I laughed.
The twins and Mica also attended the University of Colorado in Boulder. The three of them, Flint, and I were all sophomores, but we were soon to be juniors. The semester would end soon, which meant all of us were officially halfway through college.
“Should we get up and make something to eat?” I asked.
The smoothie I’d had with Grace seemed years ago. And I knew the longer I let Flint dwell on this topic, the more likely he was to start showing up at my classes when they finished. As much as I loved him, I didn’t want him shadowing me everywhere I went.
Flint ran his hand along my hip. His brow furrowed.
I bounded from the bed just as he opened his mouth. “Want to order a pizza?” I asked.
I grabbed one of Flint’s shirts and dashed from the room. In the living room, the newspaper Flint had been reading still lay open to the local news. The same article I’d read earlier flashed across my vision.
I bit my lip. From what the article said, all five women described the man similarly: stocky build, dark hair, and vicious. He’d left all of his victims with more than just bruises and traumatic memories. A few had broken bones and deep cuts.
Tension welled up inside me again. I just hoped the police caught him soon.
~ ~ ~
I met Grace the next day at our usual spot before class. Since we were both studying sociology, we had most of our classes together.
Her long legs dangled from the concrete planter box she’d hopped onto. Bright pansies bloomed behind her. She ate an apple while reading a textbook. I swear she didn’t even know when I approached her. She was that engrossed in it.
I cleared my throat.
Her loud, crunching chewing stopped. When she peeked over the top of the book, her eyes widened. “Oh! I didn’t see you there.”
She hopped off the planter and slipped her backpack over a shoulder. After one last bite of her apple, she tossed the core into a trash can near the curb.
“You’re on time.” From the smile that beamed across her face, she seemed pleased.
“I’m not always late. I believe I was on time three of five days last week.”
Tucking her book into her pack, she raised an eyebrow. “I’d almost think you’re becoming responsible.”
I laughed. “Perhaps I am.”
She giggled and looped her arm through mine. Together, we strolled down the sidewalk to our next class and rounded the corner to enter our building. Another beautiful day in Boulder loomed: clear skies, bright sun, and the hint of summer in the air. A smile spread across my face as I switched my vision.
Aura clouds appeared around the other students bustling along the sidewalks. Most were white or ivory. A few were light gray. Grace’s was bright white—not surprising. That cotton-ball cloud swirling around her shoulders was what had drawn me to her in our freshman year.
The warm and content feeling was still flowing through me when another cloud entered my peripheral vision. Even though it was far away, it stood out among the sea of white, ivory, and dull gray.
Its color made me stop cold.
Black.
Not only pitch-black, but pulsing black. And the cloud around the occupant’s shoulders was growing in size.
That only meant one thing.
I spun in a circle, getting a few disgruntled comments from students who bumped into me from behind. Grace also muttered an expletive since we’d stopped mid-stride in the middle of the sidewalk.
Straightening, I pulled my arm from Grace’s. I shaded my eyes and frantically searched the crowd of students.
There!
The black cloud belonged to a person hurrying away. He appeared to be a man, from his stocky build and broad shoulders. He also had dark hair. I couldn’t see anything else about him. Jeans covered his lower half, and a hooded sweatshirt adorned his top—warm clothes for warm weather. Odd.
“Lena? What the heck are you doing?”
Grace stood at my side, her long blond hair flowing in the breeze. Her hands were on her hips, a frown on her face. The rest of the students entering the building behind us didn’t give me a second glance.
“I . . .” I continued watching the man. With every second that passed, he was escaping, and if his cloud was pulsing, that meant one horrible thing.
He was going to hurt somebody.
I can’t let that happen!
“I have to go, Grace. Fill me in on what I miss!” I took off.
Keeping my vision switched, I sprinted down the sidewalk. Some other students cast me a few peculiar glances. Most didn’t seem to care. They probably thought I was late for a class and running to it.
If only that were the case.
My legs pumped rhythmically as the man rounded a corner, disappearing between two buildings. I couldn’t be sure, but he seemed to be following a woman. She seemed oblivious.
No!
My lungs burned as I caught up to the area where he’d disappeared. Another sidewalk separated these buildings. The tall brick walls rose on either side. Strips of grass lined their perimeters, and birds chirped in the trees above.
For all intents and purposes, the day looked like another normal one on campus as the school year drew to a close.
Where did he go?
I ran down the sidewalk, glancing every which way. When I reached the backs of the buildings, I spun in a circle. More students were mingling about. Some sat on the grass. Others were still walking to class, but the numbers were dwindling. Lectures had started.
“Dammit!” I muttered angrily. I’d lost him.
Hefting my bag up higher on my shoulders, I slung my hands through the straps and debated my options. It was possible he’d followed the girl into one of these buildings. In which case, I could stay out here on the grass, waiting for one of them to emerge.
But that will only work if they exit from one of these doors. If they take a back door out, I wouldn’t know.
Biting my lip, I considered the other option. It was possible he hadn’t followed that woman at all, and it had simply appeared that way, in which case, either he’d entered one of these buildings to attend a class, or he’d begun running when he rounded the corner and by now was long gone.
However, there was one thing I felt certain of. His cloud had been pitch-black and pulsing. That meant either he was intending to hurt someone soon, or thoughts of hurting someone had been foremost in his mind, manipulating the aura around him.
Either way, my brow furrowed in worry.
On shaky legs, I walked back to class so I could join Grace. I debated calling the police, but what could I say? Hey, I saw a black-clouded man, and since his cloud was pulsing, he’s planning to hurt someone soon.
Yeah. That would go over well.
It didn’t help that I also had to come up with some fabrication to explain my erratic behavior to Grace. It wouldn’t be the first time.
My backpack banged against my lower back as I worried my lower lip.
A memory of the newspaper article I’d read yesterday turned over in my thoughts. A man who repeatedly attacked women was on campus. Everyone knew that. And the man I’d just seen fit his description.
Now, I had to figure out if this black-clouded man was him.
CHAPTER THREE
“You’re certain the person you saw had a malevolent cloud and was intent on doing harm?” Di’s words rolled across the living room in her Denver home. As usual, she wore black from head to toe.
The rest of our non-traditional family, minus Susannah, sat on the couches or floor around her. Father leaned back in his chair, his arms crossed. Outside, gray clouds covered the vast sky. Rain was forecast.
I almost rolled my eyes but stopped myself. Di was just being her thorough self. I shouldn’t have been offended that she was questioning me again.
Well, not too offended.
“Yes, Di. I’m sure. His cloud was pitch-black and growing. You know as well as I do what that means.”
Flint shift
ed beside me. His warm side pressed into me, and his unique scent of spicy wood and tangerines wafted toward me. A permanent frown was etched on his features. He’d been looking that way all week, ever since I’d chased the mystery man on campus and come home to tell him about it. And despite my insistence that I didn’t need him to escort me home from class every day, he’d started doing just that.
I inched away from him. We’d had another argument about his over-protectiveness this morning, and again, we came to no firm resolution.
Sighing, I turned my attention back to my family. Since the weekend had arrived, our entire family had met up in Denver—something we often did on our days off. I was thankful that everyone was here. All week I’d been waiting to get their opinions on what I should do regarding the black-clouded man.
“So now what?” Jacinda’s brow puckered. “Do we tell the police or see if we can find him again?”
My half-sister’s back was ramrod straight as she stood near Luke. Long flaxen-colored hair cascaded down her back in thick waves. Since she wore three-inch heels, she almost came to the bridge of Luke’s nose. The rest of her frame looked as it always did. Stylish. Chic. And very supermodel-like.
Only one thing was different about her.
A small bump was prominent through her loose, flowing top. She was five months pregnant.
The werewolf, or “genetically enhanced lupine male,” to be exact, watched my sister with his piercing golden eyes. A low growl emitted from Luke’s throat when Jacinda twisted her hands in worry. Since they’d been a couple for over a year, Luke had grown incredibly protective of my sister, especially since she now carried his child.
“I say we find the bastard,” Luke muttered. His eyes flickered again in a way that made him look inhuman.
“And then what?” Mica chipped in from where she sat on the couch. Her square teeth flashed in a sarcastic smile. “Stroll up to him and ask him why the heck he’s walking around with a black cloud around his shoulders? Oh, and politely ask him if he’s also going around campus attacking women?” She snorted. “Yeah, that will go over really well.”
A bag of chips sat at Mica’s side. She popped one into her mouth. Loud crunches followed.
Jasper chuckled from where he sat by her side, while his twin, Jet, also bit back a laugh. The twins looked identical: stocky builds, curly jet-black hair, and clear blue eyes.
The twins and Mica lived together in Boulder, not far from the apartment Flint and I shared. Like us, they were also university students and had heard the rumors circulating throughout campus of the serial attacker, a rumor that seemed true, given that another assault had occurred last week.
However, the rest of our family resided in Denver. Father lived in his sprawling mansion with Edgar and Amber, whereas Luke, Susannah, and Jacinda lived in a chic condo in the heart of the city. Raven and Di lived in the quiet suburban house we were currently meeting in.
I eyed Di, Raven, and Flint. The full-blooded siblings had a natural affinity to each other. All three of them had olive skin, tall frames, dark eyes, and critical minds. I felt fairly certain that if Flint and I weren’t together, he would have opted to live with Di and Raven in Denver. He could easily have pursued his engineering degree at the university Di attended. But since Flint and I had been together since we were teenagers, I didn’t see that ever happening.
Amber nibbled at a fingernail, her large brown eyes wide under her pixie haircut. She stood near Edgar, the two of them behind Father. Raven and Di’s living room was modest in size and furniture. When we all met here, some of us inevitably stood or sat on the floor.
“What if Lena tries to find him again?” Amber stopped biting her fingernail and stood up straighter. “And then we start following him to see what he’s up to?”
Father frowned. “I know all of you have attributes other people don’t, which could give you the ability to find this man, but this isn’t related to Project Renatus or O’Brien. I’m not sure it’s wise to become involved in something like this. It’s imperative you all hide your gifts from the public.”
I sighed. Father was always worried about us, especially when it came to others finding out about our powers. Who knew what would happen to us if our gifts became general knowledge. Possibly, Father would be locked up since he’d essentially kidnapped us when we were babies. Or maybe we’d be studied against our will.
We didn’t know.
But since those unknowns held so many implications, we’d spent our entire existence hiding. When we were little, Father had hidden us deep in the Forbidden Hills, but that was to keep us safe from his former colleagues at O’Brien Pharmaceuticals. Father, Albert Darlington, and Raven’s former adoptive father, Marcus Christenson, had given all of us our unique powers.
What they’d done was illegal and nefarious, but that was in the past. It couldn’t be changed. Regardless, I wasn’t sure I would have had it any other way, even if we could go back in time. The people in this room were my family. If Father hadn’t brought us up together, who knew what condition we would be in now, if we would have survived our nightmare childhoods at all.
I eyed Flint. My heart beat faster despite our recurrent arguments. If not for Father, I’d have never met Flint.
But . . . up until now, our past had seemed to be just that—our past. We’d never discussed using our extrasensory powers in a coordinated manner again. The last time we’d done that, we’d stormed Marcus’s estate, killed him and his guards, freed Raven, and essentially guaranteed a peaceful existence for ourselves.
But that eventful day had been over eighteen months ago. Whenever I thought about that time, it seemed like a distant dream—almost surreal. And for the first time in my life, I was living like everyone else. My family and I all blended into the public even though none of us were normal humans.
I certainly didn’t want to jeopardize our safety and new way of life, but at the same time, I couldn’t let a man who regularly assaulted women walk free if we had the power to stop him.
I bit my lip. If he is that man, we still don’t have proof he’s anything other than an evil guy.
That thought had been plaguing me all week. Possibly, I was blowing all of this out of proportion. “But his cloud was pulsing. He was up to something,” I muttered the words to myself, getting a raised eyebrow out of Flint.
“We can’t turn a blind eye,” I said more loudly, addressing everyone. “I know you worry about us, Father, but I can’t pretend I didn’t see what I did. If he hurts somebody again, and we had the chance to stop him, how could we live with that?”
Father leaned back in his chair, his brow furrowing. His sharp hazel eyes, deep wrinkles, and gray wispy hair were all so comfortingly familiar. However, since Father had taken the first-generation drugs that had given us our powers, he had slightly enhanced abilities too, as well as permanent injuries.
My words still hung in the air. Everyone shifted in their seats, eyeing each other.
The sound of the front door opening drifted in from the entryway.
“Is that Susannah?” Edgar cocked his head.
I smiled. Each day, Edgar’s strange Cockney accent grew less and less. Since Edgar was safe and free, his behavior had become more normal, his peculiar accent disappearing more each year.
“Hi. Sorry I’m late.” Susannah slipped into the living room and set her bag down. Waist-length black hair hung down her back. That, along with bright-blue eyes, porcelain skin, and a slim build made her an incredibly beautiful young woman. She also looked extremely fragile, like a twig that could be snapped.
But looks could be deceiving.
With a deft flick of her mind, talon-like claws could emerge from Susannah’s fingertips. With one swipe of her hand, Susannah could easily slice open someone’s jugular. In her eagle form, she’d single-handedly killed Marcus.
Luckily, she’d never done anything like that again. After killing Marcus, she’d become calmer and more grounded. Each day she grew less skittish and surer
. And similar to Luke and Edgar, she seemed more “normal” every day.
“What did I miss?” she asked, slipping off her flip-flops. Bright-pink nail polish shone on her toes. No doubt, Jacinda had taken her for pedicures again.
Jet leaned back and stretched his arms on the couch back. “We’re currently deciding if we should track some potential psychotic, serial-attacker, black-clouded guy Lena saw on our campus the other day. Either that or leave it be. But you know, since we’re apparently superheroes now, it may be our destiny to track him.” He snickered.
Mica and Jasper laughed.
Susannah sat on the floor, her slim legs crisscrossing beneath her. “Is this about the assaults taking place on Boulder’s campus?”
“That’s the one,” Jet replied.
Susannah wrapped her hands loosely around her ankles. “Do you want me to fly over there and keep an eye on things? I’m off for a few days.”
Susannah had a job at the local movie theater. She’d worked out a deal with the manager so that she only did the cleaning. It was a good job to ease her into the workforce since it wasn’t socially overwhelming. Most of her days were spent sweeping up spilled popcorn and wiping drops of sticky soda off the seats.
“You’re too big in your eagle form,” Flint replied. “Someone may spot you.”
Susannah shrugged. “If I stay high enough, it would be hard to judge my size from the ground.”
“But how could you find him if we don’t know what he looks like?” Di asked after crossing her arms. Her shrewd dark eyes narrowed in Susannah’s direction.
Susannah cocked her head, the speed unnaturally fast. “I could at least keep an eye on things. I could spot any attacks from above.”
“That’s only if he attacks in the open.” Mica popped another chip into her mouth. “If he drags her somewhere or lures her into his house, we’d never know.”
“Haven’t most of the attacks happened in the woman’s dorm room or apartment?” Jasper raised an eyebrow. “All of the news stories have said he broke in before attacking them.”
Retribution: The Lost Children World Book 1 Page 2