Mutant Academy (The Fundamental Society Book 1)

by Yumoyori Wilson

  “At least we have the moon to guide us,” I said to Megan. Her eyes were swollen and bleak.

  “I guess…”

  “Everything is going to be okay,” I promised her, but I lacked assurance myself and the statement came out sounding hollow.

  “Okay,” Gabriel said behind us. “We need to split up.”

  “What?” Jude frowned with disapproval. “No way. We need to stick together.”

  “He’s right,” Nick said and kicked at a tuft of sand with his shoe. “We’ll cover more ground if we separate.”

  “If anything happens, we need to meet back here immediately. Nobody leaves unless our entire group is reunited,” Jude said as a final act of protest.

  “Yes, of course.” Gabriel nodded with a diplomatic expression. “I’ll take Tara with me, if that is okay.” He looked at me and waited for me to respond.

  I glanced around the group. It was hard to read their expressions in the dark.

  “Yes.” I nodded and shifted my weight. “I’ll go with Gabriel.”

  Gabriel seemed satisfied with my answer. He smiled. “Liam and Nick can set off with Pete, and Jude, are you okay to go with Megan?”

  Jude nodded. “All right.”

  Megan glanced down at the damp sand, looking apprehensive about the whole plan, but she didn’t argue.

  “If we need to get in touch,” Pete said and opened his backpack, “I brought these radio communicators. Only turn them on if it’s an emergency though, because the waves of frequency can be detected.”

  He handed me one first. “Thanks,” I said and smiled at him with appreciation. Pete really did think of everything.

  I looked at Megan. “Are you sure you’re okay with this?” She looked a little green.

  “I’m worried about this.” She pointed with dread at her wrist.

  I felt the tracker beneath my own wrist throb. “Maybe we won’t be within range for the Home Base camp to pick it up,” I suggested optimistically.

  Megan took a deep breath. “I hope you’re right.”

  “Hey,” I told her and lightly touched her shoulders. “We are never going back to a Home Base camp. Never.”

  She managed a weak smile.

  “Are you ready, Tara?” Gabriel’s voice came from behind me.

  I turned around. “Yes.”

  We separated, each group heading in a different direction. I felt a sliver of trepidation about not sticking together like Jude wanted to, but I knew that Gabriel was right. We needed to cover as much ground as possible in a short amount of time.

  It wasn’t like we could stay out here for hours on end. We only had a certain amount of time before daylight cracked against the night sky. If we remained together, we wouldn’t be able to cover as much surface area.

  “I’m glad to be going with you,” I whispered to Gabriel as we navigated through the woods, praying that we wouldn’t let off any sensors or trip wires in the process.

  “Really?” His face brightened under the tranquil luminosity of the moon.

  “Yeah.” I chuckled. “At least you can do telekinesis. It’s a great skill to have when you’re in trouble.”

  Gabriel chuckled and pushed a low-lying branch out of the way as we passed. “I guess that’s a good point.”

  “I still can’t believe you used it on me,” I said.

  Gabriel looked pensive as he glanced over at me. “I’ll never live it down, will I?”

  I gave him a playful smirk. “Probably not.”

  After a few more minutes of crunching through the leaves on the forest floor, we stumbled upon building that had ivy growing up the sides and was surrounded by overgrowth.

  “Where are we?” I halted in my tracks, immediately cautious.

  “This is the safe house,” Gabriel mentioned casually.

  “The same safe house where you brought me before?” I asked.

  “Where we first met,” Gabriel said. “Where you got your first dose of mind control.”

  “First and last, you mean,” I scoffed jokingly.

  “Yes.” Gabriel rolled his eyes. “I promise. No more funny business, as long as you promise not to sucker punch me in the gut.”

  I shrugged. “That seems like a fair compromise to me.”

  He walked up to the door, but I was slightly more hesitant to approach. “Are you sure we should be going in there?”

  He gave me a curious frown. “Why not? What if your friend is in there seeking refuge and shelter right at this very minute? It is the middle of the night, after all. It’s unlikely that she would just be roaming around. She would probably try to find a place to camp out for the night.”

  “You make a good point,” I said, but I was still slow to follow him.

  He opened the door with a creak. There was no lock on it, which mean that anyone and anything could get in.

  To make matters worse, it was pitch black in the little corridor inside.

  “I can’t see anything,” I whispered through the shadows.

  “Sorry,” Gabriel responded in a low voice. He switched on a flashlight. The room illuminated in a blanket of soft yellow light. “Is that better?”

  I nodded. “Yes, much better, thanks.”

  I heard the soft drop of water plunking into a puddle on the concrete ground.

  “It’s cold in here.”

  “Yeah.” Gabriel seemed to agree as he glanced around and tossed the stream of light across the surface of the walls. “There’s no source of heat.”

  “Do you think Maddie would come in here?” I was doubtful, but a shelter was a shelter in the end.

  “It’s possible,” he said. “It’s a way to protect her from the elements.”

  I shivered and wrapped my arms around my chest.

  “Right here is the room where we brought you,” he said. There was a lamp on a desk. Gabriel switched it on.”

  “Hey,” I pointed. “How did you do that?”

  “It’s battery-powered.” He grinned.

  “Oh.” I rolled my eyes. I should have known.

  “Feeling nostalgic?” Gabriel asked with a flicker of mischief in his eyes.

  “Maybe a little,” I chuckled. “I am still grateful that you guys rescued me.”

  Gabriel’s features softened. “We take care of our own.”

  “I can see that,” I said.

  Gabriel slowly walked the perimeter of the room. “My father had telekinesis powers, too.”

  “Really?” I pitched my eyebrow with intrigue.

  “Yep.” He nodded. “He taught me how to control it, and I’m learning more at school about how to use it to my advantage.”

  “Well, it certainly worked on me,” I said and propped myself against the side of a white counter.

  “I was only trying to calm you down,” he said defensively.

  “You just didn’t want me to do some ninja moves and kick you in the face,” I teased.

  Gabriel took a step in my direction. There was something different in his eyes now, something charming and almost longing in there.

  “That’s true.”

  “Well, at least you admit it.” I didn’t break away from his gaze. My heart raced.

  “Right.” He strolled closer to me. The heat and energy between us sparkled with chemistry and magic.

  “Does your dad still try to help you out with the mind control stuff?” I asked. “I mean, when you aren’t at school?”

  Gabriel broke eye contact with me and peered at the ground. “My father…. passed away several years ago.”

  “Oh, Gabriel,” I said and reached out to take his hand. “I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s fine.” He managed a meager smile.

  “I lost my father too,” I admitted.

  Gabriel lifted his chin. There was an incredible force between us, and it was blossoming into something spectacular.

  Without a word, Gabriel leaned in and kissed my mouth. I was slammed with a volt of passion and euphoria. I didn’t resist. I didn’t pull away.
I never wanted him to stop. I didn’t know what had happened, but my emotions got the best of me and all my inhibitions dashed out the window.

  “I want to touch you,” he said. His breathing was hurried. His cheeks were flushed with the patchy redness of desire.

  “You are touching me,” I said and smiled.

  “No.” He shook his head. “Between your legs.”

  My heart skipped a beat and I immediately felt the rush of blood pulse through my legs. My clitoris felt swollen with lust.

  “Really?” My voice sounded throaty.

  “Uh-huh.” Gabriel’s eyes were glazed over with yearning.

  “Okay.” It was impulse. I blurted it out because I wanted to feel the pleasure. I was addicted to the incredible sensation.

  Gabriel pressed his body up against mine and began to wordlessly unbutton my pants.

  Everything felt so right in this shimmering moment. I couldn’t explain it, but I was drawn to him, just like I was to the other guys. We had a special connection. It was almost as if they had resurrected me.

  I knew he was attracted to me in the same way I was for him. I could see the yearning in his eyes, burning a passion-fueled hole through me.

  He slid his masculine hand beneath my panties. I gasped with pleasure as he pushed open the sensitive folds between my legs and began stroking me there.

  “You are so wet,” he whispered with a smile of delight.

  “It feels good,” I breathed out with a hushed sigh of contentment.

  “I can make you feel exceptional,” he said. “I can make you dance through the clouds of ecstasy.”

  I marveled at him. I had no doubt that he could live up to his claims.

  I moaned as he pushed two fingers inside of me and grazed his thumb gently across my clitoris. I leaned back against the counter and opened my legs more as Gabriel led me to the glory of climax.

  He continued to finger me, stroking my soaking pink slit with his hand and fingers. My moaning became urgent. I was flushed and sweaty. His fingers were a wonderful tease, making the sensation intensify with each perfect circle across my pulsing clitoris. He knew exactly what he was doing.

  I looked into his eyes. The moment was so profoundly erotic that I had no choice but to allow the explosive desire to pour out of me. I shouted as I came.

  I immediately clamped my hand over my mouth, worried that someone might be outside the safe house walls and within earshot.

  Gabriel kissed my neck. “It’s okay,” he said. His eyes dazzled with pride. “No one can hear us.”

  I sighed with relief. My legs felt shaky and wobbly, but Gabriel was doing an exceptional job at keeping me grounded and standing up straight.

  “Here,” he said gently. “Let me help you.”

  He zipped up my jeans and buttoned the top button because my hands were trembling too ferociously in the beautiful aftermath of my orgasm.

  “Thank you.” I gazed with fondness into his handsome red eyes.

  A stoic seriousness suddenly washed over his features. “We better get out of here.”

  I nodded, even though I felt slightly disappointed. “Okay.”

  “Maddie is obviously not here,” he said and glanced over his shoulder. “And we don’t want the others to stumble in here and find us being intimate.”

  “You’re right,” I said. We couldn’t afford to be distracted. I was selling Maddie short if I wasted time. I took Gabriel’s hand. “But thank you. That helped me relax.” I was confident that I was composed enough now to trek back out into the woods with him.

  He squeezed my hand in response. He was practically beaming. “Anytime.”

  We raced from the safe house, hand-in-hand. It was time to fully immerse ourselves in our mission.

  23

  Gabriel

  The very minute we walked outside of the safe house and heard the crunch of forest leaves under our boots, another, far shriller sound intensely pulsed through the silence of the night. It was startling and deafening.

  I glanced over at Tara, who instinctively pulled her hands up to clutch them over her ears. I did the same. The alarm siren was excruciating, drumming through my eardrums and threatening to burst them.

  Tara’s eyes widened in fright. “What’s going on?” she shouted over the noise.

  “What?” I roared in response.

  “What raised that alarm?” Tara yelled. She shook her head in disbelief. “It’s different. It’s not the same as the other sirens that I heard on the night of the security breach.”

  I took her hand and we began to race away from the safe house. “We have to find the others.”

  “No.” Tara tugged her arm away from mine and stood defiantly in the center of the forest, planting her feet. She refused to move.

  “Tara, we have to get to the others now,” I stated urgently.

  “What triggered that alarm?” she asked with narrowed eyes.

  “Do you think that this was all a trap to alert the scientists?” I asked and took a few paces in her direction.

  Tara sized me up. Her demeanor was completely different than it had been inside the safe house only moments ago. Now she seemed to be full of animosity and distrust.

  “Tara, it’s probably a trip wire.”

  “What?” she scoffed as if that didn’t sound like a reasonable explanation.

  “Yes.” I edged ever closer. “Sometimes they will use trip wires to catch Mutants in the dark.”

  “Then why didn’t you guys mention that before?” Tara frowned. She looked skeptical, but I couldn’t blame her.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I guess in the moment I just didn’t think about it, and apparently no one else did either.”

  Tara appeared to be slightly more convinced. “Oh.”

  I took her hand again and this time she didn’t try to wiggle away.

  “Tara, we’ve got to move now,” I said persistently.

  Tara licked her lips. Her eyes darted frantically from left to right. Suspicion swelled around us.

  “Do you think that it was one of ours that tripped the wire?”

  “I don’t know.” I shook my head.

  I didn’t want to lie to her and say no, because I wasn’t sure what happened. It might not have been trip wire at all. I just wanted to stay on the move because if we didn’t, we placed ourselves in a vulnerable position. We didn’t have time to stand here and guess what had caused the alarm.

  Tara didn’t move. She seemed hesitant and undecided.

  “Look,” I told her gently. “We knew the risk involved as soon as we stepped onto the boat this evening.”

  Tara glanced down at the ground. “I know…” she muttered.

  “Can you trust me?”

  We weren’t going to get anywhere without mutual trust.

  Tara lifted her chin and gazed into my eyes as if she was contemplating. “I want to.”

  “I know it seems scary off campus where danger and terror lurk in the shadows of the night,” I said, “but we are strength in numbers. And we are faster, stronger than the guards. We can protect ourselves, but we have to stick together.”

  Tara inhaled sharply and nodded. “Okay. Yes. You’re right.”

  I sighed with relief. “Thank you.”

  I took off running. Tara kept hold of my hand, leaping in large strides to keep up with me, because I was several inches taller than she was.

  I didn’t want to consider the fact that Megan was the one who might have activated the trip wire sensor, but the more I mulled over it, the more I found it to be a practical possibility.

  Then, as if reading my thoughts, Tara jumped in with an opinion of her own.

  “Do you think that Megan might have tripped the wire? Not knowing where to look or where to walk carefully?”

  I glanced over at Tara and tried to remain neutral. “It’s a possibility. “

  “Oh, great.” She exhaled an exasperated puff of air.

  “It’s not your fault,” I interjected. “It’s no
one’s fault.”

  I hoped that she would be satisfied with that.

  “Let’s just keep going,” she said and stared straight ahead with defiance.

  “Are you okay?” I asked gently. I wanted to make sure her frame of mind stayed on target. We were here to look for her friend.

  “I’ll be better once we find Maddie,” she said.

  “That’s the spirit.” I smiled. “You said once we find Maddie, not if we find her.”

  “Well, you never know…” she trailed off.

  “Just try to think positive,” I said. “Although I know it’s easier said than done.”

  “Yeah.” She chuckled ironically. “You are right about that.”

  I could feel her aura relaxing. The sirens began to fade the farther away from the safe house we jogged. I didn’t really know where we were going. My only aim was to get as far away from the alarms as possible. The farther away we got, the less chance we had of being captured.

  We were out of breath. We panted, lungs burning. My shoulders heaved up and down and I saw spots in front of my eyes. I stopped running. I grabbed my knees and leaned over, staring straight at the ground.

  “I’m okay,” I said. “I just need a minute.”

  “Me too,” Tara gasped.

  “I have never run that fast in my life,” I said. I was relatively in shape and worked out in the school’s gym often, but something was different about running for your life. The adrenaline pumping through my veins was the only thing keeping me going.

  “It was certainly a sprint,” Tara agreed. She leaned up against the scratchy bark of a pine tree and gazed up at the umbrella of leaves and branches.

  I wiped the sweat from my forehead. My damp shirt was clinging to my back. We didn’t have much time to recover, because a second later, I heard the rapid pounding of footsteps drawing closer.

  Tara must have heard it too. She immediately froze, mid-movement. Her eyes were as wide as the moon.

  “Is someone coming?” she whispered, barely audible.

  I was afraid to say anything in response. I tensed my body and waited, bracing for an ambush.

  “Gabriel?” I heard Jude call through the night.

  “Jude?” I turned around with hopeful expectancy.