Live Wire (Blue-Eyed Bomb #1)

by Amber Lynn Natusch

  “Silence!” the storm wailed, but he could not touch her from his position on the edge of the property. She was safe for the time being. However, I feared that reprieve would not last long.

  “How do I stop him?” I asked, the fear rising within me causing my voice to quiver.

  “You must choose them, Phira. You must choose your powers to take them back.”

  I looked back over my shoulder at Gabe, who lay motionless on the ground, Alek working hard at his side. Nico was stirring. TS was still unaccounted for. Panic and indecision warred with my need for revenge.

  “She does not understand what she’s asking of you, Phira. She does not know your heart like I do. I know how you fight the urge to succumb to the darkness. The power wants to consume you. It knows you’re weak. Too weak. It wants a new master. It wants me!” the storm boomed, its mouth so wide that I could have driven Gabe’s truck right through. “You tire of your cage, Phira. You want to be set free. Free from your burden. Free of the darkness inside you. And I can give you that. I can take it all away.”

  I closed my eyes, considering his sweet promise.

  “He will destroy this world with your power, Phira,” TS shouted to me, his voice distant but strong. “You are not weak. You are a warrior. Claim your sword and strike down your enemy. Now!”

  My eyes flew open as if they’d been commanded to. The stormy face before me smirked, sensing his victory was imminent. Then something in the set of my stare caused a shift in him and his expression soured.

  “You would reject my offer of mercy?”

  “Yes,” I said, squaring my shoulders.

  “Then I shall show you none. Come, little girl. Come face your demons.” The wispy outline of his face protruded toward me as far as it could reach before hitting the property’s edge. His challenge had been made. I had to either dive into the black abyss and pray that I could find a way to retrieve my power or be killed by the very darkness I had spent so long trying to escape. There was no other choice. No easy way out of this.

  No light at the end of the tunnel.

  “Time to be swallowed by shadow,” the storm said, smiling wickedly.

  I leaned forward and smiled back at him, my face only a hair’s breadth away from his.

  “Good thing I’m not afraid of the dark.”

  Chapter 18

  Without a second thought, I threw myself into what could have amounted to certain death. I had no idea what I was doing, and if history repeated itself, the storm would have its way with me and spit me out again. Only this time, I wouldn’t survive. The only thing that kept me going was the knowledge that I couldn't let it have my powers for good.

  I just couldn’t let that happen.

  “It thinks it’s brave,” the storm taunted, swirling around me until I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. I felt hemmed in by it, unable to move. But if Sarah was right, I wouldn’t need to.

  I closed my eyes to block out the chaos around me and focused on what was rightfully mine. The darkness that used to reside deep within me.

  “Come to me,” I whispered, focusing on the feeling I used to have when my powers were still my own. “Come to me now.”

  “If only it were that simple,” the Anemoi taunted before it swept me up into the air, hurtling me across the sky. My stomach plummeted as I flew, then fell. I couldn’t see the ground but I knew I was headed for it.

  “Come to me!” I screamed, beckoning my power. “Let us destroy him!”

  “You will accept me?” a gruff female voice said in my ear. “You will not fight me any longer?”

  “I accept you,” I replied. “I surrender.”

  “Good,” she said, her voice quiet in the cacophony of the rushing wind my body was falling through. “Then step aside, Sapphira. We’re about to kick a whole lot of ass.”

  I felt a press of something on my skin, like someone leaning against me. Then, slowly, that something sank into my pores, through my skin, and settled itself inside me like it was nestling into bed. What used to be an overwhelming darkness felt more like a part of me that had always been missing. The piece of the puzzle that completed the whole picture. Whatever had been wrong with me after the incident in Colorado was no longer. Instead, I felt balanced and certain.

  I felt like a warrior.

  I slammed to the ground and rolled repeatedly, trying to dissipate the force. My ankle, still damaged, was already healing at my normal, supernatural rate. I was ready for battle.

  He’s mine, the female voice said inside my mind. You can have the next one. Promise. With that, she pressed against my brain as if she were pushing her way to the helm of a ship. I was there, but no longer in charge. Realization hit me like a ton of bricks.

  I, like my mother, was two sides of a coin. Two warriors in one body.

  While I contemplated that truth, she, who remained unnamed, taunted the Anemoi. It roared in anger, knowing that what it had stolen had just been stolen back.

  “Now now,” she said, searching the sky for his face. “All’s fair in love and war. Don’t be a sore loser. I really hate those.”

  “Those powers are mine!” he bellowed, his ghostly face flying at her through the air. His mouth opened wide as if to swallow her whole. But she had other plans. Far more explosive ones.

  I could feel her pull from her anger as though it were an atomic generator in and of itself. She didn’t use magic or the Earth’s energy. She created it.

  Newton and she would have had some interesting discussions indeed.

  That raw energy she accumulated hummed through our body. My organs shook as the pressure grew. It hurt like hell. I nearly passed out from the pain, but she stood steadfast and unfazed by it.

  “Then come and get them,” she said, staring down the monstrous face.

  It smiled at her before opening wide, engulfing her in one ethereal swallow. Seconds later I felt the heat and pain and pressure abate. She released it all in one explosion. The light shot out from us like a nebulous, extending in every direction at once. It leveled anything and everything in its path, and I prayed that we had landed far from Gabe’s farm. If we hadn't, the consequences would be dire.

  And the new girl didn’t seem too concerned.

  The air around us slowly cleared, the smoke and ash starting to settle.

  Jesus, I screamed in her mind. What did you do?

  “What you could not,” she replied plainly. “The Anemoi is no longer. That is all you need to worry about.”

  No, I have a ton to worry about, like who you just fucking killed with that stunt.

  “You have much to learn, Phira,” she said, sounding a bit too much like my mother’s alter ego for my liking.

  And you need to get out of my way.

  I tried to shove past her for control but was met with resistance. After several attempts she relented, sighing heavily as she did. Though no longer in control, her voice remained in my head.

  I was not responsible for what happened in Colorado, Phira. You were. You wouldn’t come to terms with me. You fought my existence both before and after the incident. But once your powers were awakened that day, it only made it harder for you to do so. I am here to do what you cannot. I am the side of you capable of managing this power. Your empath abilities make it virtually impossible for you to. Without me you are a nuclear meltdown waiting to happen.

  “Chernobyl,” I muttered under my breath.

  Precisely.

  “Good to know,” I said, my voice shaky with shock.

  I suggest you find your friends. We’re by the barn. They aren’t far away.

  I turned to find the barn in the background, its vast silhouette now visible amid the settling fallout. With an almost fully functional ankle, I ran up the driveway toward the house. As I approached, I saw bodies lying everywhere.

  None of them were moving.

  “Not again,” I gasped, running faster now. “This can’t be happening again…”

  With every step I took, the memories
of Little Church that I’d suppressed long before my amnesia assaulted my mind. How my jealousy over the boy I loved had led to the charred remains of a town. I’d hardened my heart since that day, unable to let anyone in. It was for the best, I’d always told myself. And maybe it had been. Being loved by me was dangerous.

  I only hurt the ones I loved.

  I saw Nico lying limp in the distance and I ran to him, crashing down on my knees at his side. Shaking him violently, I screamed his name.

  “Nico! Nico!”

  His eyes flew open and he gasped for breath, coughing as he sat up. I threw my arms around his neck and hugged him before letting go to find the others.

  “Alek? Where are you? Gabe!”

  “Over here,” Alek croaked. I turned to find him over near the porch.

  “Gabe?”

  I heard a groan behind me.

  “Oh my God,” I breathed. He was covered in blood, lying near the property line.

  “I’m okay. I think,” he said, but when I got to him, I could see that wasn’t true.

  “It’ll be all right. Alek will fix you,” I told him while tears streamed down my face.

  “My mom?” he asked, straining to sit up. I gently pressed him back down.

  “I’ll find her.”

  I got up and yelled for Alek to help Gabe, then searched for Sarah. I didn’t have to go far. She was only yards away from where Gabe lay. I looked down at her and inhaled sharply. Her body was charred almost beyond recognition.

  “Oh no…”

  It was the humane thing to do, the voice said in my mind. She would have died slowly after the power she spent fighting the Anemoi. There was no dignity in that death. She died fighting, not withering away mute in a rocking chair. I made sure of that.

  “That wasn’t your choice to make!” I yelled, staring down at the dead body.

  It is already done. Make peace with it.

  Nico walked up beside me, wrapping his arm around me.

  “We need to get you out of here,” he said, hugging me tight.

  “No. Not until I know everything is all right.” I looked around, the sun now starting to fill the sky, but couldn’t find what I was searching for. “Where is TS?”

  Nico frowned.

  “I don’t know.”

  “TS!” I shouted, turning in circles trying to find him. “TS!”

  “Don’t get worked up, Phira,” Nico cautioned. He didn’t know that I wasn’t a bomb waiting to go off anymore, and I wasn’t about to take that moment to tell him.

  “TS!” I looked out past the house at the field across the street to find a very broken-looking form heading our way. “Jesus,” I gasped before taking off after him. It didn’t take long to reach him. He was covered in blood and bruises, but the smile he wore warmed my heart. “You’re okay!”

  “Your father has not yet relieved me of my duty, Phira. I had no choice but to live.”

  I stopped short of him and stared at his hazel eyes that sparkled when the sunlight caught them just right.

  “I appreciate that,” I laughed before I jumped into his arms and squeezed him so tightly I feared I’d break him. But he was too strong for that. “What happened to you?”

  He eyed me strangely.

  “I jumped in after you,” he said, as if that fact should have been obvious to me.

  “Are you insane?”

  “No more so than you. And like I said, I have a duty to uphold. I go where you go, Phira. Always.”

  “I think we’re going to have to talk to my dad about loosening your hold on my leash now. You might be a bit too literal for your own good, Ajax.”

  I smiled at him, our faces only inches apart while I clung to him, not willing to let him go just yet. My brothers were in for similar treatment once all the dust settled. That near-death experience had been a little too close for comfort. It made me realize that life was worth celebrating—even when it was less than ideal.

  “We can talk about that in a minute,” he said, easing me down to the ground. His gaze fell far beyond me, and I turned to see what he was watching. Alek was running toward us, a look of concern on his face.

  “It’s not working,” he yelled. “He's not healing like he should.”

  “Shit,” I gasped. I was in a flat-out sprint within seconds, headed straight for Gabe, who was still lying on the ground where I’d last seen him.

  A pool of blood surrounded him.

  “What happened?” I asked as Alek dropped to his knees beside me.

  “He was doing better, but then he moved. He must have dislodged some debris or taken pressure off of a clamped vessel, because he’s bleeding out now and I can’t stop it.”

  “You have to!” My voice held an edge of hysteria that seemed to concern those around me.

  “Phira,” Nico started, crouching down on the other side of the unconscious human. “This might be for the best.”

  I lifted wide eyes to him, doing nothing to conceal the disbelief I felt at what he’d said.

  “He saved my life, Nico. I would be dead if it weren’t for him. Tell me you aren’t suggesting we just leave him like this—let his life slip away while we stand by idly.”

  “I’m suggesting that he’s human and that we have a job to do.” His expression was tight and harsh, and it was then that I realized he meant what he was saying. “You want to be a functioning member of the PC, then you’re going to have to make the tough decisions sometimes. This is our job, Phira, like it or not. He knows too much. Way too much.”

  “Who’s he going to tell, Nico? Who would believe him?’

  “That’s inconsequential and you know it.”

  “I won’t let you do this,” I told him, standing up slowly.

  “You’re going to fight me now, is that what you’re going to do?” he asked.

  “Sure looks that way, because if you lay one hand on him, I’ll tear it off your fucking arm.”

  “Phira,” Alek said, drawing my attention down to him. “He’s already called Father. His suggested plan of action has already been sanctioned.”

  “I’ll deal with Dad,” I argued. “You just worry about healing him.”

  “As I already said, I can’t. It’s not working.”

  “Let me see him,” TS called out as he approached the group. I was at his side in a second, making my argument to keep Gabe alive.

  “You can’t let him die, TS. He did your job while I was missing. He kept me alive. Please…” He looked down at me, concerned with what he found in my expression. My desperation was plain, as was my marginal hold on my composure.

  “Be at peace, Phira,” he said, running his hand along the side of my face. I instantly felt relieved. Then he leaned in to whisper in my ear, his breath light and warm on my skin. “Sleep now…I will do what I can.”

  My legs felt rubbery beneath me, and I pulled away from him long enough to see his pained expression. His eyes were filled with pity. And as the world went dark, I wondered if it was for my soon-to-be loss or Gabe’s death—perhaps both.

  Then I collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

  Chapter 19

  “Time to wake up, princess,” a male voice called, dragging me from my sleep. “Jesus, what did TS do to her? She’s barely breathing.”

  “I’m fine,” I replied, though my slurred speech wasn’t overly convincing.

  “Nico, just pick her up,” another male said. “This is taking too long. Father is waiting upstairs.”

  With a grunt, I was flung over a shoulder and carried into a building and up a flight of stairs. I lifted my head that was bobbing off of my escort’s back to find a familiar face smiling up at me.

  “Nice to see you awake, sleeping beauty,” Alek said, trailing a step or two behind me.

  “It’s nice to be awake. Anyone care to tell me what happened? I can’t remember.”

  “TS happened,” Nico replied. “He must have been worried you might freak out and lose your shit again, so he knocked your ass out, magically of c
ourse.”

  “Well I hope he has a magical cure for the migraine I have now.” I rubbed my head to ease the pain I felt. My memory was so hazy and it frustrated me to no end, given everything that had happened over the past few days.

  “I don’t think that one is his fault,” Nico countered, laughing lightly. “That was one helluva show you put on, Phira. You nuked that fucker—and nearly the rest of us in the process.”

  Like a shot to the brain, my memories of what had gone down overtook my mind, specifically the ones pertaining to the aftermath I’d left in my wake. Spurred on by fear, I shot up on Nico’s shoulder, trying to wiggle my way down, but his grip was like iron.

  “Gabe!”

  “Easy Phira!”

  “What did you do to him?” I yelled, squirming wildly in his arms.

  “Nothing,” Alek said, the unmistakable soothing tone of his voice easing my tension, if only slightly. “We left him with TS. We've not heard from either since we departed the farm.”

  “You were going to let him die,” I said softly, going limp against my brother’s shoulder once more. I felt him squeeze me lightly in return.

  “And I would have hated having to do it, Phira, but that’s the way of things. TS will do all he can to remedy the situation, for your sake if nothing else. I’m sure of that,” he said, doing his best to sound comforting. “I’m just glad you’re all right.” Nico was never much for sentiment, but in that moment I could feel how my disappearance had affected him. How deeply saddened he had been by it.

  He loved me dearly.

  “You too,” I whispered.

  “Well you might not be so thrilled once you see Dad,” Alek added. “I’m not sure any of us will be, for that matter.”

  “Only one way to deal with this,” Nico said, putting me down gently on my feet. Before us was a massive metal door fixed to a track well above our heads. “Best to rip it off like a Band-Aid and get this shit over with quick.”