Galdoni

by Cheree Alsop

  “Bryce!”

  I stepped in boxer-style and landed a straight punch squarely on the other man’s jaw. He stumbled back and fell to his knees. I took a step forward and grabbed his throat with one hand. I could feel his pulse under my fingers. The roar grew louder, urging for me to finish him. I started to squeeze.

  Zach ran at me from the side. I let go and hit Krissy’s brother with a two-handed open palm blow to the chest that carried the force of my rage combined with his own momentum. The breath left his body in an audible whoosh as he fell backward to the grass, stunned.

  I stepped forward to finish him with a straight punch, crushing his nose into his skull like I had been trained; he backed up on his elbows, his eyes wide. Red filled my vision, then Krissy grabbed my arm. “Kale, don’t hurt him!”

  The roar disappeared at her touch. I stared from her to Zach, my breath ragged in my throat. I couldn’t believe what I had almost done, what every fiber of my being had urged for me to do.

  “Kale, I-“

  I shook my head. I couldn’t speak. I stumbled past her onto the road. I looked back once at the four young men groaning in various positions on the grass, then turned and walked away.

  “Krissy, he could have killed me,” I heard Zach say, his voice shaking.

  “He saved me. Bryce would have raped me,” Krissy replied, her own voice trembling.

  I turned a corner and disappeared into the welcoming darkness of the trees that lined the side of the road.

  Chapter Nine

  I stared at my hands. Blood flowed from the gash across my knuckles. They ached, wanting to hit someone again, to cause pain, to crush a windpipe and feel the pulse fade away.

  A growl escaped my lips; I turned and punched a tree. The pain jolted away some of the bloodlust that filled me like oxygen. I hit the tree again, harder this time.

  I didn’t ask to be this way, and had pretended fairly well up to this point that I wasn’t a killer, wasn’t raised to be merciless and uncaring, to thrive on weaker flesh. I thought I had beaten them, that I could use logic to fight down the reflexes that had been ingrained into my body from the day I was born.

  I stared at the red knuckles, and traced the flow of blood through my veins with my eyes. Who was I fooling? I wasn’t born. I had been created in some test tube by sterile, cold-hearted lab technicians determined to make the perfect gladiator for money-hungry politicians. My bloodlust originally belonged to them.

  I stumbled through the trees and began to run from my own existence. Tree branches and shrubs caught at my coat, but I didn’t slow until I finally tripped on a root hidden in the shadow of night. I rolled with the impact and landed against an ancient pine. Breath tore raggedly through my throat. My vision cleared and I stared through the boughs to the star-scattered sky. I shouldn’t be here, free, away from the Arena. No one was safe with me on the loose. The ache in my battered hands reminded me that I would never truly be free. They had a firmer grasp on me than I could have imagined.

  I pushed back to my feet and walked slowly this time, not paying attention to where my feet were taking me until I stopped behind Nikko’s house, the place that was the closest thing to a home I had ever had.

  The backyard was dark, untouched by the few street lamps along the road in front of the house. I almost turned away, but movement in the back window caught my eye. Brie was speaking to someone out of sight. She gestured with a smile, her profile lit in a warm glow.

  How could I even be around her? I was a genetically created killer. Why did she tolerate me? Why did any of them? Dr. Ray had been right in the beginning. I was a danger to them all.

  My hands throbbed. I glanced at them. Something warm slid down my face. I raised a hand to my cheek and touched the last thing I expected. A tear. The first tear I had ever cried.

  I stared at the shine of moisture on my fingers. It caught the starlight like a diamond, reflecting light the way I felt my soul reflect the darkness that had been nurtured there from a life of violence. Another tear fell onto my hand and cut a track through the blood. I wondered if anything could do the same for my soul. I gritted my teeth and brushed away the tears, angry at my hope that I could change, proving once again how futile it was to count on the intangible. I knew I was a danger to all in that house, and wondered why I didn’t just leave.

  I glanced up at the house and my heart slowed. Brie was looking out the window in my direction. I knew she couldn’t see me standing in the night against the dark trees, but a jolt went through my body as though she stared into my soul. She laid me bare as no one else had ever done. My heart ached. At that moment I wanted to be human more than I ever had before.

  And I knew why I stayed.

  She took a step closer and touched the window gently. “Kale?” she mouthed.

  I stepped back into the forest, my heart pounding. I heard the back door open and circled through the trees to the front of the house before I could hear her call my name and was forced to decide whether or not to answer.

  I opened the front door and found Jayce in the living room. He looked down at my hands and his eyes widened. “Man, what happened to you?”

  I glanced down at them also and frowned past the jumble of thoughts swirling in my head. “I stopped a rape.”

  “Geesh, how many of them were there? Thirty?” Jayce turned toward the kitchen. “Nikko, get in here. Kale needs your expertise.”

  “Kale?” Brie followed Nikko out of the kitchen, her tone confused. “But I thought. . . .” She glanced toward the kitchen window and her voice faded away as though she realized how strange it would sound.

  “What?” Jayce asked, his attention on my hands as Nikko examined them.

  “Never mind,” Brie said, but her eyes held mine questioningly.

  I looked away and pretended to care about my throbbing knuckles. I didn’t know how to explain to her that I had almost killed someone, that I had almost become the person she thought I was when I stopped her step-father. I pushed down the feelings of guilt and turned my attention to Nikko as he checked the wounds.

  Allie’s blond-framed face appeared in the kitchen doorway, her eyes wide.

  “Allie, please go home and play. Dad should be back soon,” Brie urged her. “You don’t want to see this.”

  “Is Kale okay?” she asked, her brown eyes wide with concern.

  I nodded and she smiled, then skipped around us and out the front door. Brie watched to make sure she made it safely inside their house before closing the door again.

  “You stopped a rape?” Nikko asked. He made me flex my fingers as he gently probed the torn flesh. “What did this?” He pointed to the gash across the right knuckles.

  “Teeth,” I replied.

  Nikko probed the other hand. “And this?”

  I met his eyes. “A tree.”

  Jayce’s eyes widened and he looked from me to Nikko. But Nikko merely nodded and went to get his father’s bag. “That first one’ll probably need stitches. We might have to wait for Dad,” he replied when he came back.

  “It’s fine, just bandage it.”

  He glanced up. “It’ll scar if it’s not stitched.”

  A laugh escaped me at the thought. “And you think that bothers me?”

  He met my eyes, his expression calculating. I returned his gaze and after a moment, he gave a wry smile. “I guess not. Very well, as you wish.” He opened his bag and took out some antibiotic ointment, gauze, and bandages.

  “So what happened?” Jayce blurted out as though he couldn’t hold it in any longer.

  I glanced at Brie but couldn’t read her expression. I dropped my eyes to the floor and forced my tone to be casual. “I was walking the second beat and had just finished at the library when I heard someone scream.”

  “Oh,” Jayce interrupted, his eyebrows raised. “A damsel in distress.”

  Brie slapped his arm. “Quiet.”

  I gave her a smile of thanks. “I ran to the parking garage and found three guys in the bed o
f a truck with a girl.” Nikko’s bandaging slowed, but he kept his attention on my hands.

  I closed my eyes and saw the fear on her face again; the same fear had echoed on her brother’s face when he realized I could kill him.

  “What did you do?”

  Jayce’s voice brought me back to the present. I shook my head to clear it and opened my eyes. “I convinced them that they should leave her alone.”

  Jayce slapped Nikko’s shoulder. Nikko grunted as he tied off the last bandage. “Did you hear that Nik? He convinced them. I wish I would have been there to see that!”

  I stared at him in amazement. If only he knew. He met my gaze and his grin faltered slightly.

  A knock sounded at the door and I jumped up, still on edge.

  “Steady Kale,” Nikko said in a calming voice. “It’s probably someone for Dad.” Brie stood beside me and put a hand on my shoulder. Her touch slowed my pounding heart.

  Nikko answered the door. Muffled voices came from the porch. Jayce stepped up next to him, blocking my view. I took a step back toward the bedroom in case I needed to vanish. Instead, Jayce pushed the door open wide. “Uh, Kale? You have visitors.”

  To my surprise, Krissy’s brother Zach and his three friends from earlier crossed into the small living room. Heat rushed through my body and I clenched my fists. The bite of the bandages into my sore knuckles kept me grounded.

  Nikko took a step to position himself between us. I stared at him in shock. No one had ever stood in harm’s way for me before.

  Zach lifted his hands. “We don’t want trouble. We came to apologize.”

  Nikko glanced back at me, his eyebrows lifted. He must have seen the same astonishment on my face because he gave a slight shrug and stepped aside.

  Zach walked to the couch. “Krissy told us everything. I owe you the world, man. We were stupid.” He held out a hand. “I owe you her life and mine. Please accept my apology.”

  Instinct screamed that it was a trap, that he would pull me close and shove a concealed blade in my gut like any trained Galdoni; but I heard the sincerity in his voice and logic battled against instinct. Zach’s hand lowered a fraction at my hesitation.

  I took a deep breath to calm my nerves and accepted the handshake. “You thought I hurt your sister. You were being a good brother.”

  He grinned in relief. “I try, but it’s nice to have someone I can count on when I’m not there.” He glanced down at the bandages on my hand. “Rory said you knocked him pretty good.”

  He glanced back at the one I had hit in the teeth. Rory smiled good-naturedly, his teeth still red from bleeding gums. “You almost knocked my head off. I’m just glad my teeth stayed in my head instead of in your hand.”

  “Me, too,” I agreed whole-heartedly.

  “Where’d you learn to fight like that!” the one I had almost choked to death asked, rubbing his throat.

  I shrugged uncomfortably. “My dad was big into martial arts.”

  “I’ve never seen anything like that,” he exclaimed.

  Zach leaned against the couch. “As a thank you, I wanted to invite you and your friends to a party we’re having at my house Friday night. My parents are out of town and it’s gonna be wild. Do you work that night?”

  My stomach tightened, but I shook my head. “No, not Friday.”

  “Great, we’ll see you there!” Zach said confidently. He pushed off the couch and slapped Jayce on the shoulder on his way out the door, his friends close behind. Jayce shoved the door shut behind them and we all stared at it.

  Jayce finally broke the silence. “Zachary Finch, the star quarterback of the football team, is the brother of the girl you saved from being raped?” The shock in his voice was echoed on Brie and Nikko’s faces.

  “I almost killed them,” I forced out, my throat tight.

  “I’ll bet you did!” Jayce exclaimed.

  I shook my head. “I almost killed them,” I repeated, meeting his gaze. His eyes widened and his grin faded as the implication of my words sunk in.

  “The red marks on the last guy’s neck. You did that?” Nikko asked in a carefully neutral tone.

  I felt the pulse under my fingers again, the rage screaming through my body for me to end it. I turned away from them and rubbed my hand on my leg in an effort to erase the feeling. A shudder ran through my body.

  Nikko set a hand on my shoulder. “I think you should go to the party Friday.”

  I stared at him. “Are you crazy? Do you understand what I could have done?”

  He nodded, his eyes searching mine. There wasn’t any judgment on his face; instead, I found something I wasn’t prepared to handle, understanding. “You need more social interactions that don’t end in you fighting for your life. If killing and defending are all you know, then of course that’s what you resort to. It’s ingrained. You need to replace it with something else or it’ll never go away.” He glanced at Jayce for concurrence.

  Jayce nodded. He leaned against the door. “He has a point, Kale. So far, school and this place are all you know. It couldn’t hurt to relax a bit.”

  “Couldn’t hurt?” I repeated, appalled. “It could hurt, and it would most definitely be someone besides me. I’m dangerous, remember? I think the fewer social situations at this point the better.”

  “I think you should go.”

  We all turned to Brie in surprise.

  “What?” I asked, not bothering to hide my shock.

  “You should go. It might be the only chance you have to just chill with friends and have a good time.”

  “We have a good time here,” I pointed out.

  “That’s different, and you know it,” she argued. “What are you afraid of?”

  My mouth dropped open as I searched for words. “Well, I. . . .” I sputtered and she gave me a small smile that made her brown eyes glow. I let out a sigh and told her the truth despite what she would think of me. “I’m afraid of killing or hurting someone by accident because it’s so easy.” I gestured vaguely at the door. “That would have been so easy, and that’s what scares me. I didn’t feel anything during the fight.”

  “But you do now,” Nikko pointed out gently.

  I rubbed my eyes with my palms in frustration. “Yes, I do.”

  “Then that makes you human,” he concluded.

  The energy left my body; I felt like a boxer who had just been punched in the stomach. I looked from him to Brie and Jayce and then back. They watched me with encouraging expressions, a tiny army banded together to fight my battle. I bit back the arguments that fought to get free and turned to my bedroom. “I’m not human,” I said before shutting them out.

  I didn’t bother to turn on the light. The faint outline of the familiar furniture beckoned to me. I threw off my coat and settled onto the bed, the brush of dark feathers against the backs of my arms a reminder of what I would never be.

  Chapter Ten

  I followed Nikko and Jayce up the steps of Zach's house. “I don’t know why I let you talk me into this,” I said.

  “Just relax; you’ll have a good time,” Brie insisted. She took my arm and walked with me to the open door where music and laughter spilled out like raucous sunlight after a storm.

  Students filled every possible space, eating in the kitchen, playing pool on a scratched pool table in the back room, lounging on couches that looked like they had survived the last war, sitting on orange boxes turned into chairs, and in the back yard playing what appeared to be volleyball over a rope strung between two trees. Everywhere I looked, students laughed, ate, talked, drank, and danced to the thump of music coming from a rigged stereo in a corner by the pool table. Discordant music also came from two cars parked outside, the owners of which seemed to be trying to blast each other away through sheer volume.

  Luckily it was cloudy outside and the air carried a touch of chill, so my coat wasn’t out of place. I noticed several students sporting similar styles lounging on the lawn.

  “Hey, you came!” Zach shouldere
d his way past a group of students by the door and met us on the porch.

  “Yeah,” I replied noncommittally, a bit overwhelmed.

  “This is awesome!” Jayce said. With a wave in my direction, he and Nikko lost themselves in the crowd.

  “I’m glad you made it,” Zach said sincerely.

  I took a calming breath. “Thank you. Where’s Krissy? Is she okay?”

  “She’s fine, thanks to you. She went with my parents to my grandma’s house for the weekend to kind-of get past everything. She didn’t want me to tell our parents what happened, but I’m hoping she’ll do it while they’re gone. That way my dad won’t be able to kill Bryce at least until they get back,” he said with a glint in his eye that said he thought Bryce deserved anything his dad would do.

  I thought of what I had wanted to do and figured he would be better off with Krissy's dad. “Good idea.”

  Rory, the one I had almost strangled, made his way through the crowd to Zach’s side. He smiled at Brie and my heart gave a strange thump. I stepped closer to her.

  “Can I take your coats?” Rory asked. He held his hand out to Brie.

  “No,” I replied stiffly. Brie elbowed me discreetly in the ribs and I winced. “I mean, no thank you.”

  Rory laughed. “No prob, bro! Food’s in there and y'all have a good time!”

  Zach gave him a good-natured shove and he stumbled back toward the kitchen. He gave us an apologetic smile. “Don’t mind him; he’s Texan.” He laughed as though it was an inside joke. “Make yourselves at home. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask.”

  “Thanks,” Brie answered for both of us.

  He left up the stairs and we made our way slowly through the crowded hallway. We arrived at a back room where Jayce was throwing darts with a girl in braids. Several onlookers laughed when his dart missed the board altogether and stuck in the wall at least a foot away.

  “You okay?” Brie asked in my ear after a few minutes.

  “Yeah,” I replied.

  “You sure?” She put a hand on my arm so I would look at her. “You’ve been awfully quiet since Rory tried to take my coat.”