Time stopped as she heard a knock on the other side of the door.
Crap. She jolted upright, struck by the sight of Jasper—too small a room, too big a tension.
He smiled, unaffected by the sight of her, as they brushed shoulders on his way to the station.
“Clearly this room isn’t big enough for all of us.” He grinned and nodded at Mia from behind the glass wall. “I checked Mia’s progress report on my way here.” Jasper turned to face Alex from his rolling chair. “Impressive.”
Alex nodded and entered the room where Mia jumped from the recliner and brushed her palms together, motivated.
“Let’s do this, Alex! Where to?” She watched eagerly as he pulled the intersat out of his pocket and showed her the new coordinates. Jasper and Alexandre nodded at each other. Both Mia and Alex evaporated under a blue light and Zoey watched it all from the bench behind Jasper, catching his eye in the reflection of the window.
She shrugged and jerked her head in the opposite direction.
“You’ll get used to the portalling light in time,” he spoke, tracing outlines on the intersat.
“Yeah, about that, I was wondering if I could perhaps join Lilou and the girls since you’ll be here monitoring. Alex said it was okay before he left.”
He turned in his chair to get a better look at her. She was up, arms folded in protest. “Was that a slight degree of petulance in your voice?” He grinned.
“How very fifteenth century of you! Who uses the word ‘petulance’ anymore?” she mocked only to see him flash an even broader smile in return.
“It’s sixteenth century, actually,” he poked back. “First known reference dates from 1535. To tell you the truth, there are not many words in the dictionary to describe you, but ‘petulant’ might just have your face in the description.”
“I suppose then you wouldn’t mind if I had one for you, would you?”
“Hit me with your best shot.”
“Zounderkite!” She gave him a death stare to go with it.
“Checkmate! Now that we got that out of the way, Alex left me clear indications on your progress and I think we could explore it further if you agree and you think you can focus in my presence.” Her eyes widened at his smugness.
The nerve!
“Fine!” she spat and left the monitoring room only to return to the white recliner and launch herself at it. “Now what?” Zoey Mills was not one to exit through the back door.
She heard his voice in the speakers. “Now I will join you because the intersats cannot show you real energy, so I have to do it myself.”
“Roger that,” she muttered as she followed his waistcoat making its way into the studio room. The lights were getting dimmer in both rooms.
“There’s no reason to be afraid, Zoey. Your heart rate is off the charts. I dimmed the lights so you can actually see energy better.” He took a seat on the ottoman next to her, pulling himself closer until their knees almost touched.
She could still see the outline of his face and his amber-radiating eyes becoming somewhat electric.
“Your eyes…” She was staring at his face, trying to make sense of the changes she registered.
“What color are my eyes, Zoey?” he asked, fixing his gaze on her.
“Amber. They’ve always been amber but now they’re…more electric?”
“Thank you!” He raised his brows and made a steeple out of his fingers as she followed every movement. It was so quiet that she could hear his breath but tried to focus on the dance of his fingers instead. There had to be more to her enhancement.
“Shit, Jasper. What is that?! There’s like a thunderstorm happening between your fingers!” She saw it clearly and somehow she felt the impulse to touch the small-scale lightning parade between his fingers.
“Don’t touch it yet, try to pull the electrical discharge to you,” he said softly. “Use your hands.”
“I don’t know how! Like pulling a rope?”
“Put your palms in front of it and pull with your mind. Imagine your hands could pull without touching and try.”
She did, and it felt like something opening from inside of her, something she couldn’t quite describe, something ethereal. She closed her eyes and tried to feel without looking, like Mia said.
Jasper’s eyes widened as he felt her pull and the wave of energy reflecting from her hands as well. To his eyes, they were still in the dim lit studio, where apart from the energy shift, nothing had changed. For Zoey, however, a light show unfolded even before her closed eyes.
By the time she dared a peek, her palms were radiating streaks of lightning in electric shades of gold, pink and purple. She was afraid to let go but wanted to take it further, so she nodded to Jasper and stood up, her palms still creating thunderballs.
Jasper stood up with her, his palms now facing hers under the visually striking display happening only before her eyes. He saw her, wonderstruck, as she followed the magic happening between them.
“Tell me what you see, Zoey.”
“I…I think I pulled the small thunderbolt and I might have replicated more with my hands, but I’m not sure how—so now I think I can move them all around us without guiding them with my hands, just…my mind…do you see it?” Her voice was shaking at the sight of the small wonder she witnessed.
Jasper held his breath at the sight of her, her initial discomfort replaced by what every young optan felt as they entered the journey of discovering themselves—and she held his gaze captive.
“I can’t see it, but it feels like a draft around us.” He’d never felt anything like it either.
She got a fraction closer. “I’d like to see what happens if I touch you.” It looked and felt like pure sorcery evolving in waves of light, engulfing them in warmth and adrenaline as if time had frozen in the swirl of lightning.
γ
In a swift move, Emma arched her body and launched herself claws-first at Lilou’s throat with the grace of a housecat. Much to her surprise, Lilou froze her midair and remained unmoved at her ungraceful (sack of potatoes thrown from moving truck) descent upon the foamy floor.
Emma’s heart was racing, her contorted body collapsed, angry at her fruitless attempt and feeble limbs.
“How are we ever going to kick your ass if you don’t give a little?” Sam snapped from the other side of the room as she ran to Emma’s side.
“You’re never going to get an optan if you launch yourself directly at them, be smart about it—why do you think Beck had us all lined up like little students back at his lab?” Lilou rested her hands on her hips. Sam noticed how ferocious she was when she spoke, like a Tinkerbell samurai. “You won’t stand a chance against optans if they know you’re coming. The only way to complete a successful attack on somebody with skills superior to yours is to catch them off guard, act fast!” She kneeled beside Emma and locked hands to pull her up.
Emma regained herself and rested an arm on Sam’s shoulder as she spoke. “I thought your skills didn’t work over at Beck’s lab?”
“Our enhancements didn’t work, but if we’d created a circle around him we could have easily rendered him unconscious. Sam’s life was at stake, so we didn’t.” Lilou jerked, disturbed by the vibration of her kalenium band.
She turned around to tap twice.
This had to be the star alignment they were so eagerly waiting for. Sam and Emma nodded at each other and took advantage of Lilou’s distracting call to get down and dirty with the enemy. Sam shoved her foot behind Lilou’s knee, making her lose balance as Emma went for a nutcracker choke, aiming for the head and crushing her larynx with the knuckles of her index finger.
“Stop it, you maniacs! Zoey thinks she killed Jasper!” Lilou’s face turned to them in horror.
“What?!” Emma shook her head in disbelief as she let go of Lilou’s throat only to hear her coughing hard, trying to regain her breath. “Oh my God, I’m so, so sorry, Lilou!” She covered her mouth with a hand as she steadied herself.
“Can you por
tal us there?” Sam asked, still in shock, as she helped Lilou up.
“Get over here, both of you!” Lilou pressed a hand to the floor and landed in the studio room a second later.
Jasper was lying face-up on the floor, limbs motionless. Emma’s eyes found Zoey crouched and sobbing in the opposite corner of the dark room. The air was heavy from the smoke still rising from the heavily burned grey rug and dark frame of what used to be a chair.
Lilou jumped to Jasper’s side, tapping his kalenium band. Panic floated through everyone’s thoughts as the girls kneeled to shelter Zoey, who couldn’t speak between sobs and gasps. There was ardency in the irregular panting of her chest, terror clouding every feature as she pulled her knees a little tighter to her chest.
Sam searched the room to see no signs of fighting, but patches of burned rug and a shattered kalenium screen on the wall Jasper had probably collapsed against. Kalenium was supposed to be the strongest thing out there, Sam had heard Alex brag about it twice since they got here.
Jesus, how could this happen? Sam thought, yet never spoke it out loud as she scooched to wrap an arm around Zoey, cradling her head in the warmth of her shoulder. This was bad.
They all watched Lilou trying to heal him like Alex had done with Sam, and Jasper with Mia. Woosh after woosh and there was nothing except Zoey’s choked cries.
Lilou didn’t stop. She kept at it long enough for everyone to wonder if this had been the end of him. The faintest noise came from his throat as she pressed her hand on his bare chest again until a cough mixed with healing light and a weak nose twitch followed.
He made it.
Everyone saw Lilou’s body crumple, exhausted, next to Jasper’s. She spoke, glued to the floor, her eyes closed, an arm resting on her stomach.
“What the heck happened, Zoey?”
Zoey wanted to speak but air had left her lungs and tears were gathering at her chin in a desperate sob. Panic had paralyzed the words which wouldn’t escape her mouth.
“It’s not her fault.” Jasper’s voice came weak.
“It is my fault,” she spoke between sobs. “Jasper was trying to help me channel whatever Beck has done to me and as soon as I touched him…I—I thought I killed him! I’m so sorry, Jasper!”
He turned his face to the side so he could see her. “You look like a hamster when you cry.” His voice was barely audible. “She can see and harness energy, Lilou. I now have a pretty good idea what Beck’s plan entails.”
Lilou was sprawled on the floor, and for the first time since the girls had met her, she looked drained and quiet. It didn’t suit her one bit.
“Want me to send an alert to the team?” She kept her eyes closed, voice still consumed.
“Don’t mock me just yet.” Jasper too felt spent, but optimistic under the circumstances. He picked at his band, checking Zoey’s algorithms.
Lilou pushed herself up, still worn to a frazzle, arched her back in a stretch, locking her hands at the back of her head in a strong pull while peeking at Jasper.
“She’s good, then?” she received a positive nod. “Alright then, ladies, I think you should take Zoey to her room for now. I’ll take Jasper to his.”
Zoey had no recollection of how Sam and Emma managed to pull her from the floor, drag her up the stairs and to the privacy of her room. Like in a trance, she opened her eyes to trace the outline of her ceiling, reliving the moment their palms touched and she sent him flying into the wall behind him, cracking the kalenium screen in more places than she thought possible. He collapsed like a burned match to the floor as she screamed in horror and swung to his side, afraid to lay a hand on him again. But she did, although this time she didn’t hurt him, she just held his face in her hands, begging him to respond. It weakened her core to see him so frail, searching for life with desperate fingers, pressing an ear to his chest, and wetting his waistcoat with fresh tears overflowing at the insanity that had just happened.
For little over an hour she drifted on and off again, identifying her friends’ voices, yet unable to make sense of what they were saying. She heard their footsteps on the wooden floor and felt as they sat beside her in bed until she finally opened her eyes.
“Look who’s the biggest badass in town!” Sam’s voice finally made sense, warmth clinging to every word. She sat beside her, stroking her curls.
Emma wrapped her arms around herself and stared at them from the foot of the bed. This whole thing had been a bad idea. Who were they kidding? They were not soldiers and this war was definitely not theirs. The threat, though, was real.
If Beck didn’t get to Zoey first, the aliens might for almost killing their ambassador—a terrifying ordeal.
Sam spoke as Zoey resurfaced. “I don’t know if I’ve already told you this story about Irene, my ex’s sister. When she was twenty-three, she was living with her family who she loved to bits, had been dating her high school sweetheart for five years, and was happily employed by this very successful pharmaceutical company in Spain—living the dream, basically. Over the course of two weeks, her family had to move to France, where her dad started over on a much better pay; her high school sweetheart dumped her on her birthday saying he didn’t love her anymore; and she was fired from the very promising company she worked at.” Emma wondered where Sam was going with all this. “Naturally, her dream life had done a full spin—she went from having it all to being home alone, unemployed, and heartbroken. What do you think she did next?” Sam’s inquisitive eyes caught Emma nervously scratching her elbow.
“If you’re gonna say speed dating, I might slap you right here.” she replied jokingly.
“Nope! She went to church! She prayed and begged God for her life back.”
Emma rolled her eyes. “You want to find a church around here, Sam?”
“Wait for it! So she steps out of the church and reaches into her purse to grab her wallet and get a cab, but the wallet is nowhere to be found.” Sam paused for suspense. “She had been robbed in the frigging church, if you believe that!”
Emma draped a hand over her mouth. “No!” She shook her head. It was both tragic and hilarious.
Zoey found Sam’s voice soothing. “How is she now?” She turned her head to face Sam, still sniffing.
“Happily married, awaiting her second child. Point is—can it get any worse? Yes! But it also gets better—especially after it gets worse!”
“Spoken like a true therapist.” Emma watched Zoey pull herself into a sitting position.
“I could have killed him!” she sighed, feeling Sam’s hand wiping her tears.
Emma sat on the bed. “You didn’t!” She gave Zoey’s hand a light squeeze.
“Lilou just said he’s fine! She called like a minute ago when you were passed out.” Sam had a million questions about what had happened down there, but she swallowed them down one by one.
“How is he? How am I going to look at him ever again? I want to apologize!” Zoey was already hyperventilating.
“You’re not going anywhere until you calm down.”
“I have to see him, Sam!” She jumped off the bed and stormed out the door despite their cries. His door was literally four steps away from hers, so she paced barefoot yet determined, pressing the handle without blinking. Behind her, Emma and Sam popped their heads through the door, conflicted between giving Zoey some room and making sure she was able to hold herself up.
The tempest driving her turned still as she saw him lying bare-chested in his bed, half awake. She stopped short. She was unprepared, no imagined scenario, no previously rehearsed apology, nothing but the lump in her throat and panting in her chest as she heard the door shut behind her. His room was smaller than hers, with dark wood flooring and matching headboard and nightstands engraved with gold accents. Only the cream bedding and arched windows broke the solemnity of his bedroom.
“Zoey?” His voice came faint yet surprised.
Her hand instinctively went to her mouth. “Jasper, what have I done?”
He pu
lled himself slightly up. “Guess you weren’t joking when you said you looked for your ex in me, huh?”
“That’s not funny!”
The corners of his mouth seemed to be stuck upwards. “I never said it was.”
It was hard not to be struck by the symmetry of his features, the way his lips parted in a mischievous grin, the graceful manner in which his chest moved with his breaths, and how he held himself. He looked different with his hair now brushing his shoulders in blonde waves. Zoey blushed.
“I…” She held her breath and spoke, “I never meant to hurt you.” Her toes were brushing the shaggy carpet laid under his bed.
“Are you afraid to come near me?”
“Yes,” she answered sheepishly.
“Don’t be. What you’ve done is amazing, you shouldn’t be afraid of your skills, you just have to wield them. Come here.” He patted on the empty side of the bed and she felt her heart still. “Your hamster face is not gone, by the way.”
She walked closer and sat beside him, her toes grazing the rug.
“Legs up! C’mon, the least you can do is lay here next to your victim and make pleasant conversation.”
“You don’t even like to talk!”
“I like to hear you talk.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not good at monologues. Look, first you kiss me, then you tell me it was a mistake, then I nearly fry you, and it hasn’t even been twenty-four hours! I think being next to each other might be a bad idea.”
“You came to my room, remember?” Another smirk followed.
“There’s no winning with you!”
“There’s no losing either!” He loved a challenge and that temper she displayed.
Zoey gave in, her legs landing in a flat noise beside his. “Now what?” She crossed her arms over her chest in protest.
There was no denying Jasper enjoyed getting his way. “Now you’ll tell me about your upbringing. In detail,” he demanded under her scrutinizing look.
It was uncanny how fast he disarmed her. She stared back into his eyes and gave an exasperated sigh. “I was born and raised in the north and moved up here when I was twelve with my moms because people were supposed to be more open to same-sex families in big cities and I was getting bullied at school. Uncle Frank lives here too, so it seemed like a good move.”
Lost in Amber Page 19
