A Portrait of Pain

by Jane Washington

  “They will have heard that,” he announced, as Silas threw a foot forward and kicked the door inwards, causing the splintered lock to fly off into the wall.

  We all ran inside, taking off down the hall. “Where the hell do we go now?” I panted. “I didn’t think this far ahead!”

  “Shh!” A voice hissed somewhere to our right. “They’re going to hear you.”

  We all snapped our heads in the direction of one of the tutorial rooms, where a girl’s head was poked out, her wide eyes peering each way down the hall. “Crap, the door! Did you guys do that?” She had seen the entrance doors swinging open, but we didn’t give her time to see anything else as we all rushed toward her room.

  “How many people are in there?” Miro demanded, pushing in first.

  The answer became immediately apparent. There were four people in there—all students, and all terrified. There were three girls, probably around my age, and one guy who had his head hidden between his raised knees. He looked like he was having a panic attack.

  “V-Voda!” one of the girls stuttered, pointing at Silas.

  Miro snorted. “No. That would be a disaster.”

  She turned her attention to him instead, and her eyes almost popped out of her head. “Did you come here to save us?”

  He wasn’t awarded a chance to answer, because the guy had pulled his head up, and was now jumping off the table and advancing on us.

  “You have to save her!” he almost shouted.

  It was Charles, but not like I’d ever seen him before. His eyes were no longer a clear and laughing blue. They were now dull, with a film of white over the top. He stumbled into a desk only a foot away from me, but kept marching until Noah stepped in front of him.

  “Stop.” I rushed forward, grabbing Charles’s arms. “What happened? Where’s Poison? Do you know?”

  I felt him gripping me back, his hands clinging desperately to my wrists, his eyes settling on the left side of my face. “I tried to stop him. He touched my head and suddenly I couldn’t see anything anymore, but he has her. He got away.”

  “I’m so sorry,” I whispered, but I knew the words were only a passing acceptance of what had been done to him. I was sorry, but I was also relieved, because I had seen the things that Danny could do. Charles had escaped relatively unharmed, in comparison.

  “Do you know where they are?” Noah asked, gently extracting us. He pulled Charles toward a desk, but kept a hand on his shoulder.

  Charles nodded, his throat working tightly. “They’re in the library, he said he needed some inspiration.”

  “You’re all going to be fine,” Miro told the others as I sprang for the door. “Everything’s going to be okay.”

  We burst out of the room, but the corridor was already housing some of the armed men from outside. Two guns swung in our direction, and I quickly turned my face before they could recognise me.

  “Step forward and raise your hands!” one of the guys shouted. “You—girl! We need to see your face!”

  I flinched, closing my eyes.

  I could feel a body tensing on either side of me—I wasn’t even sure exactly who it was, out of the four guys. It was getting increasingly difficult to differentiate the feel of their energy beside me from the thrum of my own energy, just as it had become difficult to differentiate between the sometimes-thudding, sometimes-skipping beat of my heart. It was a bigger, universal heart now, divided up evenly between the five of us. I knew that was physically and medically impossible, but it was how I felt. Sometimes, the heartbeat I felt wasn’t even mine, and sometimes the beat that I felt was a combination of mine and whoever’s was standing closest to me. But in times like these … there was only one. The five of us coming together in perfect symmetry.

  “Turn around!” the man demanded again, and I didn’t waste a second longer.

  I took off at a run toward the other end of the corridor, and I knew that the others would have moved only a fraction of a second later than me. The gunman swore, and a second later the sound of a bullet being fired ricocheted through the building.

  “Hold fire!” a shout billowed out after us …

  But it was too late.

  I opened my mouth on a scream as fire tore up my leg, lurching me sideways.

  My leg collapsed, the useless limb folding beneath my weight. I braced myself for the feel of the tiled floor, but it still came as a shock. I seemed to bounce, my bones all knocking together. The movement had me convinced that my leg was being torn off, but I managed to bite back the scream somehow.

  I listened to the sound of my pairs lurching to a stop and turning, beginning to close in around me.

  “Don’t move!” one of the men shouted, and they stopped, so close to me now that I might have been able to reach out and grab one of them. The sound of another shot being fired off echoed through the hall, and the voice rang out louder than before, more commanding. “I said don’t move. Any of you take one more step and I’ll shoot her again!”

  I pulled my head around, blinking through the tears of pain that were streaming silently down my face. There were slight, rasping sounds of pain rattling around in my throat, but I still refused to scream. I wasn’t going to give them that satisfaction.

  Miro met my eyes, holding his hands up. We’re not hurt, the gesture seemed to say. I examined the others anyway. When I was sure that the latest bullet had only been a warning shot, I pulled my head back around to the shooter. He was walking toward me, his booted feet almost silent. I realised that he wasn’t dressed like the others—most of them were wearing fatigues or uniforms, but this man had on plain, dark-toned clothing, and he was armed to the hilt. A harness crossed over his shirt, the barrel of a rifle showing over his shoulder. There was a gun holder wrapped around his thigh and his belt looked like some kind of army-issued garment, housing any number of things that I didn’t recognise.

  “We’ve got her. She’s in the entrance hall. Hold everyone back, we can manage this.” He spoke softly, but he obviously wasn’t speaking to me.

  I gritted my teeth against the throbbing fire in my leg, sweat breaking out across my brow. The room was growing blurry, some kind of ringing having started up in my ears. It was hard to concentrate, but I noted that he had an earpiece in his ear. He was dark-featured, with a shadow of short, maintained beard and merciless blue eyes that seemed alien on his face. They were too bright—but no … I narrowed my gaze, trying to clear my fuzzy focus. His eyes seemed off because they were two different colours. One was light blue, but the other was several shades lighter again. Like ice.

  My arms buckled, refusing to support me anymore, and my head fell down, a small groan of pain finally breaking out of me. Blood was spreading across the floor.

  I needed to do something about it before I fainted.

  Poison needed me.

  Screwing my eyes closed, I reached for the valcrick, feeling it spring readily to life. But it didn’t crawl down my body to the bullet wound in my leg the way I had wanted it to. Instead, it flared out of me in a surge of power, trembling in a big wave down the length of the corridor. Everybody within the vicinity was tossed back, colliding with walls and doors.

  “Dammit,” I growled angrily.

  Four bodies rushed around me, unaffected by the surge of valcrick, and two sets of hands hauled me off the floor. I ended up in Noah’s arms as they ran toward the exit, but the voice of the man followed me, sending ice down my limbs.

  “Shoot the one carrying her!”

  I shoved against Noah’s chest with all the strength that remained in me, dislodging his hold on me. This time, a scream tore from my throat, because I landed on the wrong leg. I crumpled to the ground again, but I shot my arms out to stop any of the guys from grabbing me back up. Valcrick spiked from my fingers again, but it only arched a small distance from me, moulding into a short dome that pulled over my crumpled body, separating me from everyone.

  “Hold,” the man quickly ordered. I watched him raise his hand at one of
the officers, who had been standing only a few feet from us, his rifle aimed in my direction.

  I shuddered, bile rising in my throat. If he had shot at Noah, I wasn’t sure whether I would have been able to heal all the damage done. Not as weak as I was.

  “You have no idea what you’re doing,” I rasped, as the valcrick finally seemed to realise that I was injured, slowly twining down my torso toward my leg. The pain eased enough for me to keep speaking. “You’re being used. You’re being played. All of these people are dying because you’ve been hunting the wrong damn person.”

  But you already knew that, I thought, narrowing my eyes on him.

  He was excellent at pretending, but I was no longer a stranger to the Zevghéri. I knew another Atmá when I saw one—but that didn’t mean that he was going to make it easy for me. He needed me to force him to cooperate, otherwise his position would be blown.

  “Lower the barrier.” He spoke with a cold authority, holding his hand out to one of the men as he walked toward me again.

  The other officer handed him a gun, and he aimed it at me, his grip steady, the barrel pointed at my torso. He must have lost his own gun in the wave of valcrick.

  “I can’t,” I told him honestly. “Not until my leg is better.”

  He switched his aim to Noah, who stood closest to me. “Lower it.” His tone grew several degrees colder, making me want to curl up even tighter into myself.

  He didn’t know that I was bonded to them. He didn’t realise that shooting one of us was like shooting all five of us.

  I grimaced, pulling on the valcrick, trying to draw it back into my body. It flickered, dimmed, and then snapped all at once, the filaments blowing out in a flutter before raining down to the floor.

  “You have to listen to me,” I cautioned, holding my hands up. I felt vulnerable now, without the barrier.

  “That’s not happening.” He swooped forward and drew my hands in front of me, using one hand to hold them there while his other hand hauled me to my feet.

  My bad leg buckled again, but the pain wasn’t so bad anymore. It felt more like a scratch now—albeit a bad one, but definitely not a bullet wound.

  “We need to sedate her before she blows us through the damn walls, Andre.” It was one of the officers who had spoken, and he was advancing on us with a taser.

  “Not yet.” Andre sounded annoyed, but that might have been a permanent tone for him. “You. Have you hurt anyone else?” He turned back to me, shaking my arm so that my whole body shook, too. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Silas jerk forward a step.

  I started to say no, but there was something in the icy eyes that glared back at me. It was enough to make me pause, and then the spark of an idea flared inside my head.

  “Yes.” I swallowed, turning away from him to glance at my pairs. “I was making these four follow me there—to where I have the others. I told them I would kill them if they disobeyed.”

  “Where are the others?” Andre demanded, not even pausing to let my confession sink in.

  “The library.” Please take me to the library.

  “I’m taking her there,” he announced to the guy behind him. “If this is a trap, I’ll kill the bitch myself. Steven, Jordan, follow me. Grab these four while you’re at it.” He jerked his head in the direction of my pairs. “She clearly wasn’t forcing them to go anywhere. They’re with her. If she tries anything funny again, shoot them.”

  “You’re pretty heavy on the killing theme,” I told him as he started to drag me toward the exit we had been running to. “Fire doesn’t put out fire, you know.”

  “Says the freak who leaks electricity.” He swore when I stumbled again, pulling my arm up even higher as though that would make it easier for me to walk on an injured leg.

  Behind us, I heard an angry, rumbling sound. I could feel the fury that vibrated against my back. My pairs were ready to explode, but they were holding themselves back for the sake of this ruse. They had probably recognised the Atmá even before I had, which meant that Miro and Silas, at least, were safe. Andre might have shot me to keep up appearances, and he might even have allowed someone to shoot Noah or Cabe—but no Zev in their right mind would willingly shoot the Voda.

  As we drew closer to the library, my leg began to grow a little numb. It was probably the blood loss, but either way, it was getting even more difficult to walk on. I drew out a little of the valcrick, just enough to prickle across my skin in tiny little veins of light, and urged it toward my injury. Since Andre was dragging me everywhere, it was easy to dedicate half of my attention to keeping myself calm, and only influencing the valcrick with good emotion. I didn’t need another accidental explosion.

  Eventually, the feeling in my leg began to return, and I started to walk a little more normally. Andre must have noticed, because he wasn’t dragging me so much as escorting me anymore, but he still didn’t release me. I sincerely hoped that he didn’t come across Silas in any dark alleys after we made it out of here.

  If we made it out of here.

  “Up ahead,” one of the men announced. I glanced over my shoulder at the speaker—another man dressed similarly to Andre. The regular police officers had been left behind in the hall.

  “Go ahead,” Andre ordered. He released me, shoving me toward the library doors. They were closed—the heavy wooden barricade tall and imposing before me. I pushed against it, surprised when it swung forward easily. I had expected it to be locked, and for there to be walls of furniture piled up against it … but of course it was easy to get inside.

  Danny had been waiting for me.

  “Lela.” His voice rang out, amused and goading. “Baby sister—what took you so long? I thought you didn’t like people dying? You would have come sooner if you really hated it.” He was seated behind the librarian’s desk, leaning back in his chair, his arms folded behind his head. “Close the door,” he told me calmly, his eyes bright on mine.

  I ignored his command, walking up to the desk. In a way, he had the potential to be even less harmless than one of the police officers when he wasn’t within reach. His power needed contact to work. He glanced over my shoulder as the others followed me into the library, but he only smiled, seeing them.

  “You only barely managed to get here,” he noted, shaking his head. “I thought you were getting better at this.”

  “Where’s Poison?” I asked, my tone calm. The library was eerily quiet, empty of people and devoid of movement.

  The men behind me were shifting, the uneasy stillness making them nervous. Andre didn’t grab my arm again, but I felt the cold barrel of a gun press against my neck.

  “What is this?” he whispered.

  “Pulling that trigger won’t kill her,” a voice snarled to my right. Silas was close to losing control. “You all know that. She’ll heal herself, and while she’s doing that, I’ll put a bullet in each of your organs, just to watch her heal them all so that I can shoot you again … so I suggest you lower the gun.”

  I didn’t take my eyes off Danny, even when the barrel lifted away from my neck and Andre’s icy voice slipped through the silence.

  “How about I shoot you instead, then?” he asked.

  “Oh, this is fun.” Danny stood from his chair, his hands against the desk as he leaned forward eagerly.

  Looking at him hurt my head. He was so many different people to me: a stranger, a friend, a brother, and the most evil person that I had ever met. He didn’t look the same as he had back in high school; he had shed the mask of borderline normalcy, revealing the savageness that edged his features. I no longer recognised the boy from my childhood either. I wasn’t sure what I saw any more, other than a killer.

  “You killed Eva.” My voice was quiet, but the gun barrel quickly switched back to my neck, Andre’s attention returning to me.

  “Hmm.” Danny walked out from behind the desk. I tried to step backward, but the gun was holding me in place. “Were you hoping that we’d all be one big happy family together?” he asked
me, his smirk growing cruel. “We could have been, but you ruined that by bonding to these four.” He flicked his hand beyond me, and the barrel wavered against my skin.

  Danny had no idea that he had just saved my life. Andre was never going to shoot me now.

  “She was no harm to you.” I fought to keep the grief out of my voice, to hide from him that Eva’s death had destroyed a precious part of me.

  Maybe I had been hoping for us to be a family again, even though I knew that it was impossible. Eva had been a sister to me, and Jayden another brother. Now Eva was dead and Jayden was going to kill me.

  I swear to god, Seraph, if one more person dies, I’m going to kill you myself.

  “You had to be punished.” Danny shook his head, stopping in front of me. Again, I tried to move back, and again, the gun prevented me. “But you’re here now so I’m going to reward you.” His lips twisted, his hand landing on the top of my head. I flinched, waited for the pain. “Just like a dog.” He patted me once and then lowered his hand. “You have to punish them for bad behaviour, but you get to reward them for good behaviour. Do you want to see your presents?”

  I want to see Poison.

  I want to kill you.

  I need this to be over.

  “Fine,” I gritted out, too powerless to say anything else. I wasn’t going to anger him when he stood so close to me.

  “She’s not going anywhere,” Andre asserted. “Steven, cuff him and take him back to the hall. Don’t let him out of your sight and don’t let anybody question him before me. We’re going to do a sweep of the library.”

  “That’s not a good idea,” I tried to warn, but one of the other men—presumably Steven—was already walking toward Danny.

  Danny held out his wrists obediently, that same smile still twisting his features. I flinched as Steven grabbed his hands to turn them around, because Danny had deliberately displayed them wrong. The man froze, the beginning of a scream starting up in his throat, before he started to spasm.