With Cross & Charm

by D.L. Miles

  Chapter 2

  TAKING

  I had managed to nab four wallets from the men, and two small clutches from the women before deciding to check them out in the bathroom. I hide them beneath my sweater as I ducked into a stall, beating a drunk girl before she had a chance to pass out in it. As I opened the first wallet I heard her throwing up into a sink, and the disgusted moans of the other women.

  So far the night had paid fairly well, with one iPhone, one digital camera and about two hundred dollars between the wallets. I pocketed the phone for myself, feeling that if I was able to score another phone Sam wouldn’t mind me taking the first one. That didn’t mean I was going to stop for the night; I’d only been there for half an hour.

  I stepped back out onto the darkened dance floor after receiving a glare from the drunk girl as I left. A few dance moves later and I had another wallet in my hand. Unfortunately I also had a hand on my wrist. I stalled and looked up.

  Oasis had apparently hired an even newer security guard, because the man that held my wrist was not the usual uniformed lackey. He dressed in a black sweater, with leather pants and he actually had a mask on; like a full out balaclava. The only part of his face that showed were his eyes and mouth, and they weren’t exactly pretty. Someone could use some lip balm. Seriously, if he wanted to stand out he should have just worn a sign that said, “Hi, I’m security and take my job way too seriously”.

  “Did it hurt?” I asked him. The only way I could tell he’d heard me was by a subtle tilt of his head. “You know, when I kicked your jewels in.”

  I didn’t kick him, but opted to knee him below the belt. He grunted and leaned over, letting go of my wrist. I took my cue to leave and ran for it, hoping to get to the back door where Sam would maybe keep me safe. At the very least he’d keep me from getting arrested.

  The crowd seemed to move in on me, more and more people flooding in from the front doors. Geez, hadn’t Oasis ever heard of fire hazards? The further I moved the harder it was to breathe.

  A glance over my shoulder showed me I’d lost the man that had grabbed me, and I was beginning to question if he’d even been security. It was beginning to look a lot like a kidnapping, so where was the real security? I pushed hard against the people, finally making it to the edge of everything when I saw that the man in the balaclava had friends.

  Two more men in black masks appeared, rushing towards me through the crowd with surprising speed. Normal people did not move that fast in a club and I knew they weren’t the normal security. There was no way Song would hire these guys if he wanted his patrons to be robbed.

  My heart was beginning to beat hard against my ribs, panic was setting in along with a familiar warmth. I pushed it down, wondering why my heat would flare up so quickly after I’d already lost control. It had been less than two hours!

  As the men closed in on me I started moving towards the back doors, only to be blocked off by a third man. This one wore all black, but he didn’t have a mask. I couldn’t focus on his features, at least not all of them; all I could see were his teeth, two rows of jagged white spikes as he smiled. My mouth gaped and my brow furrowed. So not security.

  “Over here,” whispered a voice. I turned to my right, wondering how I’d heard a whisper with such pounding music surrounded me. I wondered how I heard it over my own heartbeat.

  A boy stood there, with green eyes so light they looked turquoise, and a grin on his face. He leaned against the wall, one foot propped against it as he nodded behind him. “This way.”

  I looked left and right and didn’t know what he was talking about. There was no doorway there, no path to escape. The men were getting closer, all of them slowing down for some reason when they saw the boy near me. His own eyes shifted towards the attackers. I blinked; that’s what they were, they were attacking me. I couldn’t believe it.

  But my chest was getting hotter, and my vision was beginning to blacken around the edges. I took a deep breath, and the boy seemed tired of waiting for a response. He jumped towards me and grabbed my hand into his. “It’ll be fun, I promise.”

  He yanked on my arm and we crashed towards the wall. The men dashed forward, one of them narrowly missing my hoodie as the boy and I disappeared into the concrete wall. We’d gone so fast I had barely seen what happened (it probably didn’t help that I squeezed my eyes shut), but I remembered the distinct outline of a door, lined with blue lightning.

  Only when the grating music turned into trickling water did I open one eye. My feet were wet, nose scrunched so tightly I thought it might permanently stay that way. The boy was still holding onto my hand and I wrenched out of it. He didn’t try to catch me as I fell backwards into the fountain.

  Twisting my neck I looked around quickly, gauging my surroundings. My mind was taking it’s time trying to figure out what had happened, and I was grateful for the distraction; the heat in my chest was completely gone.

  I sat in the fountain in the center of town, streets deserted at this hour. Beneath my hands I could feel the coins people had wished on, the cold water soaking into my sleeves. I took a deep breath, then another. And another. “What?” That was the only word I could think of.

  “You looked like you needed an escape,” the boy said, crouching down into the water. He didn’t seem bothered by the cold, or by the fact that he had somehow teleported us across the county. I stared at him.

  “You’re the guy from earlier,” I stammered, “the one I ran into.” His bright eyes and dark hair were a combination hard to forget; you know, when you were able to come back to reality. Though as I sat in the fountain I wasn’t sure I’d quite made it there yet.

  He nodded, giving me a gentle smile that didn’t show his teeth. “And just think of what I’d do for you if you’d apologized.”

  I flicked my eyes to the left, trying to decide if I could outrun him. He rested his elbow on his knee, placing his head in his hand with a sigh. His eyes looked me up and down. “Why are you stealing people’s wallets? You could just go to the Centre if you need some money.”

  “What?” I repeated. Geez, get attacked in a club, go through a portal and my brain turned to mush. But as we stared at each other it snapped back to attention. This guy had created a portal to another place. It was like magic. It was like my fire; unnatural. Impossible.

  I stood, and he did the same.

  “I see you’re speechless,” he sighed. “Do you need a lift back to the Centre? I could take you. I know, I know, it’s an amazing power but trust me I know a girl who’s way stronger with portals. Like, she can make them—”

  “I gotta go.” I stepped out of the fountain and started moving. My legs wouldn’t obey me and start running, but at least they didn’t give out. The boy seemed surprised by my reaction and paused in the fountain. I didn’t even care that the iPhone and camera were ruined, or that I had to walk home in the cold while soaking wet.

  I risked a glance over my shoulder, wondering if he would be there. He wasn’t. I turned back around to find him in front of me, a small thin line of crackling blue light disappearing behind him. I had to give myself credit for not shrieking, and instead covered my mouth as I flinched back. I told my feet to run the hell away, but they had stopped listening.

  “Hold on,” he said, giving me a quizzical look. “You shouldn’t be alone right now; those guys might find you again.”

  I nodded quickly. “I’ll be fine, thanks. And thanks for the assist at the club, but I’d like to go home and have my friend check me for a concussion which I’m like seventy-eight per cent sure I have.”

  His brow furrowed. “You hit your head? There’s a wonderful druid not too far from here,”—he looked over at a nearby tree—“I think she heals for free if you’d—hey!” I’d started to walk away from him.

  “Where are you going?” he asked.

  I stopped and faced him quickly, making him flinch. He put his hands into the poc
kets of his jeans, staring at me with an annoying energy. I wasn’t sure how to describe it, I could feel the excitement coming from him. “Look,” I said, “I don’t know who you are, or what you are, but go away. I don’t know why those men that attacked me, or what the hell is going on but—”

  “You don’t know what I am?” he interrupted. His eyebrows arched in surprised, his mouth hanging slightly open. “Really?” He tilted his head. “Are you sure?”

  I nodded energetically. “Pretty sure, yeah. I don’t think I know what can create portals in walls, or freaking thin air. So if you don’t mind; I’m out of here.”

  This time when I walked away, he let me leave. Though I had my hopes, I was certain this wasn’t going to be the last time I saw him.

  I didn’t want to go home, not if that freak was following me. He’d helped me, sure, but why? And I seriously did not want him to know where I lived, or to meet Clara and Fern. No way. So I took what little money I’d stolen from the club and found myself a cheap motel room.

  In the surprisingly clean bathroom mirror I checked myself for injuries. Besides a waterlogged iPhone and camera, and shaky hands, I was fine. There was no obvious gash on my head, but that didn’t mean there was no brain damage, and there weren’t even any scrapes or bruises. I sighed at my reflection.

  The image of the man in the club, with the jagged teeth and his friends in the masks flashed in my mind more often than the boy that made portals. What the hell were they? Why was I the one they grabbed?

  Nobody else had seemed to even notice them, which made me worry more. A group of men in masks, with shark-like teeth should have made everyone there panic, but it was like nobody could even see them. I bit my bottom lip, debating what to do.

  I couldn’t go back to Fern or Clara, not now. The boy had a point; those guys might come back. He might come back! I groaned and leaned against the counter; I didn’t have nearly enough money to leave town with.

  A knock at the door made my heart skip a beat.

  Normally I wouldn’t answer it; I’d ignore it and let whoever was on the other side leave. But in motels when someone knocked and nobody answered it meant someone might break in. I didn’t have the energy to fend off more attackers; not that I’d really done anything before. “Who is it?”

  “Manager,” came a woman’s voice. I immediately calmed down. “Just had a problem with the credit card.”

  As I swung the door open I said, “I didn’t pay with a—” I slammed the door shut as I saw the boy standing there, a girl beside him. I locked it quickly, debating what to do.

  “It’s okay,” I heard him say, “this is our thing. She leaves, and I follow.”

  The girl with him grunted in response. He called into the room, “I just want to talk.”

  “We,” she corrected.

  “Yeah, right,” I muttered, leaving the door. I checked the bathroom, wondering if the window was big enough to crawl through; nope. There was nowhere for me to run, there wasn’t even anywhere for me to hide in the tiny room. But it didn’t matter as a thin line opened up to a doorway, and the boy and girl stepped through. She shook her shoulders as if it were cold. “What do you want?”

  “To talk,” the girl said. Her raven hair was cropped into a pixie-cut, sharp eyes matching her cheekbones. She couldn’t have been much older than me, but she wore a pant-suit with shiny black shoes. No accessories; how boring. “Noah tells me you don’t know what he is.”

  “Gee,” I said, “sorry for not knowing what kind of person can make portals.”

  One thick brow arched. “You really don’t, do you?”

  I shook my head, hands flat against the wall as I tried to figure out how to make it to the front door. I could hide in the bathroom, but with him here that didn’t matter. How could I hide from someone that could teleport? I couldn’t.

  He smiled at me, his teeth still hiding beneath his lips. “But you know what you are, right?”

  I blinked slowly. Both their eyes widened.

  “Do you know of the Centre?” she questioned. “Of Legion?”

  I looked away, unable to answer. She took a deep breath and pressed her hand against her chest, seeming more shocked than I was. “How is this possible?”

  Noah shrugged. “Adoption, maybe?”

  “Even then—” She couldn’t seem to make an argument. Actually, she seemed too taken aback to argue, and was now staring at me with wide brown eyes. “You need to come with us.”

  “Like hell I do,” I shouted. “Who are you people anyway? What is going on?”

  Her eyes narrowed but before she could say another word the boy cut in. “I’m Noah, and as you can see we aren’t exactly human.”

  “Well good for you Noah,” I said, and he actually looked pleased. Clearly sarcasm was lost on this kid. “But I am so not going anywhere with you people.”

  “You don’t know what you are, right?” he said. “I can tell you’re like us, you are. But you’ve never known.”

  I said nothing. Noah turned to the girl. “Sasha, you can smell it right? You know what she is.”

  Sasha pursed her lips. “I can.”

  “What I am?” I whispered. These people know? I shook my head, feeling they were wrong. How could they know? How could she smell it? It didn’t make any sense!

  Noah faced me again. “If you come with us, we can explain it. There’s a safe place where psychotic skiers won’t be able to get you, and we can tell you everything.”

  I broke down, for only a moment. “Like how to control it?”

  Sasha arched a brow again. “You can’t control your power?”

  I stayed quiet, immobile.

  “Then you’re too dangerous to be on your own,” Sasha told me, “you need to come to the Centre with us now.”

  Heat flared in my chest, and this time I knew it wasn’t going to go away. I touched over my heart, looking down at my hand for only a moment before connect eyes with Noah. His bottom lip lowered enough to tell me he knew what was coming. Maybe he did.

  But I didn’t have time to second guess my decision not to go with them.

  The wave hit.

  And there was nothing I could do to stop it.