by Lola StVil
“You dick. Look at my shirt.”
The other one laughs.
“I warned you, dude,” he responds as he gives him a shove.
That doesn’t go over well. He pulls back his fist, and just as it connects, the whole place erupts in pure chaos.
Before I know what’s happening, powers are flying everywhere. People are screeching as they get caught up in it, hit by stray powers. Others are cheering on the two fighters. Bodies surge closer around me as people strain to see the action.
I feel a hand on mine, pulling me away. I go to snatch it back when I see it’s Ryder. He tugs again and I follow him, glad to be getting out of this mess.
“Told you you’d never been to a party like this one.” He grins.
I go to answer, to laughingly agree, when I hear a shout.
“Dylann’s hurt,” R.J. shouts.
I spin in his direction. The fight has spread, and now about forty people are brawling. Just on the edge of the action, Dylann lies on the floor.
Without thinking, I pull my hand free of Ryder’s and push my way through the people still on the dance floor to Dylann. Something in my demeanor must say I mean business because the crowd seems to part for me, stopping to watch as I make my way to my sister. I hear chatter and whispers among the crowd; concerned with getting to Dylann, I keep moving.
When I reach her side, I kneel down beside her.
Panicked, I place my hand on her shoulder.
“Dylann,” I shout. “Dylann, wake up.”
She just lies there, unresponsive, a thin trail of silver blood running down her head. All around me, the chaos continues, but I don’t see or hear it. It’s like there’s just me and Dylann here.
“Dylann,” I say again, hearing the desperation in my own voice.
I’ve just found her and I’m not ready to lose her again. Not yet. But I don’t know what to do.
RJ appears at my side. He kneels beside me.
“This is bad, Summit,” he says.
I cradle Dylann close to my body.
“Please, Dylann, wake up,” I whisper, my desperation growing.
R.J. puts his hand on Dylann’s head and looks at me. He doesn’t need to say anything. I can see the concern all over his face. Ryder kneels down by us and with a pleading look says, “Summit, I don’t mean to be pushy, but now would be a great time to find your powers. Dylann’s life depends on it.”
CHAPTER SIX: SHOW ME
It feels as though the whole world has been funneled away. There’s just me and Dylann. And she’s going to die, because there’s nothing I can do to save her. I can hear the noise of the crowd that has gathered around us, the fighting forgotten, but it’s as though it’s coming from far away. I know RJ is beside me, but I barely register him being there.
This is it. This is my moment. I’m going to get my powers and save Dylann. I take a deep breath and blow it out slowly. I’m ready.
I raise my palms and concentrate with all of my might on Dylann waking up. I aim them at her and push.
And nothing happens.
I try again, willing her to be okay. Nothing.
“Where the hell is Parker?” I hear a voice shout.
“Not here,” someone replies.
It breaks through my disassociation. I can’t save Dylann and everyone knows it. Parker is her only hope. Except Parker isn’t here.
I become aware of movement in the crowd. It seems to be parting. It doesn’t take me long to see why. Two men are rushing towards us. I eye them warily.
They look mean. Both of them are dressed head to toe in black leather. One of them has a tattoo on his cheek. I run my hand gently over Dylann’s cheek and push myself to my feet. I might not have any powers, but there’s no way I’m letting them hurt her.
I step over her body, placing myself between her and them. They are almost at us now. I can hear my blood pulsing through my body. Every muscle is tense.
Why is no one else helping me?
I crouch slightly, ready to spring at them. I will unleash all of my anger at being so useless on these two. I will punch and claw and kick until they move on to an easier victim.
Just as I’m about to make my move, I feel a hand on my arm, pulling me gently to the side. I try to shake it off, but it doesn’t lose its grip. The pulling becomes harder, more insistent, and I feel myself dragged aside.
“No,” I hear myself say as arms encircle me. I writhe and struggle, but it’s like being held in a vise. “Let go of me.”
“Calm down, Summit. They’re here to help her,” Lucas’s voice says close to my ear.
Even now, with Dylann dying before my eyes, I feel his warm breath tickle my neck and I get a rush of goose bumps where it touches my skin.
His words get through to me as he repeats them again and I realize one of the men, not Tattoo Face, the other one, is my English teacher. He’s probably Dylann’s English teacher as well. They aren’t trying to hurt her.
I go limp and Lucas releases me when he sees I’m no longer trying to scratch out the eyes of our saviors.
“I can’t watch this,” I say.
I turn and flee, and the crowd magically parts for me too. I know I’m leaving Dylann in good hands. Healing hands that can fix her. Not like my useless hands.
I break through the door, gulping down the cool outside air. The door slams open again and Lucas comes to my side.
“She’s going to be okay,” he says.
I nod. I can’t speak, can barely think. I have not only failed to save my sister, but I ran away when she needed me there by her side.
My feeling of uselessness turns to anger, and it bubbles up inside of me.
“I couldn’t help her,” I shout. “Why couldn’t I help her? You all keep telling me I’m some powerful leader, that I can save the world. Well, you’re all wrong and maybe you’ll see it now. How can I save the world when I can’t even save my sister?”
My anger doesn’t seem to faze Lucas. He steps towards me and wraps me in his arms. I feel warm, safe.
The anger quickly fades, replaced by an emptiness. I feel tears flood my eyes and I blink them away.
Could I be any more of a mess?
Lucas loosens his grip enough to pull his head back and look at me.
“No tears,” he says. “This shirt was expensive and I don’t want it ruined.”
His eyes sparkle as he says it and his warm smile makes me somehow feel like everything will be okay. I manage a shaky smile back at him.
“Your powers will come, Summit,” he says when he’s confident the floodgates are staying closed. “And when they do, you’ll see just how strong you really are.”
I’m conscious of the fact I’m still in his arms, our faces only inches apart, but I don’t try to free myself. I don’t want to free myself.
“That’s easy for you to say,” I sigh. “You’ve always had powers.”
“Well, yeah, but you should have seen some of the messes I made when I was first learning to control them. I was like a one-man forest fire some days.”
I can see it in my mind. A tiny blond boy, a look of horror on his face as fires burn all around him. I hear him say oops, and that’s it. I’m laughing. Just like that, he’s made everything okay. I don’t quite know how he did it, but I’m not complaining.
He tightens his hold on me and moves his face towards mine, looking me in the eye. I feel my own face moving towards his. My stomach whirls, little sparks of desire firing off deep inside of me.
And then the click of the door opening comes and he jumps away from me like a child caught with matches.
Ryder strides out followed by RJ.
“We’re taking Dylann to Death’s house,” he announces. “Let’s go.”
I feel terrible. I had almost forgotten about Dylann.
“Is she okay?” I ask.
“I’m fine.” She grins as she steps out of the door. “It’ll take more than a Quo to keep me down.”
I throw my arms around he
r and squeeze her tightly.
“I kind of like breathing, you know,” she says.
I laugh and release her.
“Wait,” I say to Ryder. “Why not take her home?”
“Are you kidding me?” Ryder snorts. “You think I’m going to rock up at Silver’s house and explain how I took his daughter to an underground party?”
He has a point.
I glance over at Lucas. He gives me a half grin and looks down at the floor. Ryder’s timing couldn’t have been worse, but I know something happened between Lucas and me. And I know that wasn’t the end of it.
***
As we step into Death’s hallway, Pryor runs from the lounge. She doesn’t say a word. She just pulls Dylann into a tight embrace.
She glances up from the embrace. “You guys should get out of here,” she says. “Give Silver a chance to get over this.”
They don’t need to be told twice. With hurried goodbyes, they rush away.
“Aren’t you mad?” I ask Pryor.
She shakes her head. “I would have done the same at your age. So would Silver, but he forgets that now.”
“I wouldn’t have almost gotten someone killed,” Silver says from the lounge doorway.
“It wasn’t their fault,” I say as he moves towards us.
Pryor releases Dylann, and Silver scoops her up.
“Maybe I should give them a break,” he says thoughtfully. “It was a good thing you were there when it happened.”
“No it wasn’t,” I say. “I was less than useless.”
He releases Dylann and gives my head a rub. “It’ll happen,” he says.
“When?” I demand.
“Soon.”
He exchanges a glance with Pryor, who gives a barely perceptible nod.
“We’re going to start training. Tomorrow.”
Great. They’re going to train me to use powers I don’t have. Just what I need.
Death’s voice calling to us from the lounge saves me from replying. We all troop on through.
“You need to get to bed, missy,” she says to Dylann. “Get some rest.”
I didn’t notice before, but Dylann is kind of pale and tired looking. She stands up.
“Not so fast,” Silver says. “The pair of you, you should both know better. You don’t go to underground parties. You’ve seen why now. And you don’t go to any kind of parties without one of us knowing exactly where you are. Am I making myself clear?”
We both nod. We exchange a glance, and Dylann rolls her eyes. I bite my tongue to keep from laughing. It’s so surreal seeing Silver being an overprotective parent about something as mundane as a party.
“You’re both grounded until I say otherwise,” he finishes.
I don’t want to laugh now. I want to rail at the unfairness of it, but I think better of it.
***
I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket and I pull it out.
We’re at the warehouse. Come on.
I smile to myself as I read Ryder’s text message. I go to type out a response telling him I’m grounded, but I stop myself. Dylann is already asleep, and Death is here if she needs anything.
Instead, I slip my phone back into my pocket and ease my bedroom door open. I creep silently along the hall and gently ease the door open. I wince at the clicking sound, but there’s no shout from behind me. I slip out and hurry down the corridor and out of the building.
I’m halfway there when I realize I didn’t reply. I type out a quick message saying I’ll be there in five minutes.
“How much trouble did you get in then?” Nix greets me as I enter the warehouse.
“Not as much as you’d think,” I laugh. “Although I am grounded.”
“That worked then.” RJ laughs.
“Yeah.” I nod.
Parker hands me a beer, which I take gratefully. I sit down between her and Nix and open my can. I take a long drink.
We sit in a loose circle, chatting. I try to catch Lucas’s eye, but he seems to be looking anywhere but at me. I shrug. Whatever. Maybe we’ll get a chance to be alone later.
Ryder is telling a funny story about something. I don’t know what, I missed the beginning trying to get Lucas to look at me, but all of them are laughing along except Parker. She glares at him. I wonder what’s going on with those two. They seem pretty close, but I guess it’s a twin thing that sometimes, they seem to hate each other.
“What’s with you two?” RJ asks, seeming to read my mind.
“Nothing. We’re fine,” they snap in unison.
The chatter continues, but there’s a definite atmosphere. Parker and Ryder continue to give each other death stares, and it becomes clear to me that Lucas is completely avoiding my gaze. He won’t even look in my direction.
“So, how’s Dylann?” Parker asks me.
“She’s fine, no thanks to me,” I say bitterly.
I was determined not to talk about what happened at the party, but there it is. The elephant in the room. Or at the minute, one of three elephants in the room.
“Don’t sweat it,” Parker says to me. “It’ll come.”
“There goes the voice of wisdom,” Ryder mutters.
“Shut up,” Parker snaps at him.
He sighs and turns to look at me.
“Seriously, Summit, Parker doesn’t know much about anything, but she’s right on this one. You’re related to some of the best fighters the world has ever seen. You just have to be patient.”
“You should talk to your parents about it,” Nix interjects. “They might have a trick or two up their sleeves to bring your powers forward quicker.”
“Actually, Silver said something tonight in between the lectures about going to parties. He said I’m going to start training tomorrow, whatever that means.”
“That’s good. It basically means they’re going to hone your mind to focus on letting your powers through.”
I don’t like the sound of that, but I like the waiting even less.
Lucas glances at his watch. “It’s getting late. We should probably go,” he says.
The others mutter their agreement and we stand up as one. As we head for the door, I see Parker move herself to Ryder’s side.
“You better tell RJ. Or I will,” she says determinedly.
I wonder briefly what she’s talking about, but then I see Lucas a pace ahead of me and I remember I have my own drama to focus on. I pick my pace up slightly and fall into step beside him.
“Hey,” I say.
“Hey,” he grunts back, still not looking at me.
“I…,” I start.
He cuts me off.
“Night, guys,” he says loudly and walks away.
The rest of us exchange our goodbyes. I head home with a heavy heart. Whatever happened between Lucas and me outside of the party seems to be over.
***
I stand in stunned silence. I did it!
My powers have emerged and I’m the most powerful being on Earth.
Okay, that is a major exaggeration, but just for a minute, that’s exactly how I feel.
I made the leaves of a small plant wither and curl up. They went from green to brown. Take that, plant!
Silver rushes to my side and claps me on the shoulder.
“You did it!” he exclaims.
He looks so proud of me. I can’t help smiling. It’s not much, but it’s a start. After an intensive three days with Pryor and then another three days with Silver, I’ve finally done it.
Pryor spent her time showing me how to focus my mind on one singular thing. The thing I wanted to affect. It was hard, but I think I actually mastered that one. She also assured me that as my training progresses, I will be able to think about more than one action at a time.
When Silver took over, he showed me how to properly project my thoughts onto something to make it change.
We started with a plant because no one seems to be quite sure exactly what my powers will be. Or if they do know, they aren’t telling me
. I don’t know how I feel about that. It doesn’t matter. I did it.
It seems my power is killing, which I must admit I’m not thrilled about, but maybe once I get more control over them, then at least the teasing at school might ease off a bit.
Summit Case: License to Kill
I shudder inwardly as I consider what could have happened to Dylann if my powers had burst forth at the party.
Not much. Maybe I would have given her split ends or something.
“We’re going to take tomorrow off,” Silver announces.
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “I’m finally getting somewhere. Now would be a terrible time to stop.”
“Now you’re the master on how to train angels, huh?” he says.
His words are serious, but his mouth curls up at the sides, giving him away.
“Okay, you win,” I laugh.
“Go on then,” he says, nodding towards the door. “Go and tell your friends.”
Does that mean I’m not grounded anymore? I daren’t ask in case he’s forgotten about it, but something tells me he hasn’t.
I step outside into the sunlight. It momentarily blinds me after the dingy light in the warehouse. As I pull my phone out to text my friends, it suddenly occurs to me that it’s not them I want to tell. Not yet. It’s Milo.
We always tell each other everything first.
Except the fact he’s a supernatural being sent to protect me, of course.
I can’t think like that. I know I’ll have to forgive him eventually, and now seems like the right time. He’s tried to contact me several times. He even resorted to in-boxing me on Facebook when I ignored his texts and calls. I’ve punished him enough.
I tap out a quick text asking to meet up with him. His response is almost instant.
Meet me at the restaurant in ten.
I smile to myself and head off to meet him.
Milo greets me with a questioning smile as I tap lightly on the door. The restaurant is closed. It always seems to be closed when I need Milo. Is that part of his family’s vow to protect me? I doubt it. It’s probably just a chance for them to have the odd early night.
“Hi,” I say.
He pulls me into a hug and I hug him back. It should be awkward, but somehow, it isn’t.
It’s not long before we’re sitting at our usual spot at the bar with a feast spread before us.