Silverthorn

by Sydney Bristow

  “Nice moves,” Alexis said, eliciting a half-grinning. “You ever been on—”

  “Dancing with the Sluts?” Kendall finished for her. “No, although I hear they have a long-standing invitation for you.”

  My sister gritted her teeth. She flung a barrage of frost her way.

  Kendall pivoted, raced up to Alexis, and raised a fist, but before she could connect, Alexis pivoted and motioned toward a bar stool, which flew toward my friend with unbridled speed and crammed into the side of Kendall’s head, knocking her unconscious.

  The crack of a chair, along with the thump of Kendall’s body thrown against the floor, drew the attention of those around us. They set their gazes on Alexis, as though expecting the next form of violence to spring from her fingers.

  I was surprised that Alexis turned to physical aggression before using her mental abilities. It told me that she preferred to do bodily harm, rather than rely upon mental anguish. I tucked away that knowledge for future use.

  “So,” Alexis said, smirking at Kendall’s limp form, before turning her gaze on me. “Who’s next? Brandon? Last time I froze your nuts. Maybe this time, I’ll freeze your brain.” She extended an arm and motioned toward his head.

  A bolt of ice shot toward his head. Unable to run from the spear of permafrost, Brandon tilted to the side and swung a fist at the ice, punching it and busting crystal splinters that filtered to the floor. Apparently, his increased strength also included an offshoot of that ability: a pain suppressant. He smirked. “That all you got?”

  Alexis raised her eyebrows. “Nice.” She glanced at two couples seated nearby. “Move,” she said, directing a hand at them. All four of them backed away from the table without question, making it obvious that she had tapped into their minds to ensure they did as she requested. The furniture quaked against the ground for a moment, until Alexis swept her hand toward Brandon…and the table and chairs flew towards him.

  Right before the heavy wooden objects hit him, Brandon hit the deck. The table and chairs crashed against the iron railing behind him, busting the furniture into pieces that sprawled across the floor.

  The spectators looked from the damaged furniture lying on the ground to Alexis…then, no doubt deciding that their safest course of action was to leave the vicinity, they rushed toward the staircase, female screams erupting as their male counterparts ushered them away from the bar and towards the first floor.

  “Smooth,” said Brandon. “They’re probably thinking you’re one of the mutants that got dropped on the cutting room floor from an X-Men film.” He got to his feet while dusting off his hands. “You identify with comic book heroes, don’t you?”

  Alexis shrugged, looking disinterested as she watched the bartenders scamper away from the bar and rush down the stairwell to the first floor. She unfurled her hands at her sides and motioned toward him, but nothing happened. “Distracting me to steal my snowstorm status.” Her eyebrows rose as she lowered her head, staring at him with deep concentration.

  As though comprehending an unspoken request, Brandon nodded, turned toward me, and headed in my direction.

  “What are you doing?” I asked my sister, splitting my attention between her and Brandon. “I came to here to stop Kendall from hurting you.” I looked at Brandon, only to find him staring at me without recognition, without emotion, as though he’d never seen me before, as though harming me wouldn’t affect him in the least.

  If a stranger came at me like that, I’d be on guard and ready to defend myself. But how could I prepare to hurt someone I loved? Sure, physically, I could take him down within seconds, but I wasn’t emotionally prepared to turn on someone who acted without free will.

  “You deserve this.” A fragile smile touched Kendall’s lips.

  “Brandon!” I shouted, raising my hands toward him to distract him.

  He didn’t acknowledge me, still lost in a mental command that my sister had given him. He walked toward me as though he would let nothing stop him from following through on Alexis’s orders.

  I backed off, splitting my attention between him and my sister. “Stop him,” I told Alexis. “Don’t make me hurt him.”

  “How would you do that?” she asked, her expression as harmless as a kitten. “Some karate chops to the throat? Or would you turn him into a Chicken McNugget? Tell me, sister. How would you stop one of your best friends from killing you?”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Once more, I stared into Brandon’s dead eyes. It seemed like his personality had vanished, replaced by an unseen puppet-master, although in this instance, that person stood less than ten feet away. “Brandon,” I said, extending my arms to keep some distance between us. “Don’t do this. Don’t let her win. Fight back!”

  He gave no indication that he’d heard me.

  I shook my hands at him, hoping the movement would break the cerebral connection between him and my sister, only to discover that nothing I did or said would stop him. Alexis had somehow circumvented outside interruption from diverting his attention.

  Five feet separated us.

  “Brandon!” I shouted again.

  He didn’t blink. He just kept moving toward me. Brandon lifted his arms at head level, looking like Frankenstein’s monster, obviously intent on clutching my throat and choking the life out of me.

  “Alexis, stop him!”

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “You brought this upon yourself…when you decided to kill Mother.”

  “But you killed me first!” I shouted, backing away from Brandon. “Don’t you remember freezing me to death?” Backpedaling, I bumped into a chair, eliciting a squeaky sound. I kicked it behind me. “Did I hold that against you? Delphine poisoned your mind, and I gave you the benefit of the doubt. She was your mother, so I could understand how she manipulated you.”

  But Brandon kept coming, expressionless.

  The iron railing behind me ended my movement, starting me. I pivoted and delivered a roundhouse kick to Brandon’s chest, sending him backwards a few steps.

  “Oh, now,” Alexis said, irritated. “We can’t have that.” She gestured toward the glass bottle of ketchup on the table beside me and then swept her hand toward my head.

  A second later, the bottle slid off the table, swung through the air, and headed for my face.

  I tried to dodge it, but my reflexes were a tad too slow. It hit my left temple, knocking me to the side. Blinking to offset the drowsiness, I tried to regain my bearings.

  Alexis laughed. “Ketchup bottle? One. Serena? Zero!”

  At that moment, Brandon lurched forward, clutching my neck, sinking his fingers deep into my throat. The pressure made me gasp. I attempted to shout at my sister to command him to stop, but the strength with which he’d grasped me made that impossible.

  Thankfully, he no longer had access to Kendall’s strength, since he’d taken Alexis’s ice-making capabilities. Otherwise, he would have had the ability to choke the life out of me in mere seconds. That meant I might be able to cast him aside.

  I kicked at his right shin, and he grunted in pain, but his expression didn’t change. I punched his chest, putting maximum force into the endeavor, and although Brandon grimaced, he didn’t release me or even lessen the amount of force with which he strangled me. Furthermore, the blow I’d delivered had expelled the air from my lungs, leaving me gasping. White stars flashed behind my eyes, and I thrashed out in every direction in an attempt to break free from Brandon’s clutches, so I could snap up some oxygen.

  At that moment, however, my peripheral vision picked up Kendall scrambling to her feet, momentarily flustered, before settling her gaze upon me.

  She hurried over, strapped her arms around Brandon’s chest, and yanked him backwards, flinging them both in the opposite direction. While Brandon hit the ground, releasing a groan, Kendall hadn’t even responded as she crashed to the floor. A moment later, she got to her feet. Breathing heavy, she glared at Alexis.

  On the first floor, the music downstairs didn’
t stop. No one ran off the dance floor. It seemed that those rushing from the second floor hadn’t persuaded those on the lower level to leave the building.

  Kendall smirked at my sister. “You thought I was unconscious? Figures! You’re such a goddamn idiot. You need someone to tell you the obvious.”

  Alexis stared at her with a wrinkled brow, unsure how to respond. She took two steps back.

  Kendall approached my sister. “I’m going to hurt you. And I’m going to like it!”

  But Alexis motioned one hand toward Kendall…and the other toward Brandon. Then she closed the distance between both hands.

  “You love him,” Alexis asked Kendall, “don’t you?”

  “Yes,” Kendall said, swallowing as though she had no choice but to respond in the affirmative.

  “And you,” Alexis said, directing her stare to Brandon, “you like…that she wants you. Don’t you?”

  “Uh, huh.” Brandon nodded as he approached Kendall. “I do.” He stopped a few inches from Kendall.

  “So now what?” asked Alexis. “You’ve got him right where you wanted him. What’re you gonna do about it?”

  Kendall took another step forward, leaving only a few inches between them.

  Brandon, with a determined yet eager expression did likewise.

  “What now?” Alexis asked, staring at them with an intense expression.

  “This,” Brandon said, closing the space between them by slipping an arm around Kendall’s waist and pulling her against him. He looked in her eyes for a long moment, breathing heavy. “And this…” He pressed his mouth against hers, tasting her lips.

  He looked like he’d never wanted anyone so badly in his life. One hand traveled through her hair, while the other clutched her waist tightly.

  “Damn,” Alexis said with a slight grin. “That’s hot as hell!”

  From my perspective as their fellow band member, I didn’t want them to get romantically involved. That dynamic would affect the entire band. Sure, if they were happy, the band might be so in sync that we could put out intense music with wonderful emotion that would affect our audience. (And yet, I couldn’t deny that my feelings for Nolan went beyond friendship. Therefore, I had no right to counsel them to behave in one way or another.)

  On the other hand, if Brandon and Kendall got into a fight, the turbulence would disrupt everything: rather than focusing on putting on the best show possible, they might be concentrating on personal matters that might affect the band’s timing, not to mention destroying the fun-factor. Nevertheless, on a personal level, I wanted them to get together because they would compliment each other so well. But not under these circumstances, not when someone robbed them of their first kiss. I wanted to see them embrace with pure joy and commitment in their eyes, not fear and uncertainty.

  “It’s not hot when you’re forcing them,” I said.

  “Oh, did I? Look again.”

  Brandon kissed her neck, almost wincing with pleasure as his lips fell upon her collarbone, working his way across her chest until he made his way to the other side of her neck, kissing her shoulder. All the while, Kendall’s eyes clenched tight, looking as though she’d release a cry of ecstasy at any moment.

  “I gave them opportunity, that’s all. I didn’t make them kiss. They did that.

  Had Alexis set this situation in place to divert my attention? Yet when I looked at her, my sister stared at my friends with an expression of incomprehension that two people could feel such passion…and act upon those feelings. I suspected that Alexis had somehow forced my friends to face their deepest desires. Yet, I knew my sister wasn’t lying. For years, Kendall had longed for Brandon, and only recently had I discovered that he harbored secret feelings for her, but I knew that he’d never reveal those emotions unless something forced him to do so….in this case, that turned out to be Alexis.

  “No way,” Alexis said, “No one can make two people feel that way…unless they truly feel it.” She paused. “You know, little sis, something tells me you don’t think too highly of me.”

  “And something tells me I think more of you…than you think of yourself.”

  “Just for that snide remark…” She let her words trail off, but her mouth continued moving as she directed her gaze at my friends.

  “What are you saying?” I asked, fright impelling me toward her. “You better not be putting a hex on them.”

  Alexis stopped talking. She nodded at Kendall and Brandon with a satisfied grin. “That’s what I think of your elitist attitude.” She gestured toward my friends. “Go on, have a look.”

  Stopping a few feet short of my sister, I twirled back to Kendall and Brandon, only to find them stuck in place…as though time had stopped. The strobe lights downstairs continued to flicker overhead, and the light hum of dozens of mingled voices were barely audible from below, as the music nearly drowned out every other sound in the facility.

  “What did you do?” I asked, horrified. I hurried over to them. They stood so still that it looked like an artist had carved them from stone. Pressure built up inside me, making my chest tight, despite heaving for air. The sensation reminded me of the way heat mounted before flames shot out of my hands. Fearing what might accidentally happen if I didn’t tramp down on my nerves, I diverted my attention from Kendall and Brandon and attempted to clear my thoughts. That didn’t help. If anything, trying to conquer my emotions made things worse. Waves of stress now flowed up my thighs, swarmed through my chest, and pushed out into my arms.

  “You okay, little sis?”

  I glanced back at my friends, hoping that concentrating on something other than myself would relieve the tension inside me, which made sense because they were the ones in danger, not me. What if Alexis couldn’t undo her spell? What if they never moved again? It would be my fault because I had goaded Alexis into punishing me for petty insults.

  “You need to respect your elders,” Alexis said in a low tone.

  “You’re like a minute or two older than me!”

  “Not when it comes our abilities. When you talk to me, you’re dealing with magic. It’s who I am. You’d be wise to remember that.”

  “I’ll file that away in my ‘Duh’ folder. But what if I get brain damage? I’ll need to back up that crucial information. Any suggestions?” No matter how much Alexis’s proclivity in magic intimidated me, I couldn’t reveal the least bit of dread. Doing so would encourage her to take advantage of my apprehension at every turn. So while I wanted to run over and beg her to release my friends, I did my best to act unaffected. Besides, she would respect my self-control and consider us more on equal ground.

  “Now that’s how you could kill our mother and your grandmother! You have no feelings.” She pointed at Kendall and Brandon. “Are you blind? I just froze them…without actually freezing them, and you don’t care?”

  I flinched at her anger; at first, I thought she was frustrated that I hadn’t acknowledged her magical prowess. Looking closer, however, I noticed that she lashed out because I feigned disinterest while my two closest friends were in dire straights. It lessened the severity of the hardened heart I’d always attributed toward her. It seemed that Alexis really did care about others. But after examining her expression, I realized that she didn’t particularly care for my friends; she appeared jealous…not to have close friends of her own.

  “Oh, I care. I know how much you like to manipulate people and flaunt your power. You should have your own show: Witch Bitch of the Windy Shitty.”

  “Windy…what?” A repulsive look mangled her facial features. “We’re talking about your friends, and you’re cracking jokes?”

  In other words, Alexis wanted me to feel guilty for not begging her to release my friends, after she’d placed them in this position. What if Kendall or Brandon panicked from their inability to move, and couldn’t get enough air into their lungs quickly enough and passed out? That sobering thought inclined me to look their way. And what I saw terrified me.

  Brandon looked at
Kendall with fright. Beside him, Kendall’s red eyes brimmed with tears, and when she blinked, red liquid streaked down her cheeks. A second later, however, she stared at the puncture marks on his neck. She licked her lips and appeared famished.

  While I had been locked in a test of wills with Alexis, my friends were tormented by the position she had put them in. Rather than waste another second while they suffered, I stalked up to my sister. “Let them go!”

  “Ooh, somebody looks upset?”

  Her lackadaisical demeanor infuriated me. “I said—”

  Alexis lifted her arm and swung her hand toward me in an arc.

  Suspecting that she’d send a barrage of furniture my way, I skidded to a halt and slid across the ground in order to dodge whatever assault she mounted, while also giving me enough time to defend myself. As predicted, a bar stool flew over my head so swiftly that my hair blew back.

  I struck out with both arms, and rather than sending bolts of fire her way, I felt a powerful force leave my hands, heading toward Alexis.

  Unable to see whatever I’d sent toward her since flames failed to erupt from my hands, she smirked. But a second later, an invisible force pummeled her, shooting her body eight feet behind where she’d stood only a moment ago. She scrambled to her feet. “What the hell was that?” she asked in a high-pitched tone similar to a parakeet.

  I’d caught both of us off guard, but I had no idea how much longer she’d remain rattled, so I got to my feet with a menacing scowl. “I said release them!” I extended both hands toward her again.

  Alexis directed a hand at a circular wooden table and flicked her wrist toward me, sending the table scuttling across the floorboards right toward me.

  I didn’t have enough time to sidestep the massive table, but if I didn’t act quickly enough, it would plow into my chest, knocking me off my feet, and driving the air from my lungs. I didn’t intend to give Alexis a chance to follow up on her attack because every second she spent trying to hurt me meant another moment that my friends remained helpless.