The blazing eruption coming from Zayden didn’t last as long as I thought it would – but he really had put everything into it.
Abruptly, the blast stopped just as suddenly as it had started, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head as he fell to the ground unconscious. I felt Trinity take a huge leap towards us the moment it stopped, before she froze to stare at me standing over him completely unharmed.
I looked over at her face, seeing it quickly shift from fear, to confusion, and then to utter shock, her mouth falling open. I smirked at her, not even slightly ashamed that I was now completely naked. She slowly recovered, and began approaching me again at a slow jog – definitely slow for her at least.
When she got in front of me, she glanced down at Zayden on the ground and then looked back up at me, a smile slowly creeping on her face. “Well,” she said after a second, “that was…unexpected…”
I grinned at her. “Yep. Never thought I’d shake hands with the sun and live to tell the tale.”
Her crimson eyes were trained on mine intensely, and then she abruptly grabbed the sides of my face in both of her hands and pulled me down into a kiss. Her tongue briefly slipped into my mouth before she pulled away again.
“What was that for?” I asked breathlessly. “Not that I’m complaining.”
She just grinned. “For being a badass! And because I promised to kiss you more often. Now seemed like a good time since I have you naked.”
I glanced down at my body briefly before looking back up at her. “Yeah about that. Is that something you could help with? Not sure I want Liz to see me without clothes. She’s only twelve. It might traumatize her.”
Trinity laughed. “I’m surprised she didn’t chase after me to get a better look.”
I glanced up to see that Liz was in fact blushing furiously, with her eyes averted. Ava was standing next to her, not even remotely ashamed that she was staring at us. Much to my surprise, I caught her checking out Zayden with a smirk on her face.
Zane had disappeared. I reached out with my sixth sense to find him over by the barracks already. Hopefully to get us clothes. I noticed that the ground all around us was completely black, except for a circle around Liz that perfectly outlined where her shield started. Sure enough, the line on the ground wasn’t a perfectly smooth circle – it was slightly wavy in nature, although just barely.
I glanced back down at Trinity. “By the look on her face, I’d say she saw enough.”
Trinity was about to respond, but was interrupted by several soldiers running up to us. One of them called out. “What in the hell just happened?”
Trinity quickly turned around to address them. “We were running a test to see how powerful Zayden Clay is when going all out. He’s fine, just unconscious from the effort.”
The soldier slowed down and finally came to a stop a good twenty feet away. He was looking from Zayden to me, and back to Trinity. “Then why is Knight naked?”
I shrugged. “I got too close to the flames, but my body healed right up. My clothes were toasted though. Zane’s running to grab some more, but we were just making sure Zayden’s alright. He passed out cold.”
The soldier eyed us suspiciously before finally responding. “Well, Graham, in the future please let us know in advance if you intend to have him blow up again.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I’ll try to keep that in mind, but I’m not making any promises. As you can see…” She gestured around them. “We chose a spot far away from anything flammable. It’s not like he did any harm.”
The soldier grunted in acknowledgement, but didn’t say anything else. After a few minutes of just standing there in silence, he finally turned around and headed back with the guys behind him. I briefly wondered why they were so concerned. However, then I realized I didn’t recognize any of them. Which meant they weren’t soldiers on one of the teams that worked with us in the field. They probably had never seen Zayden use his powers before. To them, it would have been like a bomb had gone off right under their noses, even if it was true that no harm was done.
As I was watching them leave, I suddenly felt Trinity’s hand running along my abs. I immediately jerked away from her in surprise. “Hey!” I hissed. “Don’t turn me on! I’ve got nothing covering me up!”
She had a huge grin on her face. “Oops, sorry,” She wasn’t even trying to sound sincere, “I just couldn’t help myself.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Uh-huh, I’m sure.” Thankfully Zane was running up to us with clothes stuffed under his arms. When he got to me, he tossed me a pair of tan pants.
“I didn’t take the time to pick out an outfit for you, so here you go.” Despite his words though, he didn’t really seem annoyed. It was more like he was teasing, but it was held back in reservation from having been shocked by the outcome of our little display.
Just as I finished getting my pants on, Zayden finally woke up. He rolled over to his side and then pushed himself up into a sitting position. He grabbed his head just before saying, “Shit.” We weren’t sure what was on his mind, but then he finished his sentence. “I need to eat again.”
Trinity and I both laughed, and even Zane cracked a smile. I used the opportunity to take a crack at him. “I saved you a banana.”
Zayden abruptly looked up at me with a glare, before he slowly smiled, knowing I was refencing earlier that morning. “Smartass.”
Zane tossed him the other pair of pants. “Yeah, well get dressed already. Nobody wants to see that.”
It was clear Zayden was still pretty drained, because he didn’t even bother responding. He just got his pants started at his feet while still sitting down, and then laid down on his back to finish pulling them on. Then, he rolled over again and pushed himself up to his feet this time. Trinity watched him the whole time, but her expression was completely one of indifference. That surprised me, because while Zayden was certainly an asshole most of the time, he wasn’t bad looking. Really, no one on the team was. It’s hard not to look great naked when you did as much exercising as they did.
And yet nothing about him was interesting to her. That much was obvious from her expression. She might as well have been staring at a tree. I definitely knew there were girls who would screw an asshole like Zayden just because he was good-looking, but it was clear she wasn’t that kind of girl. Probably partially because of what she had been through when she was a blood-bag slave to that zombie guy. From what I could tell, she kept her guard up around most people, and had done so until I came along.
It made me wonder what she saw in me – why she liked me. Did it start with my appearance and go from there? She had said she was a fan of my work when I had first been brought here, and I knew she had seen the massacre in person since she was the one sent to stop me. Was it the mall then that peaked her interest? Was she really a fan of the destruction I could cause?
Or maybe it wasn’t the gore, but the fact that I was so dangerous. It had ignited that spark in her that was soon ignited in me when I met her in person. That allure to something dangerous.
Actually, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that’s what it was. When she had seen what I was capable of, and definitely when she found out I would win ninety-three percent of the time, she was drawn in the same way I was drawn in. Like an insect drawn to the light, uncertain if it was a harmless lightbulb or deadly bug zapper. Lucky for both of us, it was a harmless light bulb – or more accurately, a deadly bug zapper that had a mind of its own and was willing to spare the insect.
And it was the same for Liz too. She had the same attraction to me – the same pull. To be in my arms and know I could kill her so easily yet chose not to was the ultimate thrill, creating an obsessive passion.
When Zayden was finally on his feet, he looked at me again. “So, what’s the deal man? If Trinity can break your arm, then how come my flames don’t affect you?”
I immediately looked at Trinity. “Can you still break my arm?” I wondered seriously.
“Do you want me to try?”
I was a little stunned briefly. “Sure. I’m surprised you even bother asking for permission.”
She put her finger to her chin as she thought about it. “I guess it’s because I like you enough to care about what you want, or don’t want for that matter.”
I scoffed at her. “Well, that’s good.”
She grinned. “Yep.” Then she grabbed my arm in her hands and tried to snap it like before…but to no avail. “Seriously?!” She exclaimed, looking up at me in shock.
“Are you disappointed?” I wondered.
She shook her head. “Well, no, not really…I just don’t understand though. How are you suddenly so durable?”
I shrugged. “Maybe my durability changes? We should see if you can break my arm again when I get hungry…or cold or whatever.”
She nodded seriously. She then called Liz and Ava over and had everyone gather around. “Okay, I realize this is a little outside the scope of my norm, but I have an unofficial request. Please here me out.” She then paused and took a deep breath. “I would like everyone to refrain from revealing Jake’s durability to anyone else. I’m not asking anyone to lie directly about it, but preferably avoid speaking of it unless specifically asked in a manner that does not allow for a vague response.”
Zayden immediately crossed his arms over his chest. “I have no problem with that, but why?”
Trinity took another deep breath. “Because even if Jake’s durability does fluctuate…well, let’s just say that there comes a certain point when you stop being an asset and start being a threat.” She then gave me a meaningful look.
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Please tell me you’re joking. They’ll kick me off the team for being too strong?”
Zane had his arms crossed too. “They aren’t going to risk a revolt. That’s probably why they were hesitant to keep Liz. With an ability like Trinity’s, her and Liz combined would be nearly unstoppable. Really, you and Liz combined would be nearly unstoppable too, especially with the way your emotions turn off sometimes. But that requires at least two people to agree to work together to rebel. On the other hand, if one person is unstoppable by themselves…well, let’s just say that makes the General a lot more hesitant to keep you around.”
Of course, here I was thinking I was a step ahead of them, when in reality they were probably ten steps ahead of me. Great.
I sighed heavily. “I guess that means I need to be more careful then about waiving around what I can do on the field. Maybe hold back a little even.” Zane and Ava both nodded in agreement.
Trinity looked down at Liz then. “Which means Liz, you’ll have to really hide your feelings for Jake when around the soldiers. You don’t have to act like you’re scared, but you can’t reveal your attachment either.” When Liz nodded, she then looked up at everyone. “So, are we all in agreement then?”
Everyone said yes verbally this time, including Zayden.
Once that was decided, Zayden headed back to the cafeteria to grab some food. Apparently, they had a fridge that was stocked with boxed lunches for them to raid if desired. With as much activity as they did throughout the day, the military was definitely not stingy on suppling plenty of calories. The rest of us headed back to the barracks to shower and get ready to sleep. I showered too, even though I hadn’t broken out in a sweat all day.
And I finally resigned myself to staying the night in Trinity’s room despite my better judgment.
Chapter 15: Liz
That night, I ended up sitting in the corner of Trinity’s room watching her and Liz snuggle in bed. It was definitely kind of weird. No, it was absolutely completely entirely weird. I felt like such a creep. Trinity spooned Liz and held her like she would a teddy bear, and it was both super adorable and super, super weird. I knew Trinity was beginning to become attached to Liz like she would a little sister, but the fact that the three of us where basically in an unwitting love-triangle made it awkward.
In the end, I reserved myself to just enjoy examining Trinity’s sleeping face while I could. Her face was lit up with the soft green light of her alarm clock. I didn’t know if I would get to do this every night, but I certainly wasn’t going to waste the opportunity. Or let the creepiness of the situation ruin it.
Liz woke up a few times but never opened her eyes. It was as if she was having a nightmare, but the moment she felt Trinity holding her she calmed down and fell back asleep. It was pretty obvious she was a little sleep deprived from not sleeping well the previous night.
Trinity only woke up once as far as I could tell. She opened her eyes groggily, saw me in the corner and smirked before closing her eyes again. I knew she could see me in the dark just as well as if the lights were on, because that’s how her eyes worked – she barely noticed when it was dark. I wondered what it would be like to live in a world of perpetual light. She probably had no idea what it was like to be in the dark – to not be able to see – unless she had been blindfolded at some point in her life. Granted, that wasn’t the same as having your eyes open and trying to see but not being able to do.
Like the previous night in the woods, I found that I could see in the dark just fine. Again, my sixth sense was able to pick up everything in the immediate vicinity and it sort of stitched what I could sense together with what my eyes could see. I looked around seeing every detail despite the lack of light. There was very little color though. It was sort of like seeing in the daytime, except everything was painted black, with the occasional gray. My eyes picked up the colors black and gray, and some green from the alarm clock, whereas my sixth sense outlined everything and gave my surroundings detail.
While I watched Trinity sleep, I wondered what the future held for us. For a while, I considered how we might escape this life with the military, but I soon realized being here really wasn’t so bad. Especially since none of us would be able to return to a normal life. The idea of us living alone in a house, getting married, and working a normal job seemed almost comical. Never mind the fact that we were technically considered criminals. A career in the military, whether forced or not, was probably the best use of Trinity’s talents.
And since we discovered that I needed blood to survive, it would be even more difficult for me to live a normal life. At least Trinity could technically get by without killing – she was able to eat normal food. However, I wasn’t sure how I would survive in the real world. I couldn’t eat food anymore, which meant I’d have to take blood from someone – someone not Trinity. I certainly wasn’t going to ask her to be a donor. That would probably traumatize her after what she had experienced when she was eight or nine years old with that other blood-drinker. And even though Liz was willing, she was so small it made me feel like taking any at all would kill her.
By the time it was getting close to time for everyone to wake up, I had thought methodically through our available options. And one thing was clear – being here right now was the best thing for us given the circumstances. The only reason why we might have to leave is if the circumstances significantly changed.
If I got kicked off the team then I was probably going to run away rather than let them imprison me. If Trinity got kicked off the team, then I was going to kidnap her and run off. I would probably have to take Liz too, because I didn’t trust that she would be safe here. If anything, they might try to use her against us by threatening her life again – even if Liz was nearly impossible to kill, she probably wasn’t impossible for them to harm, at least psychologically. If the pain metahuman was able to get past her shield, then they could perpetually torture Liz forever. And I definitely wasn’t going to leave her behind to suffer that.
Which made me a little afraid. Because what if they did try to harm Liz again? Was she worth it to me? Would I really risk everything to protect her? And if I did take off with her, would Trinity come with us? I really wasn’t sure if she would. After all, we had only known each other for barely a day and a half.
I really wanted
to discuss all this with Trinity, but I wasn’t sure she was ready to consider this topic yet. I felt confident she sincerely liked me a lot, but I wasn’t confident that our bond was strong enough for her to give up everything to come with me. So, I had to just hope this type of decision wouldn’t be an option anytime soon, because the same reason why I didn’t know if she would come with me is the same reason why I couldn’t talk to her yet.
And it was the same with Zane and the others. Even though it was clear they had a high level of trust and respect for me already, I had no way of knowing if they would report my plans for conspiracy if I talked to them about it. Zayden certainly wouldn’t want to leave. He loved this life here. He loved killing. He couldn’t easily get that anywhere else. And, in a way, he was actually appreciated in the military like a hero, whereas he would be a villain in the real world.
Thus, I resigned myself to putting up with this life for now and hoping everything continued to work out alright. I had used up my tiny sliver of goodwill by saving Liz, not to mention what Trinity had to suffer for it, which meant I couldn’t be nice anymore. If I came across someone else like Liz in the field, I wouldn’t be able to spare them. Which bothered me a lot – killing adult soldiers was one thing. I could stomach that. But not this. Hopefully, I would never have to be the one to do it, but that didn’t make it much better. Staying silent and letting it happen wasn’t any better than doing it myself. I would be just as guilty.
Once Trinity began to stir, I composed myself and shifted my thoughts, so she wouldn’t see anything in my expression. It was still roughly fifteen minutes before they had to be up for the day, but Trinity appeared to be so well trained that she woke up before her alarm. I smiled at her when she finally opened her eyes. For a split second, she just stared at me with a blank expression, before a smile slowly crept to her lips again.
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