, and she had known me pretty well.

  It was so wrong telling him, I knew that, but he was offering a place for me to confess. Confide. A chance to not feel the weight that I’d shouldered on my own for so long, yet the urge to tell him was overwhelming. There would be release. Blessed release. The lure of comfort sucked me in. The temptation to relinquish this heavy weight was so vast, and God help me, I couldn’t hold it in any longer.

  “I’ve done things. Bad things, Julius. Things you don’t want to know. But I was so sickened. I couldn’t do them anymore. Even if it meant I would die, I swore to myself I’d never do the things he wanted me to do again.” Julius stayed silent. There was no recrimination, just sadness. I made my hands into fists. Hell, this was hard.

  “Who... who wanted you to do these ... things?”

  “My father. Victor,” I answered. “He gave me the scars you saw on my body. He did it with his own hands.” I smiled at knowing I’d made my father so angry. It made the pain sweet. I’d made him mad one particular time. I’d remained silent, unresponsive for days. He snapped. He’d whipped the belt from his waist, stripped me bare and used it on me. His face etched with lines that made him look like the monster he was. It was only that perverse reality that got me through the worst of the whipping. I wanted him to look like that always, but he only showed that face to me. He hid it from the rest of the world.

  “But ... why?”

  “Because I owed him. He’d taken me in from the world when I was all alone and too young to look after myself. Had g
iven me expensive “medicine” that made me sick and changed my body. For years, he did that. He made me into what I am, and I needed to work off my debt to him. I’m weak, Julius. I wanted to die to get away from him. I wanted to die to end it all.”

  “You don’t deserve to die, Katia.”

  I gave him a feeble smile. He wanted to believe the best in me, but there was no “best.” There was just survival. “All I succeeded in doing was to kill my friend. My only friend. They found her and I ... I watched as they did things to her ... I stood and watched them kill her, and still, I didn’t cave. They’d done their worst. He ... he’d done his worst, and he still couldn’t break me. I could have stopped it. I could have given in and done what they wanted me to do.”

  “And what if you had? What would that have achieved?”

  I know what that would have achieved. My energy. Strong enough to kill people with no more than a thought. I could do it from half a world away, stuffed in a cell never to see the light of day for as long as I lived. Victor’s personal assassin. “I’d be evil on earth.”

  “What is it you can do, Katia? What did your father change you into? I can see no evil in you.”

  He was so blindly kind to me. Although I drank it up, I didn’t deserve to be on the end of that look. I looked into his face, made sure he saw me. This was when I was going to break that trust. This was when I’d see the affection fall away as the horror of what I was registered.

  I stared at my hands clenched in my lap, fingers working and reworking. I had to force the words past my lips. “Telekinesis.”

  I expected to see shock or abhorrence or fear. I didn’t expect to see the sympathy. Or compassion. And even though I didn’t want to see any of that, it was a balm to my heart. No one else had understood. No one else had listened. No one else had been interested enough to make me feel like a person and not an experiment. Call it stupid, but I wanted to tell him. Everything. I wanted him to know everything I was, even the evil parts. The parts I didn’t want to see in myself. Because if he knew them, maybe I wouldn’t see the compassion and understanding on his face and he wouldn’t want to see me again and it would make the leaving him much, much easier. Easier to face revulsion than pity. Or maybe even ... affection. I didn’t even know what to do with that. Didn’t know the first thing about love.