“Well?” he asked, prodding me with the toe of his boot.
“I'm thinking about it,” I said. “The way I see it, you're giving me the choice to surrender or die, right? I'm not a big fan of either.”
“And so what are you going to do?” He sounded almost amused.
I sat up. The short respite was enough. My power was a trickle, but now that I could numb the pain, I could concentrate again. My right hand was useless and I couldn't put any weight on my right leg, but I could use my power again. I had to keep him distracted a little longer to recover all of my focus. “Fight. I'll fight you, Shade. You keep telling me that I don't have control, that I won't do what needs to be done. But you know what? You're wrong.”
He grunted and watched me. What was going through his mind, I didn't know, but he wasn't attacking. “I did what had to be done to save Nikki, I did what had to be done to save Star, and I'll do whatever needs to be done to stop you. I'll burn every last bit of my power to stop you, and if you die, that's just too fucking bad.”
“Are you done yet?” he asked.
“No, I'm not done, you fucker. I won't be done until you kill me. Ripley won't be happy about that, will he? You don't give second chances. You don't give special treatment. I know you. You're doing this for him. He won't be happy about it when you kill me, will he? So bring it on. Let's get this over with.”
He kicked at me again, but I deflected it and grabbed his foot awkwardly in my left hand, then thrust him away with a telekinetic push. He stumbled backwards. “I'll take control of your will,” he snapped. “I'll force you to kill them. I'll make you watch. I'll make you suffer.”
“You'll have to kill me,” I repeated, lifting myself up to stand on my good leg. “I won't let you control me. I'd rather die. Come on, you monstrous bastard. Let's do this.”
He destroyed my shield with a telekinetic wave, a roaring torrent of power that left me cold and vulnerable. Instead of burning through me, he clasped his hands together and clubbed me. I felt my jaw break, my teeth splinter and chip. I tasted blood. All I could see was blood as I hit the ground again.
I felt telekinesis lift me to my feet, then push me until my back was up against a tree. Shade regarded me from a few feet away. “Alistair won't be happy, but he'll get over it,” he said. “It was a calculated risk from the beginning. It's not as if we don't have a backup plan in place. Your girlfriend. I won't make the same mistakes with her. She'll be a puppet. The rest of us will live. And you'll be dead and forgotten. See you in hell, Parker.”
He brought his hands together again and I felt his energy focusing, a deadly assault that would burn clean through me this time. No shield I could put together would block it. I couldn't move enough to dodge it. He was going to kill me where I stood.
Innate strength and talent. Second tier of power. Star's words tumbled through my mind. I had nothing to lose. I tapped my power, twisted the valve all the way open, and continued to twist. Psionic power surged through my mind, overwhelming my ability to control it. If Shade didn't kill me first, this sort of power overload would do the job for him.
There was a click somewhere in the back of my mind. The flow of power abruptly ceased. Had I gone too far? Shade's expression turned uglier, a victorious snarl. He thought I had failed, that I was helpless. For that fraction of a second, I was.
Everything stopped. The flow of power exploded in my mind, the tap bursting under pressure, the valve shooting into the air on a torrent of silver power. It flooded my body and I could see silver sparks snapping into the air. Were they coming from me? Or was I just seeing things before I died?
My Sight flashed. Everything faded. It was as if all the color had suddenly gone out of the world, and even the white lines of psionic connection between me and my surroundings were washed out and lifeless. Shade's eyes were barely glowing now. Instead of a vibrant green blaze, they were a dull matte green. Dead eyes.
Shade's telekinetic lance flashed out from his hands with peculiar slowness. My altered Sight let me track it, a dull green surge creeping along a white thread that connected the two of us. It felt like I had an eternity in which to decide what to do about it. I didn't know what I could do. I didn't know if I could create a shield with this silver power, nor did I know if I could use it to dodge or heal or even move.
The assault reached the halfway point between us. It was a deadly blow. He wasn't pulling this one. I was out of time. The best way to avoid an attack, as I had been taught over and over, was not to be there when it landed.
I twisted aside. Silver energy burned in my wake.
The energy roared a foot to the right of me, burning through my silver afterimage, striking the tree that had just been behind me. Burning splinters rained across the park. Shade collected his power and thrust at me again without pause. I moved again, letting it flash harmlessly through the air. My head throbbed, just like it had when I had begun my training. I was riding close to complete exhaustion, but right now, he couldn't touch me.
Energy flashed out from his hands and I stepped aside again, then reached for him. His shield flashed to life, but my touch pierced it without any resistance. It was as if it wasn't even there. When I touched his forehead, his power fizzled out. He didn't make a single move to resist me. “You son of a bitch,” he snarled. “It's too early. You can't be using it so soon. You don't understand. You don't know what's at stake, you don't understand anything!”
“I know one thing, Shade,” I said. His eyes narrowed. “I know I can't let a monster like you walk away from this.”
He grinned at me. There was no fear in his dark eyes. “Maybe you did learn something in the end. Fuck you, Parker!”
I had never performed a mindtwist before. With this silver manifestation, it was simple. I looped his psionic energy, forcing it to feed back into itself every time he tried to use it. I sealed his memories away, using his own power to drive them further into the depths of his own mind. I finished by tying his voluntary nervous system into the same mess, leaving him unable to move, a prisoner in his own body. I didn't consider it cruel. I considered it justice.
The silver power cascaded out of control and I pushed against it, trying to cut it off before I lost control. Control was impossible. Energy roared and I released it in a completely unstable mindflare, a desperate attempt to bleed off the excess before it killed me. Just as it had before, the flare blinded and deafened me. I crashed to the ground, the cold seeping into my body, my vision a field of pure white and my ears roaring with mindless noise. My wrist and my knee started to throb with each heartbeat. Blood trickled from the corner of my mouth and I could barely swallow. How long it would take for someone to arrive after the mindflare?
Not long. Someone tapped my forehead. Not hard, just enough to get my attention. “Kevin? Kevin, snap out of it! Kevin!” I blinked and the white was starting to fade. Whoever was speaking sounded like they were miles away. Familiar biokinesis soothed my pain, my eyes and my ears, and the next time I blinked I could see a blurred Absynthe kneeling over me. “Kevin?” she asked. “Can you hear me?”
“Hear you,” I rasped.
“What the hell happened here?” she asked. “Four agents twisted, plus Shade? That's no twist I've ever seen. What happened?”
I had happened. I wasn't about to admit that. I could barely talk through my injuries, but I made the attempt. “Rogue,” I said, and it wasn't quite a lie. “Blue. Hurt me. Did Shade. Me next. Flare. You came.”
She seized my good hand. “You'll be all right. We'll track down the bastard who did this to you and him. We'll get them.”
I smiled at her and closed my eyes.
Chapter Twenty Seven
The next time I opened my eyes, I was back in my own bed with someone shaking my shoulder. “Wake up, Kev. Time to go home.”
I sat up and immediately grabbed my right wrist. It was sore, but it worked. My knee was equally sore, but also functional. My head ached, a psionic hangover of the sort that I hadn't had sin
ce the beginning of the year. I was alive. I hadn’t expected that. I couldn't help but laugh.
“I'm glad you find this amusing.”
I looked up. “Dad? What are you doing here?”
He looked at his watch. “Picking you up. I told you I'd be here around noon. Let's get moving, Kev.”
I looked over at the clock. It was quarter of twelve. I had left the little party last night somewhere around ten, met Star, fought, nearly died, and ended up here about twelve hours later. Absynthe must have gone to great lengths to put me back together and spirit me back into my own bed. “Shit. Sorry, Dad, it was a long night.”
“Right.” He was still looking at his watch. “Look, if you're not ready yet, I'm going to go find a fast food place and grab some lunch. Want your usual?”
The thought of food fascinated and disgusted me. I didn't like eating so soon after waking up, but I felt physically weak. Last night had exhausted me, even more than the very first time I had trained. I had to choke something down. “Yeah, that'd be good. Double down on the burger though. I'm starving.”
Dad nodded and headed for the door. “Sure. Make sure you're ready to go by the time I get back.”
As soon as he was gone, I jumped up and headed for the bathroom. It was bare, sterile in a way I had never seen. Had Max and Drew left already? I hadn't even had a chance to say goodbye to them. I took a fast shower and collected all of my own possessions to bring home.
The room itself was equally bare. Their sheets and pillows were gone, their desks neat and clean, Max's computer and Drew's television both gone. I hadn't woken up with all their moving? They must have made noise and it hadn't been enough to wake me up. I opened the closets. Their closets were empty. So was mine, except for a single change of clothes. My suitcases were on the floor, already partially packed. I didn't remember doing any packing.
I threw my clothes on and walked to my desk. My laptop was open and plugged into the wall, the last thing I really needed to pack. I pushed the lid closed with a click, just as the door opened. “I told you, Drew, he's always closing that thing when we walk in. Swear the guy's got a fetish.”
“It's a way of life,” Drew said. He grinned at me as they both walked in. “Finally woke up, man?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I thought you guys left already?”
“Not quite,” Max said. He looked around the room. “Dumbass here's been busy saying goodbye to Lisa for the last twenty minutes. Outside. In public. People were cheering as they drove by. I pretended not to know him.”
“Hey, it gave you some time to talk to Jess, right?” Drew asked. Max flushed and clutched at his ponytail. “Oh, was it more than talking?”
“No,” Max snapped. “You think you got everything?”
“I think so. Hey, Kev, you're coming back, right?” Drew asked.
“I assume so, why?” I asked.
“Drew thought you flunked out,” Max said.
“Bullshit,” Drew retorted. “I worry more about you failing out than Kev.”
I chuckled and unplugged my laptop. “Didn't flunk anything. Came close, but passed everything and I guess I kept the scholarship. So, I guess we'll all be back here in January? No room changes or anything?”
“Andreas did the paperwork for us to keep the triple,” Max said. “We figured we'd keep a good thing going. You don't have any problem with that, right?”
I scratched my head and made a show of thinking about it. “Well, after that human sacrifice incident, I don't know. Maybe I'll move in with Andreas.”
We all laughed, then Drew stuck his hand out at me. I shook it, then shook Max's hand. “Sorry man, we've got to run. Max is giving me a ride to the airport. Take care, Kev, have a good holiday.” Drew grinned and turned to leave.
“I'll catch up with you at the car,” Max called to him, tossing his keys through the air. Drew snagged them out of the air and waved. “Have to ask you something before you leave,” Max said before I could ask him what was going on. “Did you talk to Nikki last night?”
My mouth went dry. I had forgotten about her. “Not after she left. Why? Did she ask about me or something?”
“The exact opposite,” he said. He looked from side to side, then pulled out a cigarette. “Listen, Kev. I know you’re together, but that girl has issues. Serious issues.”
“What do you mean?”
“Saw her leaving earlier this morning, while you were dead to the world,” he said. “She was leaving with this incredibly hot older woman with long black hair. I mean, off the scale hot. Didn't look anything like Nikki, so I don't think it was her mom. I shouted goodbye to Nikki. No response. It was seriously weird, Kev, like she was pretending to not even know me. She didn't even look in my direction. The older lady, she waves, but I've never seen her before in my life. Your girlfriend? Nothing. That's fucked up, Kev.” Max shrugged and turned to go. “Sorry. Didn't mean to give you some weird shit to think about right before you left.”
“Don't worry about it, Max,” I said. “I've had enough weird shit to think about this year, one more little thing isn't going to make a real difference.”
“I hear that,” he said. “Take it easy, Kev. Don't do anything too ridiculous over the break. But if you do, take pictures.”
I laughed, then abruptly cut off as he opened the door. Absynthe stood in the doorway with a wide smile across her face, eyes glowing green. Max didn't even pause, just walked around her and down the stairwell. Absynthe stepped into the dorm room and closed the door behind her.
“I like your friend,” she said.
I swallowed hard. “I bet.”
“I imagine you're wondering what happened after you passed out last night,” she said. Her voice echoed strangely in the nearly empty room. “We finished putting you back together about forty minutes ago. Your injuries were more severe than we had thought. I had to plant some memories in your roommates, so they wouldn't think anything was strange. I also packed most of your things up. It was the least I could do.”
“What happened to the rogue?” I asked.
She sighed, then muttered something in a language I didn't recognize. “You were with her, weren't you? She covered her tracks well. We were keeping an eye on the situation. When she used her power, we moved to protect you. What were you doing?”
I nodded and felt icy sweat rolling down my side again, just as it had last night when Shade confronted me. At least Absynthe might give me the benefit of the doubt. “She was trying to recruit me. When I turned her down, she turned on me.”
Absynthe nodded slowly, her eyes never leaving mine. If she thought I was lying, she'd probably start to take me apart, right here and now. “I see. That one rogue agent injured you, twisted four of our agents, and did something to Shade. Something severe.”
“I don't know exactly what she did,” I said. “After the initial hit, whatever she did to my knee, I wasn't paying too much attention to her, just trying to get my power back under control. Something happened to Shade? What happened?”
She shook her head. “A vicious variant on a mindtwist. A feedback loop for his power.” I wanted to smile, but I refrained. “The other agents were twisted as well, but they've already begun to recover. They won't remember a thing from the evening, unfortunately. The rogue saw to that.”
“And what's the verdict?” I asked.
She raised an eyebrow. “Verdict?”
I held my hands out and rattled imaginary handcuffs. “Consorting with the enemy?”
She snorted. “Hardly. You turned her down, didn't you? Alistair won't come down on you for that, especially after how you've affected our relations with the Kaze. The old man's a little more open to diplomacy recently. No, he won't hold it against you. Consider yourself reprimanded and leave it at that.”
I let out a sigh of relief that was not fake at all. “Good. So I guess I'm going home for the holidays, then. Thanks, Absynthe.”
“Don't thank me yet,” she said. Her expression softened, then she looked do
wn.
I took a deep breath and guessed. “Nikki?”
“I drove her to the airport. She was asking about you.”
“What did you tell her?”
Her eyes didn't meet mine. “The truth.”
I rubbed at my forehead. She was going to kill me. She was really going to kill me. “Thanks. I think.”
Absynthe smiled for a brief moment, then looked up, her expression grim. “Kevin. With four of our agents out of commission for the immediate future, and Shade out indefinitely, we're not going to have the personnel available to keep an eye on you while you're away from campus. Do you want to stay here? I realize it's a last moment change of plans, but we can make the necessary arrangements.”
I considered the idea for a moment, but I had no desire to stick around. I needed to get away from this place and think. Even with Shade out of the picture, I no longer felt safe here. Not after what he had said. “Thanks, but no. I need to go home once in a while.”
She nodded. “I thought you might say that. Your home is within what we consider safe territory, but the Bureau considers the area to be theirs as well. Don't use your power. At all. They probably already know where you live. Don't give them an excuse to visit. We'll have agents patrol when we can, but no one will be on station. Understand?”
“I understand.” She nodded and turned to leave. “Absynthe? Thank you.” She smiled over her shoulder at me as she walked out. Once she was out of sight, I threw everything else into a suitcase and emptied my desk drawers out. There was one last thing I needed to do before I left, and knowing Dad, he'd be back early. I had no time to waste.
I ran down the hall to the black door and hammered on it. “Andreas? You still here?”
The door opened almost immediately. Andreas peered out at me. “Kevin? What are you still doing here? Regular students are supposed to be moved out by noon today.”
The Fire In My Eyes Page 36