Leaning into the room, she felt around to make sure nothing waited under the window to alarm the quietly snoring occupant. She pulled her legs inside and placed her feet softly on carpeted floor. The light from the street lamp outside revealed a desk covered with heavy textbooks, a shelf weighed down by trophies, and white walls covered in posters of eighties hair bands. Her eyebrows climbed up her forehead. If she pulled the drawers of the bureau open, would she find scrunchy socks and neon colored headbands? Suppressing a smile at her ridiculousness, she tiptoed over to the bed and looked down at Sophia Petrova, the Shine she'd come to rescue.
Long, wavy hair that she knew would glint a dark auburn in the sunlight showed black against light colored sheets. The girl looked much younger than her eighteen years. Camille pulled the neck of her t-shirt up and wiped her sweaty forehead. She was stalling. She didn't usually sneak into a Shine's bedroom, but this one's time had run out. They were coming for her. The sound of a car door slamming drifted through the window. Camille's heart jumped. She stopped her Shine, so the girl would be able to see her, and placed one hand over the girl's mouth. The other Shine's eyes flew open and her hands clutched at Camille's wrists.
"I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to help. They've come for you. You have to leave now if you don't want them to take you away."
Camille held her breath as the girl lay frozen, staring up at her. Resignation filled her eyes and she nodded her head. Camille sagged in relief. Someone pounded on the house's front door. The girl's gaze jerked toward her bedroom door. She removed her hand from the girl's mouth and leaned in closer. "Time's up. Grab your clothes and let's go. You can put them on in my car."
The girl sat up completely dressed. She even had tennis shoes on her feet. She met Camille's surprised gaze and lifted her chin. "I'm always ready."
Camille shoved aside her curiosity at the girl's slight accent as the front door banged open and loud voices ordered the girl's parents to hand over the Shine. Sophia pulled a dark backpack from her closet and slung it over her shoulders. Camille nodded and sighed. She wouldn't have to worry about this one giving their presence away to the authorities like the last Shine she'd attempted to rescue. That Shine had been hiding in her home with her parents, the SSS camped out on her front lawn, when Camille arrived. When Camille had attempted to take her out, the girl had refused to leave, claiming her parents could take care of her just fine. She'd never been so frustrated.
Shaking away the image of the girl being dragged away by the Feds, she moved to the window and leaned out just enough to check that no one waited outside. Strong hands grabbed her and yanked her half way out the window. Sophia grabbed Camille around the waist and yanked her back into the room. They collapsed onto the floor in a heap as a man in black fatigues dove through the window and somersaulted across the floor.
Sophia wrapped her arms around Camille. "Close your eyes."
Camille squeezed her eyes shut. Her body grew light, until she felt like an astronaut on the moon. She searched for her body, strained for the feel of skin surrounding her bones. She couldn't feel her heart beat, she couldn't feel air rush in and out of her lungs. She pushed against the walls of her own mind. Pain stabbed through her conscious. Bracing for the pain, she shoved at her mind again. The pain scattered her thoughts. Something tickled her lip. Her lip! The weight of her body settled back onto her bones. She sucked a breath into starving lungs and opened her eyes. Her lip tickled again. She wiped the back of her hand across her upper lip. A streak of red smeared the back of her hand, highlighted by the streetlight they stood under. Blood. Sophia's slender arms slid from around Camille's waist and the younger Shine straightened. Camille bent over as her vision spotted and rested her forearms on her knees.
"What the flick did you do to me?" she asked, glancing up at the pallid face of the younger woman.
"Now you know why I sleep with my clothes and shoes on," Sophia said, her light accent catching Camille's attention once again. Was it Eastern European? "It's unsettling to wake up and find myself not in my bed."
"You could've warned me." Camille scowled at the other Shine and rubbed away more blood. "I nearly ripped apart my own mind."
The girl's exhausted stare clashed defiantly with Camille's. "Would you have preferred I let them take you?"
Camille jerked her head up to look at her surroundings, the fact that they were no longer in Sophia's house finally registering. A strong pulsing began in the back of her head. In less than a second, tiny lines, the nerves that relayed information from the retina to the brain, formed in her mind's eye. Focusing on the point where the lines formed two bunches that crossed at the optic chiasm, Camille pushed out a radio wave-like command that no one see her and Sophia out as far as the signal could reach. She made sure to exclude Sophia from the command so they could still see each other. She owed the discovery of that part of her ability to her friend, Michael, who’d pointed out the possibility while they’d been attempting to rescue her best friend, Jenni, from the SSS in Oklahoma.
Satisfied they wouldn't be seen by anyone looking for them, Camille studied their surroundings and gasped. She stood in a park she'd noticed earlier, down the street from Sophia's house. She turned to stare at the other girl, jaw hanging open.
Sophia had teleported them.
2
Camille smiled. Rock and razor. A teleporter would definitely come in handy.
"Later you're going to tell me exactly how that works," Camille told the girl. "You've got the coolest Shine I've ever seen."
Not that she'd seen that many other Shines. Before leaving her small hometown of Sentinel, Oklahoma, Camille had only ever personally known the Shine abilities of herself and her best friend, Jenni. The lump formed in her throat again. Jenni had been taken by the SSS, a group of Shine-hating bigots that did everything they could to instill fear toward Shines into the people of the world. And they'd been successful. The bill stripping Shines of their civil rights would go into effect tomorrow at midnight. This was the first time she'd seen the government send soldiers to a Shine's home in the middle of the night like this, though she'd heard about it happening more and more on the radio news shows. She'd hoped to have tonight and tomorrow to get the two Shines on her list out of their homes before the government took them. Camille sighed. Nothing was ever easy.
"How did you know they were coming for me?" The girl's strained voice jerked Camille's attention from her wayward thoughts.
"I didn't think they'd come for you until tomorrow after President Patterson signed the Anti-Shine Bill." She stood and pulled the taller girl into the shadows away from the streetlight. "Let's go."
"A please would be nice," Sophia muttered.
Camille suppressed a smile and pulled the girl along behind her. Had she ever been this much of a smart mouth? Probably. They ran the opposite direction of Sophia's house to where Camille had parked her car. She'd used her Shine to assure the car remained unseen before she'd run up to get Sophia. She started it, thankful for its quiet, electric motor and pulled away from the curb. Sophia sucked in a breath, to pummel Camille with her questions, no doubt. She held up her hand for silence. The air left the other girl's lungs in a frustrated humph as she crossed her arms. At least the teen could take orders.
Camille drove slowly by Sophia's house. A soldier stood at the door, his dark clothing standing out starkly in the porch light. The dark metal of the military rifle in his hands made her palms slick on the steering wheel. Another dark-clothed soldier materialized out of the darkness directly in front of her car. Hearing her wheels on the pavement, even if he couldn't see her, he turned his head toward her car.
Sophia braced her hands on the dash. "Watch out."
Camille slammed on the brakes, her wheels screeching on the pavement. The soldier hit the hood and rolled to the ground. The soldier by the door burst into action. He swung his rifle around and pointed toward Camille's car. "Down, Sophia."
Camille stomped the accelerator and the car shot forward
as the rapid staccato of the rifle broke the silence of the dark tree-lined street. Glass shattered behind her. Sophia screamed. Her hands strangled the steering wheel as she took the next corner on two wheels, the street lights her only illumination. Headlights filled her rear-view mirror. She glanced at Sophia's folded figure in the passenger seat.
"Oh God, not again." She reached over and blindly patted the back of Sophia's head where it lay on her knees.
The girl turned wide eyes toward her and Camille released a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. She returned her gaze to the dark street. "Good, you're alive."
"They shot out the back window of your car, a bullet whizzed by my head, and all you can say is "good, you’re alive?" Sophia asked, accent thickening as she started muttering in what sounded like Russian.
Camille glanced at the other girl, then back toward the street. The headlights turned behind her. Her heart slowed its pounding. She loosened one sweaty palm from the steering wheel and wiped it on her pants, then the other. That'd been too close. She reached for the glasses she'd stashed in the console, shoved them onto her face, and touched the temple piece.
"What happened?"
Brenna's voice spoke into her ear. "The Feds pushed the Anti-Shine Bill through a day early so they could round up Shines before they had a chance to go underground. Michael said they've been planning to chainmail everyone all along according to his dad's source," the communications member of her little group of rebels, said.
The same age as Camille, Brenna had been a college student working toward her doctorate in psychology when Camille found her. That had been only three weeks ago, but she couldn't imagine being on this mission without Brenna's brilliant mind. The other Shine had been responsible for locating a student that dealt in black market goods. Then she'd used Camille's money to acquire them each a set of Google glasses so they could communicate with each other and tablets so they could keep track of what happened with the Anti-Shine Bill.
"Rachel?" Camille asked, her hands tightening on the steering wheel.
Rachel was the third and newest member of their group, with the ability to magnify the natural magnetic field that surrounded most humans.
Brenna snorted. "You're worried about the mighty ninja princess? Please. Her majesty showed up with her Shine in tow about an hour ago. They even had time for the girl she rescued to say goodbye to her parents."
Camille sighed. "You two really need to get along."
"That'd mean making her queen of this pool party. No thanks."
Camille shook her head and changed the subject. "We'll be in Amarillo in about an hour. I'm going to take Sophia with me to get the last one on our list."
"Are you sure that's wise? What if she does something that ends up with you being caught?" Brenna's worried voice asked.
"We don't have time for caution."
"You're most likely going to be too late, anyway. You know that, right?"
Camille clenched her jaw. "I have to be sure."
3
Camille passed the address in the upper-middle-class neighborhood that belonged to fifteen-year-old Annie Graham. At the end of the street, an old Catholic church stood guard. She pulled into the deserted parking lot and shut off the car. She considered leaving Sophia in the car. The girl was an unknown. What if she caused them both to be caught? Doubts about her own inability circled in her mind. Jenni was supposed to be here and making the decisions. Her confident friend would have known what to do. Camille shook her head. But Jenni wasn't here. Her best friend was dead.
A lump formed in her throat. She closed her eyes and inhaled. She'd promised Jenni she'd find and help other Shines fight against what was being done to them. Somehow she’d get them to the safety of the Ohm Resistance base located somewhere in the California desert. She couldn't let Jenni down. The other Shines she'd found so far were looking to her as their leader, no matter how reluctantly she filled the role. She squared her shoulders.
Sophia's voice interrupted her musing. "The parents aren't going to just let their fifteen-year-old daughter walk away with a stranger."
Camille suppressed a smile and made her decision. Yes, this was definitely one of the smart ones. "Should I just leave her here?"
"Judging by the house, I'd say they have money. They can protect her," Sophia insisted.
"And if they can't?" Camille turned to look at the younger woman. "If they barge in and take her over her parents’ objections, what then?"
Sophia crossed her arms. “Who's to say they haven't already?”
Camille raised her eyebrows. “Would you have preferred that I had just left you to be taken?”
Sophia's stricken gaze dropped to her lap as she swallowed. "It's going to happen eventually, anyway."
Camille opened the car door and hot air hit her in the face. "Not if I can help it."
She got out of the car and started down the street. A grim smile curved her lips when the car door opened behind her.
Sophia caught up and fell into step beside her. "I just think this is all futile. Like trying to stop the waves of the tide from coming in."
"Then we'll have to move back from the shore so we aren't caught until the day we have the ability to build our house on stilts high enough that the tide can't touch us," Camille said with a shrug. A steady pulse beat at the back of her head as she released hold of her Shine and made herself and Sophia invisible to anyone watching.
Sophia shook her head, but remained silent. Camille understood how she felt. It'd only been six weeks ago that she'd wanted nothing more than to remain hidden with her best friend in the haven that her parents had created for her. But that had been before a betrayal, a promise, and Jenni's death. She ignored the burning knot in her stomach. She grabbed Sophia's arm and stopped moving.
"I've made it so they can't see us, but you have to stay quiet. Making noise or brushing up against them will catch their attention," Camille explained in a whisper.
Sophia's eyes widened. "That's why that man we ran over didn't see us. You're like the invisible woman or something. Razor."
Camille rolled her eyes. "Yeah, something like that."
A young girl's voice cried out up ahead. "Dad, do something."
Camille and Sophia hurried to peer around a tall hedge that blocked the front of the house from the road. A tall girl with long black hair strained against the hold of two men in black fatigues. Her wide, panic-filled eyes looked back over her shoulder toward a distinguished older couple who stood holding each other in the home's doorway.
"We'll get you back, baby. I promise," the girl's father said, his pale face flushed red with anger.
The girl's mother turned her tear-stained face into her husband's shoulder when the men shoved the girl into a black SUV. The fifteen-year-old girl pressed against the glass of the window, tears flowing down her cheeks.
Sophia glanced at Camille. "We have to do something."
The car pulled out of the drive. "It's too late," Camille said through clenched teeth. She'd failed. Again. If they'd only been five minutes earlier. She clenched her fists and took a step after the car, then stopped, her mind racing.
"We can chase them down," Sophia cried.
The couple turned toward Sophia's voice. Acting on instinct, Camille released her Shine and pulled Sophia from behind the shrubs.
"I have a better idea."
The couple stared silently at the girls as Camille pulled Sophia up the walk to the front door.
The girl's father, District Attorney Phil Graham according to Brenna's research, watched them approach in stony silence. The mother, her gray-streaked black hair the older version of her daughter's, delicately wiped the tears off her cheeks with her fingers. Camille stopped before them and met the man's cold, blue eyes.
“Did you mean it?” Camille asked.
His lips thinned as he pressed them together. "How dare you spy on us. Who are you?"
"We were on our way to get your daughter before they could take her. We
didn't expect them to push the Bill through a day early," Camille told the arrogant man.
His cold eyes became calculating. "You're Shine."
Camille gave him a mocking smile. "How about you just consider us concerned citizens and leave it at that."
His face darkened. "I'd do anything to get my daughter back. We're not supporters of the anti-Shine movement. We've never known a Shine to do anything dangerous." He lifted an eyebrow at them.
"Anyone with a weapon can be dangerous, Mr. Graham. Especially when hunted and cornered. I imagine like any group of people, there are good and bad." She crossed her arms. "Some people are determined to save Shines from being locked away in the government rehab facilities. I'm sorry I couldn't get here earlier to save your daughter, but if we can get to her before they get her inside the facility's walls, maybe we're not too late."
Mrs. Graham's face crumpled. "Please, don't let them put her into one of those."
Mr. Graham wrapped his arm around the woman's shoulders. "All Shine found in Texas are taken to the West Texas Shine Rehab Facility in El Paso. They usually take them to a holding building outside Amarillo International Airport before flying them to the facility."
Camille processed the information, considering and discarding ideas until a plan began to form. "Can you get us the holding building's location, plans, and any security measures in place?"
Mr. Graham nodded. "But you'll need to hurry. Now that the Anti-Shine Bill has passed, they'll be rounding up all known Shines in the area and flying them to El Paso as soon as possible."
Camille nodded and pulled Sophia away from the house. "Get the information we need. We'll contact you in an hour."
4
Camille frowned at the shattered back window of the little white electric car and got into the driver's seat.
Sophia secured her seatbelt, then turned to face her. "How do you know we can trust them?"
"Well, their daughter was just taken from them," Camille said as she pulled the little car out of the church parking lot.
Shine: Season One (Shine Season Book 1) Page 90