I felt the tip of the knife rest against the back of my neck then, feeling her test my words despite her fear. There was a wildness about her, like a boat stranded in a raging ocean, looking for something – anything – to anchor her. She wanted that more than anything else. No, she needed it, or else she was going to drown. She’d fall off the cliff.
The blade began to tremble, and suddenly she screamed at the top of her lungs and tossed the knife as far as she could to the side. Instantly, she fell in front of me in a heap, crying violently. She leaned forward at the same time that I reached out, and I pulled her into my lap as all the pent up feeling inside her erupted all at once.
I couldn’t help but feel a little emotional myself, because I could feel what she was feeling, although to a lesser degree. At the very least, while it was clear she had just fallen while at the edge of the cliff, she had fallen in the right direction. She wasn’t fully anchored yet, but it was a start, a very important start. She still had a lot of confusing feelings to work out, but that wildness inside her had calmed significantly.
After a few minutes, I tentatively asked her a question that I thought might help. “Elizabeth…” I began.
“Liz,” she corrected me quietly in between sobs.
“Liz, may I have your permission to touch you with my blood?” She shivered slightly, so I elaborated. “I want you to feel it on you and know that it’s not going to hurt you. That I’m not going to hurt you.”
She was very still all of a sudden, and then I felt her nod against my chest. I brought my blood out slowly and began wrapping it around her legs, arms, and torso. Her breathing began to accelerate, but I asked her to take a deep breath and she did while I let my blood hold onto her loosely.
Slowly, her heartrate began to return to normal and her breathing became more regular. Then, I whispered to her again. “Now, Liz, I want you to ask me to remove my blood from you. Tell me to stop.”
“Please stop,” she whispered, and I immediately withdrew my blood, pulling it quickly back into my body. With it, I felt the tension in her body loosen significantly, I could sense her begin to stabilize.
I also loosened my embrace on her, and spoke again. “Now, Liz, I want you to get up and stand over me. Then, when you are ready, I want you to tell me to stand up. I’m a lot taller than you, but I don’t want you to be afraid of that. Do you think you can do that?”
She nodded again, and she slowly climbed out of my lap and got to her feet. She then looked down at me, holding my gaze for the first time. After a solid moment, she whispered. “Please stand up.”
I nodded and did it slowly, watching her expression for any sign of panic again. Her blue eyes were uncertain, but the fear didn’t come. I was giving her a level of control over her immediate life that she had not had for possibly years. And by extension, giving her control over her fear. She knew I had spared her life, and she knew that I had saved her from her hypnotic prison, yet she was still afraid of me. It made me the perfect person to help her deal with it. I was someone who she knew logically she shouldn’t be afraid of, but who she illogically was afraid of, minus the dragging by the hair.
Once I was fully upright, she stared up at me, the uncertainty in her eyes slowly fading. Then, as soon as I saw the anchor finally take hold, I held out my hand and spoke again. “May I introduce you to my friends? I promise they won’t hurt you either.”
She nodded hesitantly, and then slipped her hand in mine. Ava was still standing where I had left her, and even though I could feel her there, it still made me feel overwhelmed with appreciation to see with my eyes that she had patiently waited where I had asked her to stay. I kept my hand up at the middle of my side, guiding Liz forward towards her.
We stopped in front of Ava, and I introduced her. I had picked Ava for multiple reasons for this job, including the fact that she was female and looked like a normal person, without red eyes, but this was the most important reason – I knew Ava would provide the warmest welcome that Liz would receive.
I then asked Ava to show her what she could do, and she slowly shifted into a shadow before immediately return back to normal. Liz surprisingly wasn’t too shocked. I had to remind myself that even if she was hypnotized, she still had spent a lot of time around other people who had abilities, including Weaver.
I then called out Trinity’s name and she came skipping over. That turned out to be an interesting interaction. After I introduced her, the first thing Liz blurted out was, “Your hair is so beautiful.”
“Like it?” Trinity asked, running her fingers through it. “It’s my natural hair color.”
“Really?” She asked surprised. “I wish I had blue hair.”
“Aww, that’s sweet, but your hair is pretty too.”
Liz grabbed some of her hair in her fingers and looked at it. “Yeah, I guess it’s not so bad.” She then looked up at Trinity again. “What about your eyes?”
“Yep,” Trinity replied cheerfully. “Those are natural too.” She then flashed a grin. “If you could choose your eye color, what color would you pick?”
Liz thought about it for a second before responding. “Umm, probably purple I think.”
“Oh! Yes! That would go really well with your blonde hair, although your blue eyes are pretty amazing in their own right.”
“You really think so?” Liz wondered.
Trinity nodded eagerly, but then was interrupted by Zane calling out to them. “Hey guys. We really need to get going.”
I looked over to see that he had both duffle bags slung over his shoulders now. I quickly knelt down in front of Liz again, and looked up at her. “Liz, did they tell you why they brought you here?”
She nodded, quickly. “They need me to help protect some guy – to rescue him.”
“That’s right. But I want to let you know that both me and the big guy over there are going to stick with you the entire time and protect you. Alright?”
“Promise?”
I nodded. “Promise.” I then stood up again, holding her hand out towards Ava. “Will you please take Ava’s hand and let her take you to the plane?”
She nodded immediately, and Ava took my cue to grab her hand. Ava then gave me a meaningful look, before glancing at her knife on the ground in the distance and glancing at me again. I nodded quickly. Of course I wasn’t going to leave her weapon behind. I doubted she had been too thrilled to have someone throw it on the concrete, but she wasn’t about to say anything.
I then stepped back and motioned for Zane and Zayden to come over, giving quick introductions now. After a brief hello, Zane handed off one of the bags to Zayden and the two of them began heading towards the jet at the back side of the small airport. The soldier who had been waiting patiently this whole time turned on his heels and led the way.
Ava and Liz quickly followed after, leaving me to go pick up Ava’s knife with Trinity close behind me.
“Wow Jake, you sure know how to make a girl jealous.” She whispered next to me.
“Really?” I asked in disbelief. “Jealous of what?”
Trinity pouted, successfully making herself look adorable. “I want to be curled up in your lap like that.”
I stared at her for a moment. “Well, I certainly never said you couldn’t. By all means, if you want to curl up in my lap then please do.”
“Really?” She said excitedly, clapping her hands quietly.
I scoffed at her. “I’ve basically been begging you for your attention and you’re acting like I’m the one who’s been holding out.”
She gave me a big grin. “Well, that’s about to change.”
“Good,” I said seriously. “Because I like you and I want to be something with you. I don’t care what you want to call it, but I want there to be something between us. Preferably something serious.”
“Like ‘sex’ serious?” She wondered quietly.
I glanced at her as we continued walking. “No, that’s not what I mean. Would I like that? Of course. But what I’m tal
king about is the actual emotional part. The commitment. People have sex all the time and don’t really care about each other.”
Trinity took a deep breath. “Jake, that’s tough.”
Her response surprised me. “Which part?” I wondered.
“The commitment part,” she began, but when she saw my shocked expression she quickly explained herself. “I’m not talking about being with other people. To be honest, I’ve never actually been with anyone. I’ve been in the military since I was nine-years-old and had my first mission when I was barely thirteen. My entire life has basically just been one organized drill. No time to even think about guys, not to mention most of them have been way older than me. And not even ‘I could work with this’ older, but more like ‘this is gross’ older.”
I found that last comment amusing, but I was more focused on her first comment. “You’ve really never been with anyone?” I asked in disbelief.
“Why is that surprising?” She said seriously.
“Umm, one because your super hot, but two because you talk like you have. Like asking me if I wanted to see your blue public hair – I still do by the way.”
She laughed at that. “I’ll keep that in mind. But to address your concern, basically everyone talks dirty in the military. It’s pretty easy to pick up, especially if you’re around some of the girls that end up in our midst. Ava’s definitely a rare exception.”
“Oh, I guess that makes sense.” I hesitated then, realizing we were almost out of time to talk privately. “So then, what’s your problem with the commitment part if it isn’t about other guys?”
“Because I’ve been trained to only have one commitment – the mission.”
I thought about that for a moment. “Trinity, are you committed to brushing your teeth daily?”
“Umm, yeah. Why?”
“Is that more important than the mission?”
“No, of course not.”
“Then why can’t you commit to me? It can still be less important than the mission. I just want us to be something special, to have a unique relationship, one we don’t share with anyone else – something just between the two of us – sex being optional, although highly desired.”
We were out of time now, getting ready to board the plane. Suddenly, Trinity grabbed me and pulled me into her, planting a kiss on my lips. She then pushed me away. “Okay,” she whispered.
“Girlfriend?” I asked quickly.
She nodded with a grin. “Yep!”
Chapter 10: Trauma
When we got inside the plane, I saw that it had three rows of seats – two on the left that were couple together and one row on the right with an aisle between them. Ava and Liz were already sitting towards the back of the plane, with Zayden in the single seat next to them. Zane appeared to have disappeared into the bathroom to start changing already. The copilot was standing at the entrance of the cockpit as we got to the top of the stairs. He nodded at Trinity, speaking to her.
“The girl’s ability can interfere with our communications. It’s absolutely essential she remains towards the back of the plane.”
“How far does her ability reach?” Trinity asked seriously.
“Approximately a hundred and thirteen centimeters on average – that’s just over three and a half feet. However, it’s not entirely stationary. The field originates from the surface of her body, which means it shifts with her movement. It’s not a sphere, but more like an upright oval – at least when she’s standing up. But since it’s not entirely predictable, we don’t want to take any chances.”
“Right. That’s acceptable. We’ll make sure of it.”
As Trinity turned to begin heading towards the back, I whispered to her. “So, can you give me an idea of about how far that is?” I felt embarrassed that I wasn’t great with distances, but this wasn’t the time to be shy. I needed to know.
She paused and looked at me. “Okay, so imagine this,” She stuck her arms out in front of her. “Except imagine that my arms are twice as long. That’s how far. Liz can protect anything that’s about twice her physical reach away, more or less.”
“Oh okay. I guess that means she can actually protect quite a few people at once.”
Trinity nodded in response. “Yes, we could probably all comfortably fit within that space. If you include her body, the diameter of her horizontal reach when she’s standing is roughly eight by eight feet. That’s a lot of space. The average bedroom is only ten by ten feet.” She paused and tapped her chin as she thought. “Plus, since it’s not a sphere, that means that people a lot taller than her are still protected. I doubt we’d ever need to protect someone who was taller than eight and a half feet.”
“Right. Although, we still need to try to figure out exactly what can and can’t get through it.”
Trinity nodded. “Yes. Hopefully she can give us a better explanation than the General’s vague comment. It can be frustrating sometimes that they don’t share exactly what they know about us. For example, I’m sure their computer has already spit out a list of possibly things you require for food, yet I haven’t heard anything back.”
I shrugged. “Must not be that important then.”
She scoffed. “Hopefully. If only that were true.” She then lowered her voice significantly. “Those bastards might wait for you to figure it out yourself, just to see what happens when you get hungry. They’ll probably see how it affects your stamina and endurance, as well as try to determine how often you need to eat. Basically, they’ll withhold information as a science experiment. It can be really annoying.”
“Well, I’ll let you know if I get hungry,” I promised.
She smiled at me slightly and then continued down the aisle to sit in front of Ava and Liz. I tentatively sat down next to Trinity, glad to see Liz meet my gaze without showing any signs of fear. It was strange to see her demeanor change so rapidly, but I knew she wanted to trust us deep down – it’s just her fear and uncertainty had been stopping her.
Zane came back to his seat, having finished changing, and sat down across the aisle in the single seat next to me. The pilot announced their immediate departure, so we all buckled up while the plane took off. Once we were in the air, I got changed next, followed by Zayden, then Ava, and finally Trinity. Both Ava and Trinity took turns getting to know Liz and keeping the conversation light-hearted. However, once we were all in our gear, I finally brought up the subject we all needed to know more about. It was just as Trinity was coming out of the bathroom. She stopped in the aisle just behind Ava to listen.
“So, Liz…” I began tentatively.
“Yes?” She asked with a smile.
“Can you tell us more about your shield?” I quickly clarified when her smile disappeared. “It’s just that the more we know about it, the better we can protect you. Obviously, it’s not completely impenetrable, so we need to know why, so we can watch out for things that can hurt you.”
Liz looked away briefly and sighed.
I was turned around in my seat, sitting on my knees, to look at her. I caught Trinity’s eye, and she leaned forward to rest her arm on the back of Ava’s seat to speak. “We were told that any abilities that are biological in nature can hurt you. So, we need…” Trinity stopped when Liz gasped and looked over at her.
“Who told you that?” She wondered in disbelief.
Trinity’s eyes widened slightly, but she kept her composure, her voice even. “Basically, our boss.”
Liz just stared at her for a moment. “That’s a complete lie.” She finally said.
Trinity and I both glanced at each other, and I noticed Ava looking over at Zane before focusing back on Liz.
“What do you mean?” Trinity finally asked, completely confused.
Liz looked up at her with narrow eyes, answering the question indirectly. “The people I was just with understood exactly how my ability worked. Is there a chance your boss might have been given incorrect information?”
“No.” Trinity said in a low voice. “
No, there is absolutely no chance of that.”
“Then he lied to you,” Liz whispered.
Ava finally chimed in, resting her hand on Liz’s thin arm. “Can you explain it to us then?”
Liz suddenly looked at me, before looking up at Trinity again. “It is true that I can allow biological things within my range of protection, but nothing biological can hurt me. If that were true, then people could hit me – they can’t.”
Now I was confused. “Wait, so does that mean that last night, you allowed me to come inside your shield?”
Liz looked up at me, her bottom lip trembling just slightly before she composed herself. “No…I didn’t. I was afraid, and I didn’t know you weren’t going to hurt me.”
We all stared at her for a minute, until finally Ava rubbed Liz’s arm and spoke. “Liz, we’re having a hard time understanding. Do you think you could explain it from the start?”
Liz sighed again, before answering. “Yes…umm…” She stared into space as she decided where to begin. “Well, my ability isn’t like an empty bubble. It’s more like a ball of water, at least in the sense that it protects me no matter how close someone is able to get. For example, if I allowed someone inside the ball and they tried to hit me, or shoot me with a gun at point blank range, they wouldn’t be able to reach me. However, if a person with a gun turned around and shot away from me, the bullet would reach its target. Essentially, even if someone is inside my reach, dangerous things can always go out but they can never come in.”
“So then,” I tired to clarify, “if someone you trusted turned on you, then your shield would protect you no matter how close they were. It can detect the threat essentially.”
“Yes, that’s exactly right.” She looked at me curiously. “How did you know? Most people can’t figure that out on their own.”
“Really?” I asked in surprise. I thought that was obvious, but then I realized it was probably only obvious to me because of my own ability. “Actually, I sort of have a unique sense that works in a similar manner. I can somehow detect things that are threatening to both me and others. It’s almost like a second sight – it lets me see things without using my eyes.”
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