Lightning In My Wake (The Lightning Series)

by Lila Felix

  I needed to grow up.

  I looked into Theo’s deep blue eyes as he waited for a response.

  “No,” I answered. This wasn’t the time or the place to have my pesky feelings get in the way. I shuffled away from him and found what seemed to be the only standard sized chair in the place. This Collin guy must’ve had custom furniture brought in. I dug through my bag and found one of the apples I’d stashed. I’d intended to eat it right away, but I had no idea that getting into this place would entail pulling on a huge rope using all my body weight.

  The apple crunched as I sunk my teeth down in it. The sound of my own chewing and kept me from hearing the hushed conversation going on between David and Goliath. I was more of an action kind of girl.

  After a while, my apple was diminished and I was itching to go again.

  “So how are you gonna get to Tibet?” I asked Collin.

  Both of their heads jerked in my direction. It wasn’t that hard of a question. He couldn’t flash like us, so travelling would be an issue.

  I was just being logical—practical—in a mean girl sort of way.

  “I have my own plane. All Guardians do in case there is an emergency meeting.”

  Apparently there were a lot of idiosyncrasies about the Guardian world I had no idea about.

  Like the fact that they had planes and had secret meetings.

  All this time I thought they were just loners.

  Theo and Collin flowed back into their conversation about logistics and USB drives. This wasn’t turning out to be the diabolical and high danger journey Theo had made it out to be. So far it was slush puppies and giants.

  “Can I see the books?” I queried simply out of boredom. Whatever was in those books had been cataloged in such a detailed manner by Theo and now Collin that I doubted I found any new information.

  But Theo had trouble finding ketchup in the refrigerator.

  Boys.

  “Of course,” Collin waved his arm toward the back of the place. Theo chuckled into his fist.

  “What are you laughing at? Isn’t this what we’re supposed to be doing?”

  “Yes, just wait.”

  We meandered through the great home. I stopped to look at the paintings on our way through the hall. One was of my grandmother.

  “Rebekah,” Collin said with an air of reverence. “Your grandmother is the wisest of all the Prophets. But it is only in the halls of records that she is respected as she should be.”

  The picture of my grandmother was encased in a frame made of golden filigree. She was younger, her hair revealed the generation in which the painting was completed.

  “You knew her?”

  He patted my back. “Know, young female, know. Just because something is deemed unworthy by a group of people, doesn’t make it less loved.” Then he winked at me. An unfounded giggle erupted from my mouth. Collin was handsome up close. From far away I couldn’t get past his overgrown stature to see it. But now, when I turned and he was bent over targeting his words to my ear, I could clearly see it. His jaw was rugged and his eyes were the deep brown of someone who had a tiny bit of rebel in them.

  Collin had a little bit of anarchy brewing inside him. I could see it.

  Theo was in such trouble.

  “Onward, good sir,” I motioned as I felt a new camaraderie with him and showed it by linking my arm through his. Theo shot a questioning look my way but I ignored it. There was no way to explain to him the glimmer I’d seen in Collin without sounding any more right field than I usually did.

  “Are there no pictures of Eivan and Sevella?” I questioned the two of them.

  “There are in Tibet. There’s a monk there who is descended from Eivan’s advisor, Winchester—he commissioned painters to paint their portrait for one of their anniversaries. He also has some personal artifacts, but it would take some coercing to let us see them.”

  Coercing was my specialty.

  We entered the multi-storied library and I gasped. It was bigger and more magnificent than anything I could’ve imagined. In truth, I’d thought it would be more—cave-like.

  It was grand—a library fit for a king.

  “Where are the records on Sevella?” I prompted.

  Both men glared at me.

  “Don’t look at me like that. A woman usually has a more—emotional, detailed account of things. Men usually float over the details.”

  Collin nodded in understanding. He stalked over to a stack already set on a table and brought all the books over to me. He outlined the stacks, giving me an overview of where I could find what. Theo stood nearby and oversaw the whole ordeal but he looked anxious—preemptive. The books were enormous volumes that smelled of the rich history of our race. History drove me. I could recite the old laws instead of the Preamble to the United States Constitution by the time I was seven. Each was leather-bound with gold writing and matching gold filigree, which struck me as indicative. This is what the Synod wanted us to believe.

  Were these the pretty lies Rebekah spoke of?

  If someone were to lie to an entire race of people, certainly covering it with leather in intimidating-sized books would be the way to convey truth.

  I opened the first book and gently turned it to the section, or near the section, Collin showed me. He’d presented so many things, I couldn’t keep track. Theo’s eyes widened and ping-ponged between the books and Collin.

  “What is your deal?” I asked a little louder than necessary. The squawk resounded through the halls in high pitched echoes carrying with it the level of my irritation.

  “You’re not gonna do the gloves and the ‘don’t breathe on anything’ routine? What the hell, man?”

  His earlobes had gone completely red and that vein was working an angry rhythm on the side of his neck. Whatever Collin had done was really jerking his nerves. But it didn’t matter what it was, Theo was out of line.

  “Theo!” I berated him. This guy had been ‘relieved’ of his job, most likely, because of his recent connection to Theo and what he was studying. And he’d just announced that he was going to travel with us to help and Theo was whining about gloves or some piddly thing.

  Theo stuttered in response, “No—I just—he—no breathing.”

  I turned to our new friend. “Collin, what have you done? I’ve never seen Theo stutter like that. You must’ve committed some great crime. All I can think right now is that you did something inappropriate with glove and breathing.”

  He broke out into a boisterous chortle loud enough to jostle some of the antiquated books right from their shelves. He quickly quieted himself cleared his throat. Poor guy, he probably wasn’t used to laughing—unless it was at himself.

  “I hadn’t had a visitor in a great many years. I may have been overprotective of the records.”

  Theo was still grumbling, ‘Overprotective, my ass.’

  I quieted down after the glove uproar and dove back into the texts. They were fascinating to me. Everything about who we were and where we’d come from demanded my attention and held it steadfast. Through just a few hours of reading, I’d discovered that the detailed stories of grandeur my mother and grandmother told me as a child were a firm opposition to the cold, almost scientific observations gathered in these books. Eivan was painted as a shell of a man, commandeered by his gifts—a slave to his blessing.

  Aggravated, I continued on and finally came upon information on Sevella—which was more of the same. She was regarded as an unsocial creature—inhospitable and standoffish. How could the stories of my youth and these ‘official records’ be so different?

  I slammed the book, not wanting any more of my visions of the Eidolon and his mate to be muddled by the flippant attitude of the authors of these histories.

  “These are lies,” I bellowed at no one in particular. “I can’t stand it.”

  Collin looked down, as if silently deciding neither to agree nor disagree with my assessment. I’d probably just ruffled the feathers of at least two thirds of my rac
e with one statement. And if the Synod ever got wind of my rebellion—punishment would be warranted.

  Punishment for the Synod, at least for me, was limiting my travel. Not travelling to me was as painful as caging me in a cell.

  Theo bristled at my words. I didn’t mean to cause him pain—but what was in front of us wasn’t truth. And there was no point in all this searching if we were just going to settle for the Synod’s truth. We needed Eivan’s truth.

  Theo shut the book in front of him and leaned back, arms crossed over his chest. He was upset with me. I needed to keep my thoughts to myself for once in my life—well, the snotty ones.

  “I need to go to Tibet and make sure they are ready for our arrival—and get some other things done,” Theo said, standing and stretching out his back with arms raised in the air. A slow rising blush covered my neck and bloomed in my cheeks. It had been too long and not long enough since I’d been in Theo’s presence. His shirt became taut around his shoulders as he bent left and right and his biceps stretched the limits of the material around them.

  I knew what was under that shirt.

  You just can’t unvisualize things like Theo’s torso.

  He was irresistible—even in mundane things, like stretching.

  “Okay, do you have a picture?” I slid my chair out in preparation to leave.

  “I don’t. Not on me. I will be back soon, Querida.”

  I grumped out a sound of mild irritation. I was itching already for flashing.

  “Collin, do you need help?”

  He looked at me, shocked, “No, thank you.”

  Theo sidled up next to me, “Go wherever you want. There’s nothing pressing happening until tomorrow. If you can just be back by tonight,” he bit down on his plumped bottom lip as he told me that last bit. It was him asking me to be back tonight.

  “Or we can go to Tibet tonight.”

  He thought it over for a second, “I will try to arrange everything. Meet me at my place tonight.”

  “Done,” I responded with a nod.

  Without telling him where I was going, I flashed to the back entrance of the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa in Iceland. Once a year I went there and soaked myself in the calming, renewing waters. I walked around to the front entrance, paid my way and bought a glimmering turquoise bikini from the gift shop. I had packed plenty of them in my bag, but I wanted to get there as quickly as possible.

  On the way to one of the smaller pools, I gathered my hair up and tied it into a knot at the base of my neck. No matter how many time I’d been here, the temperature of the warm, soothing water was surprising nestled in amongst sheets and mountains of ice. The steam around the pools made rings of steam as if the tubs were blowing cigar smoke in the ice’s mouth. Mothers around me doted on their tiny tots who clearly got a kick out of the sensation of ice to fire.

  Submerging myself, I let out a breath I’d been holding since I learned of Theo’s gifts. Here, where I was alone and free for me—never had been. I was terrified for him. Eventually the Synod would catch up with me. I was summoned at least once a month, if not more, where my work and travel were analytically audited—to what end I didn’t know. We didn’t have many laws regarding travel. Just the usual—don’t get caught, don’t make a Las Vegas magic show out of it, and don’t use your powers for immoral behavior. But ever since the Synod had taken over, that line between immoral and moral had been skewed.

  Especially with their ‘sanctioned’ employment opportunities.

  Such was the case with Sway.

  Sway used to steal vaccinations, both harmful and helpful, and formulas to make more from Russian and North Korean scientific facilities and gave them to the Synod. The Synod, in turn, would trade them for head-turning from government officials. Theo said it was stealing—period. We weren’t supposed to use our powers to steal—even to such an end as to stop those countries from using those horrible diseases on our citizens. Sway called it the lesser of many evils. She fancied herself a Robin Hood of sorts—stealing from the devil and giving to the mildly devilish.

  I was on the fence and stayed there. Yes, it was stealing. And yes, she was stopping nefarious people from doing heinous acts of terror.

  Both sides had equal defenses in my mind.

  I’d finally made up my mind after she’d been captured. She had stolen an entire cold storage unit worth of Ebola from Iran and handed it over to the Synod. They, in turn, used the trade to make a government head of state turn a blind eye to the fact that a Hawaiian United States Senator had been caught on tape flashing from the wooded area behind his home to his garage by paparazzi amidst an unrelated political scandal.

  The video never saw the light of day, but apparently an entire country’s worth of potential terrorist ammunition was enough because when the exchange was made Sway became part of the bargain.

  They gave her to the government as a lab experiment, like a three dollar rat.

  She was let out months later, decrepit and Resin. Sway hardly ever spoke to anyone now. She told me once about her ordeal but made me swear to never speak of it to anyone again. She always seemed afraid of the Synod. She would call me immediately after my meeting with them just to make sure I was okay. I didn’t even bother to tell her about Theo. It would’ve been like alcohol in her wound.

  But for Theo—the whole situation scared me so deeply, I could hardly breathe around him. Well that and the other thing.

  That thing where I was completely in love with him but could only say it under complete submission.

  Idiot.

  I almost hoped he would lose his powers. They were dangerous. Nothing good has ever come of being Eidolon.

  Nothing.

  Even my fairy tales ended the same way their ‘truths’ did. Eivan was never seen again, leaving Sevella to grieve her life away.

  And I was afraid, selfishly so, that one day, I might take her place in the false histories.

  Chapter Eleven

  Theo

  Any Lucents lost in the fray are to be reported to the Synod immediately.

  I felt her touch down somewhere and I reached into my gift, to find she was in Iceland. I should’ve known. The woman tried to pretend like she was this no frills kind of girl.

  Colby was so high maintenance she should come with a manual.

  Good thing I’d become a Colby specialized machinist.

  I knew just how she worked.

  I made arrangements for us to stay at borderline contemporary home in Tibet near enough to the temple as not to cause too much of a flash—but close enough to be out of suspicion’s hearing distance. It was costly. My father had opened up my trust fund for me. I was not supposed to have access to it until my twenty-first birthday, but he wanted me to have anything I needed on this quest. I also think that a small part of him thought I may not survive it. I may not live past knowing what I was.

  I may just up and disappear like Eivan—never to be seen again.

  No, those were my own fears.

  With everything set, I decided to get back to the cottage and pack up the little I had. When I first began travelling, I tested the waters with weight limits—like an airplane. I tried to carry heavy things and light things until I found a good balance. Thirty pounds was about right for me—though for Colby it was more like twenty gauging the weight of her bags. I also tested the limits on my own weight—it was the same thing. When I gained weight, on a purposeful binge of glazed donuts, I felt heavier and after I flashed my body was weak and exhausted.

  I hated it when Colby was right.

  She was always smug about it.

  I packed up all of our things and sat down at the computer, waiting for Colby to arrive. After a while re-studying the notes, looking for a clue or more information I’d missed, I felt a rush of energy inside me—the shadow of myself returning to my body. I’d let my shadow play in the field outside the cottage while I was in Tibet, pretending to read and take a long leisurely walk.

  There was only one reason he wo
uld return without my call.

  Resin were present. And if he’d been discovered, then they were near.

  I grabbed my bags and Colby’s and called her phone—of course it was off, she was in the geothermic pools. I had to get her.

  Flashing quickly into Collin’s home felt like an invasion of privacy but one word, ‘Resin’ answered all his questions at once.

  I couldn’t conjure a cohesive thought other than making sure Colby was safe. Honing in on my seeking skills, I felt warm water around me and an icy coolness at my neck. It made me feel like sweating and shivering at the same time. She was still in Iceland.

  I didn’t know how I could feel her sensations like that. Maybe it was a new power emerging.

  God, I hoped not.

  I just wanted to flash to her location and hide her away from harm.

  “Colby is going to the cottage tonight. I have to get them away from there,” I yelled mostly at the air, but also at Collin. Somehow in all of this he’d grown to be an advisor to me—always so calm and knowing.

  “Use your shadow,” he was bustling now, in more of a rush to leave with the Resin near.

  The Resin were mostly just humans, powerless and unable to travel. But it wasn’t what they couldn’t do which made them dangerous—it was what they knew coupled with their vengeful attitude about their lack of power.

  The power they’d been born with had been stripped from them.

  We Lucents didn’t even know how their power was stripped from them. We figured it was through endless torture or experiments—but there was no surety.

  Not one of them could remember the exact moment their powers were taken.

  They only mourned their absence.

  Still, we could be caught. They used some device—Colby called it the Blinder—it was a crude contraption that completely bound our visual cortex. It looked like a stun gun—or so was the rumor. They sent a needle-like dart into our body with a dose of some medicine that rendered our occipital lobes completely dormant.