by Tricia Barr
Suddenly, Skylar cleared his throat awkwardly and loudly. Oh, right, Skylar’s a mind reader. Oops. How awkward for him.
Phoenyx stopped her fantasy but her entire body was warm and hungry, and not for food, which was a welcome change. She looked back down at the paper she held. Letting her lust flow through her hand, sounds from her fantasy echoing in her mind, she said clearly in her mind, “Burn.”
As she watched, thin smoke wafted and swirled upward.
Holy shit, it worked!
The smoke stopped, its death almost tangible, like she felt it with some unknown sense she couldn’t locate.
“Holy hell, Phoenyx, is that smoke?” Sebastian asked excitedly. “You’re actually doing it!”
“Oh, uh…yeah, I did,” she said, trying to compose her voice. “I had it but it wasn’t strong enough.”
Damn, looking at him now made her ache. Sure, that’s just what she needed, more aches. Maybe giving into her lust and letting herself want him was a bad idea. Not to mention the discomfort of knowing that Skylar saw everything she was thinking about his best friend.
“At least you’re getting started,” Sebastian said. “I am getting nowhere with this water thing. I thought maybe it would be like my illusions, that if I imagined the water moving or something, it would move. All I see happening is an illusion of the water moving, not the water actually moving.”
“Huh, that’s frustrating,” she said. She swallowed and tried to get moisture back in her mouth.
“Anyone have any suggestions?” he asked.
“Nope,” Skylar said. “I’m getting nowhere too. I think that trying to bend the bars right away is the wrong way to go about this. I think I need to start with moving or lifting something lighter, then move my way up. Like Phoenyx said, it’s like working out—you start with the smaller weights first. Right?”
“You can try with me,” Lily said, setting aside the apple she’d been staring at for the past hour. “I don’t have anything to do and, if I don’t find something to preoccupy myself with soon, I’m going to eat that stupid apple and really regret it after I really enjoy it. So use me as your weight. See if you can lift me.”
“All right; sure. Why not?” Skylar welcomed.
He moved to right in front of the bars and sat in the same position as before, which was apparently his focused position, with his legs crossed, his back hunched forward a bit, and his elbow resting on his knee with his hand holding his chin.
* * * *
After about two hours of focusing, Skylar managed to levitate Lily about an inch off the ground. The effort of it pretty much knocked him after that. Lily was already falling asleep before that so she was happy to lay down when Skylar called it quits.
Sebastian was still wide awake, looking into the water not like he was concentrating on it but more like he was daydreaming. Unfortunately, Phoenyx was unable to think of anything but him since she let the desire in. She tried sparking the paper a few times but all she got was smoke that didn’t last long.
“So visualizing the water moving doesn’t work, huh?” she asked, moving closer.
“Not even a little bit,” he said. “I assumed that would be the key because it works for the illusions.”
“Hmm,” she hummed, thinking. “I have an idea. When those pipes burst at your foster home, you said you felt it. What exactly did you feel?”
“I wanted to protect Skylar but I was so small and helpless. I wanted to stop Gus from hurting him. I wanted to hurt Gus.”
“If I remember right from what you showed me, the pipes all burst in your direction, didn’t they?” she mused. “I mean, usually when pipes rupture naturally, the fracture is all around the pipe, or at least at random places on the pipe, wherever the weak spots are. Don’t you think it means something that they all burst aimed at you and Gus?”
He thought about it. “Okay. So, what are you saying?”
“I think the way to control the water is by seeing it as an extension of yourself,” she said. “You wanted to do something to stop Gus and then the water around you rushed out toward you, toward Gus. The water acted as your extra limbs. Maybe you should try moving the water as if it were a physical part of you.”
“Hmm. That’s how Skylar says his telekinesis works,” he said. “All right, let’s see if it works.”
He looked into the water. A few minutes passed. Phoenyx lifted herself with her knees to see into the bowl. Suddenly, the center of the water’s surface bubbled up and stretched like a misshapen arm reaching up.
“Oh, my God, I did it!” Sebastian gasped. Then the water deflated and smoothed itself back to a flat surface.
“That was great!” Phoenyx praised. “You’re one step closer to mastering it!”
“You were totally right; I had to actively move the water like it was a hand that had fallen asleep,” he said. “I just had to make the neural connection. I never would have figured it out without you. I would have stared into this damn toilet like an idiot for the next two days.” He laughed.
Phoenyx smiled. Then she looked again at the other two slumbering cell mates. They were both asleep now, so nothing she could think, or do, would offend either of them. She should take advantage of this opportunity.
“I’m glad I could help,” Phoenyx said. “Now, maybe you could help me out.”
“Sure, what can I do?” he asked.
“Well, do you remember how it felt when I touched you and compelled you to kiss Skylar?” she asked.
He smiled knowingly and raised an eyebrow in a very sexy expression. “How could I forget?”
She giggled, heart fluttering at what she was about to propose. “I thought, like you did with your illusions, that the thing fueling my first power might be what fuels my element too. I tried it but all I can get is smoke.”
He nodded, a sultry mist glossing over his gorgeous blue eyes. “Interesting.”
“I’d like to try something,” she braved. “If you’d let me.” She reached her hand through the bars, beckoning him.
He scooted closer, taking her hand. She pulled him in as she pressed herself against the bars. With just enough space between two cold bars, their lips met. Oh, his lips were even softer than they looked! Her lust flooded through her and she didn’t bother to stop it from flowing through their connecting parts to pass into him.
He moaned with the rush of it. His mouth opened and his tongue came out to play. Their arms wrapped around each other, grasping and tugging, squashing them against the bars that only barely divided them. They kissed ravenously, lips wrestling, tongues dancing in an endless struggle to satisfy an itch that just could not be scratched.
When her lust was at a peak that was too much to bear, she broke from his oh-so-delicious mouth and picked up the paper bag. “Burn,” she commanded. The bag burst into flames and Sebastian flinched away from the heat of it. Like her lust, the flames were insatiable and devoured the bag in seconds, leaving nothing but ashes in her open palm.
“Wow.” Sebastian panted heavily.
“It worked.” She breathed triumphantly. She rested her forehead against Sebastian’s, both of them gripping the bars to keep themselves up, both trying to catch their breath.
One of his hands found hers and they entwined their fingers around the bar. He rubbed his nose against hers, his lips so close but not touching. The desire was so strong and yet equally repellant, for they both knew that if they started kissing again, they wouldn’t be able to stop. The kissing wouldn’t be enough to placate them but it would be all they could do. Making out would be such sweet torment.
“That was…incredible,” Sebastian said through breaths. He swallowed. “Thank you so much for letting me be your guinea pig.”
She laughed. “I’m just glad that Lily and Skylar went to sleep. I have been thinking about you nonstop for hours. I just had to try the real thing.”
He groaned longingly and bit his lip. Then he cupped one side of her face with his hand. “I wish these bars weren’t be
tween us.”
She nuzzled her face into his hand, wanting more of his touch. “I know; me too.” She kissed the base of his thumb.
He leaned back and it looked like it took every ounce of his strength to do so, jaw clenched and exhaling deeply.
“As much as I would love to keep practicing with you like this,” he said, “I don’t think lust is the answer to unlocking your element. When we go out there, when we have to start fighting, I think that sex will be the last thing on your mind, and you won’t be able to kiss me every time you need to defend yourself.”
“Oh.” She sighed, disappointed.
“The fire that you started in your house happened because you were angry,” he said. “I think anger will be a much more easily accessible emotion in a fight. I think that is the emotion we should be focusing on.”
Anger. Why hadn’t I realized that? Dammit. She really, really wanted a reason to kiss him more. But he was right. Come to think of it, when she started that fire years ago, she wasn’t even touching the place that started on fire. So, it didn’t necessarily have to be like her compulsion ability. She didn’t have to touch what she wanted to burn for it to burn. That would definitely make it more useful if she had to defend herself.
“You’re right,” she said. “I’ll practice with that tomorrow.”
He nodded and took her chin between his thumb and index finger. “Besides, when we’re kissing, I want it to be just because you want to kiss me.”
She smiled, happy for his invitation to continue. “Oh, trust me, I want to.”
She pulled him close and the frenzy started all over again.
The first thing Phoenyx saw when she opened her eyes was Sebastian’s gorgeous face a few inches from hers. They were laying as close to each other as they comfortably could with the bars between them. He was still sleeping. Damn, he is so cute, and last night was fantastic! She felt all warm and cozy inside. She slept surprisingly well for a woman with a death sentence.
She sat up and yawned, stretching her arms up.
“Good morning,” Lily said behind her, surprising her. “Or should I say good afternoon?”
Phoenyx looked around to see that Lily and Skylar were both awake. He was already in training mode; he was once again staring at Lily intently.
“Afternoon?” Phoenyx asked. “What time is it?”
Lily looked at her watch. “Almost one o’clock.”
“Whoa, I can’t believe I slept so long,” Phoenyx said happily.
“I can’t believe any of us slept at all,” Lily said. She extended her hand holding an apple. There was a single bite taken out of it. “Here, you should have a bite. Just one so we can conserve.”
“Thanks, Lil,” Phoenyx said, feeling touched by Lily’s consideration. She took the apple and took one big bite. Geez, she couldn’t remember a time when an apple ever tasted this good. She took her time chewing, savoring, and moving it from side to side until the mush dissolved away. Then she gave the apple back to Lily, doubting her self-control.
As soon as she took the apple, Lily was suddenly lifted up a few inches off the floor and then fell hard back on her butt. Skylar let out a big breath and put his hand over his forehead soothingly.
“Ow!” Lily yipped.
“Sorry,” Skylar said. “It’s still hard to control. I’ll try to be gentler.”
“It’s okay,” Lily said. “It’s my fault for having such a boney butt.” She laughed, leaning to the side to rub one cheek.
Skylar chuckled and shook his head. “All right, I need a break.” He took out an apple from his own reserve and bit into it.
Sebastian stirred. When he opened his eyes, he looked lost for a moment; then his eyes found Phoenyx and he smiled. He sat up and yawned, running his hands through his hair, seeming very rested and satisfied.
“Good morning,” he said, giving Phoenyx an intimate look.
“Morning,” she said back, giving him a Mona Lisa smile.
“Technically, its afternoon,” Lily said.
“Oh, right,” Phoenyx said, remembering that she and Sebastian were not alone. Then she remembered that, if it was one o’clock, she had wasted a whole morning’s worth of training. Crap! I need to get started now.
“Sebastian, we need to get to training,” she said. “We slept all morning, so we have a lot of catching up to do.”
He breathed in deep through his nose. “Okay,” he said. He looked at Skylar, snatched the apple from his hand, took a bite, and then handed it back before Skylar could gripe at him about it. With his mouth full, Sebastian smiled wide at him, then moved to his post in front of the toilet as he chewed the apple bite loudly.
Phoenyx followed her own instructions and took one of the paper bags from the pile. She sat back against the wall and crumpled up the bag into a ball in her hands, then set in on the floor in front of her; she knew she could start a fire by touching whatever she wanted to burn but she needed to learn to burn things without touching them. Okay, time to test Sebastian’s anger theory. She had to get mad. What would make her mad?
Her eyes wandered over to Sebastian. He was looking at her too. She blushed and made that weird frown that comes from trying to hide a smile and looked away. How on earth was she going to get angry right now? She had just had one of the best nights ever. The only way it could have been better is if they could have fully explored their lust for each other. Her whole body blushed at the thought. Her mind was filled with thoughts of Sebastian, and it wasn’t easily going to let go of them.
She looked at him again, and again he was looking at her. She smiled at him, and he winked at her, making her blush again.
“What’s the winking all about?” Lily asked somewhat playfully. “What’s going on over there?”
Sebastian and Phoenyx reluctantly broke eye contact to address Lily.
“They made out last night,” Skylar said flatly.
“What?” Lily burst with a big open-mouthed smile.
Now both Phoenyx and Sebastian were blushing madly and fidgeting embarrassedly.
“Just so you both know, I’m trying as hard as I can to stay out of your minds. I’m still disgusted,” Skylar said.
Phoenyx and Sebastian burst out laughing. Sebastian patted Skylar on the shoulder.
“Sorry, buddy, we’ll try to keep things PG,” he said.
Lily looked all bubbly and excited. “How did it happen?”
“I-I’ll give you details later,” Phoenyx assured in a hushed tone.
Lily smiled enthusiastically. Phoenyx could tell her new friend was mentally appraising Sebastian.
“All right, seriously,” Skylar said, “can we all just please focus on the task at hand. It’s hard enough to do this with silence, let alone trying to block out live streaming porn from both of your minds.”
Another wink from Sebastian.
“You’re right, Skylar,” Phoenyx said. “You’re right, we—” she looked at Sebastian—“need to cool things down. We need to focus.”
“Yeah, we’ll just wait till you fall asleep again,” Sebastian teased Skylar.
Skylar laughed somewhat sardonically and shook his head, then closed his eyes and sat up straight in a meditative sort of position.
Phoenyx took a page from his book and did the same. She took a deep breath in and then whooshed it out. She grudgingly pushed Sebastian out of her mind and told her body to chill. This really was serious, and she didn’t have time to daydream about Sebastian. Though she didn’t want to, she had to learn how to control her element. She may end up needing it.
What was going to get her mad? She searched through her memories. The most recent one was the memory of prom night. She was furious at her ex-boyfriend that night. She expected some big romantic gesture and dolled herself up. Scott turned the night into a complete disaster. Not to mention he ruined her three-hundred dollar dress. Yep, she was still mad about it. This was good. She replayed every detail of that night, letting the anger it caused simmer. Stupid Scott and his stu
pid friends and stupid habits. It made her want to just punch his stupid face.
She opened her eyes, which were narrowed in a scowl, and stared at the paper.
Burn.
A smoke wisp floated out from the folds.
“Burn,” she yelled in her head.
A longer smoke tail escaped.
That memory must not be good enough. She had to get angrier. She closed her eyes again and dug deeper. She focused on other memories: the time she tripped down the stairs and fractured her ankle and when they went to the hospital there was a huge wait and she had to deal with the pain for an hour and a half; the time she waited in line for Lady Gaga concert tickets for almost a full weekend and got to the teller just in time for them to be sold out, and then she had to hear everyone at school brag about how awesome the concert was; the time her friend Tracy crashed Phoenyx’s first car and made her promise to tell both their parents that it was Phoenyx’s fault, then she got a boyfriend and stopped hanging out with Phoenyx anyway.
Nothing she could think of would create more than a short-lived ember and a few puffs of smoke. Memories weren’t going to do it. They were too far in the past, they wouldn’t deliver the kind of anger she needed. She needed something to make her mad right now in the present.
She looked around. She had a reason to be furious right in front of her, she was sitting in it. She was drugged and taken against her will, thrown into a tiny, cold room with three perfect strangers from whom she had absolutely no privacy, caged like an animal and starved for days— all only so that she could be ritually sacrificed like a Mayan virgin. Her three bedfellows, whom she had grown to love, would be killed alongside her. Lily, sweet and innocent Lily, who had such great potential and a family that would mourn her. Skylar, who even though he could be a bit of an intellectual snob sometimes, truly knew her and didn’t run away from what he saw and, in fact, even liked it. Sebastian—sexy, charming, perfect Sebastian—who came into her life a little too late. None of them deserved this. The people who were doing this were horrible, wicked sadists and deserved to be punished.