by Lola StVil
I ignore the bitchy voice that speaks up reminding me that Fish isn’t exactly big and she made short work of him. Fish is anything but fragile though.
I try to imagine the bubbly, vivacious Nikki the team described to me, but I can’t. All I see when I look at her is someone who is broken and terrified.
The team is gathered around Lucas and The Jackal. Everyone is here—except Dylann, of course. Thinking of Dylann makes me cringe. I let her down. Again.
“Lucas, stop. This is insane,” Parker pleads with Lucas.
He doesn’t even glance in her direction.
He fires at The Jackal and I feel the world stand still as his ball of fire flies straight at The Jackal’s face. At the last second, he bats the fireball away. He’s fast for someone so large. He retaliates with a flash of his own. Lucas easily avoids it.
As I approach the team, Ryder spots me and elbows Nix. The pair of them cross the floor to meet me halfway.
“What the hell?” I say as they reach me. “How did Lucas get his powers back?”
I sure as hell didn’t do it. I still haven’t even worked out how to yet. I haven’t had time to think about it.
“Sorten overrode you and gave Lucas his powers back,” Ryder says.
Like that’s an explanation.
“Huh? Who the hell is Sorten?” I ask, more confused than ever.
“He’s a powerful healer that works for the royal family. One of the best. Lucas must have run into him in the castle when he went to see his parents,” Ryder explains.
“Or went there looking for him,” Nix adds.
The mention of the castle reminds me of what I did. I push the thought away.
“Did you talk to my father? Is he going to have Dylann released?” Nix asks.
“Long story. Let’s worry about this for now,” I answer.
I nod in the direction of the battle that continues between Lucas and The Jackal. I think for a moment.
“Lucas isn’t going to trust me to get too close to him after I took his powers once. I’m going to have to get in close. I need you guys to cover me, and after I grab Lucas, I need you to keep The Jackal off him.”
“Summit, you can’t take his powers again,” Nix says. “Even if you work out how to give him them back, there’s a good chance you won’t be able to the second time.”
“What sort of a stupid system is that?” I blurt out.
Nix grins a little at my annoyance.
“It’s like a fail-safe type of thing. Everyone gets a chance to screw up once. When their leader sees fit to give them their powers back, they are supposed to have learned self-control or whatever. The second time means they’re off the team, and not giving them their powers back ensures they can’t cause trouble for their leader.”
“Dammit,” I say.
I don’t want to take Lucas’s powers permanently. We need him on the team. And he’s in the process of making some powerful enemies; he needs to be able to protect himself.
And it’s more than that. It’s one thing Lucas being mad at me for temporarily taking his powers, but he’d never forgive me if I did that to him permanently. Being a part of the team is who he is. I won’t take that away from him. Not for trying to protect someone he loves.
Someone he loves. That hurt.
“This Sorten guy has a lot to answer for,” I snarl.
I walk towards where Lucas and The Jackal are still battling it out.
“Lucas,” I say loudly. The others fall silent and all eyes turn to me.
“Stop this right now, I know you’re better than this. Than him.”
Lucas pauses and looks at me. All I can see in his eyes is steely determination. He shakes his head.
The split second he’s distracted for is enough for The Jackal to take advantage of the situation. He raises his hands in front of him, pointing them at Lucas. A wicked grin crosses his face.
Lucas’s face twists, in what I first take to be pain, but soon see is terror.
“What’s happening?” I cry to no one in particular.
“The Jackal gives people terrible visions. He makes them see things that aren’t real,” Parker explains.
I remember Nikki telling us about the things he made her see. What’s he doing to Lucas?
“Lucas,” I shout again. “It’s not real. Whatever he’s showing you, it’s not real. Focus on my voice.”
Lucas writhes in terror in front of me, his hands batting at an unseen enemy. The Jackal laughs, and like Nikki, I know I will never get that sound out of my head.
I turn my attention to The Jackal.
“Stop,” I say.
He grins cruelly at me.
“And who’s going to make me?” he asks. “You?”
He snorts out another laugh.
“You look like you would taste pretty sweet yourself. It’s incredible how Lucas and I share the same taste in candy.”
That does it. I take a step towards him and fire without thinking about the implications. My shot gets close enough that The Jackal has to deflect it, and his concentration breaks, freeing Lucas from his nightmare.
The Jackal looks at me, a look of pure evil, hate written all over his face. He raises his own hand. I tense, ready for his shot. It doesn’t come.
I hear a roar from beside me and I see a blur of color as Lucas launches himself at The Jackal.
He shouldn’t be able to take The Jackal down, but his anger gives him strength and The Jackal flies through the air, landing hard on his back, Lucas on top of him.
Lucas stands up quickly and holds his hands above The Jackal’s head.
“You bastard,” Lucas says quietly. His voice is eerily calm. Dangerous.
“You made me see you with her. Hurting her. Tearing her to shreds. And there was nothing I could do to save her. You made me watch while you killed Summit.”
I gasp. I thought the vision was about Nikki, not me. It’s not even about Nikki anymore for Lucas. It’s about me. I can talk him out of this now. I don’t need saving. I’m not weak.
“Lucas, let it go,” I say. “It wasn’t real. I could take him and you know it.”
Lucas ignores me.
The Jackal grins up at him.
“Just try it, little boy,” he says, looking at Lucas’s outstretched hands. “You’ll unleash a world of pain.”
“I. Don’t. Care,” Lucas says slowly.
I watch in horrified fascination as a fireball bursts from Lucas’s palm. Instead of sending it down on The Jackal, he holds it in the air, and as I watch, it grows until it bursts into a large white blaze.
The flames sit between Lucas’s hands.
“Lucas. No. It wasn’t real,” I say. “Don’t cause a war because of something that never happened.”
“You didn’t see what I saw, Summit,” he says, still not looking at me. “It might not have been real, but it would have been if he got his way. He’s sick in the head and he needs to be destroyed.”
Nix and I both step forward at the same time. Lucas doesn’t take his eyes off The Jackal, but he senses our movement, and a large white ring of fire springs up between them and us. I step back, the heat dangerously close to me.
Nix and I exchange a helpless look. A quick glance at the others shows similar expressions on everyone’s faces.
Lucas sends the flames down onto The Jackal. His scream of agony cuts through the air, mixing with Lucas’s triumphant cry. Another sound I’ll never be able to get out of my head.
We all shout at once, but we might as well not have spoken. Lucas isn’t taking the least bit of notice of any of us.
He sprays the flames at an almost leisurely pace. I know what he’s doing. He’s making it long and painful. Just like The Jackal did with Nikki.
The door to the training ground slams open and I hear footsteps running towards us.
“Lucas. Please don’t do this,” a voice says as I turn to see who has come in.
Nikki.
“Please stop. For me,” she begs h
im.
For a moment, time stands still. Lucas looks up at Nikki, the flames still raining down on The Jackal. His agonized screams still fill the air.
And then, just like that, it’s over.
The flames stop and the circle of fire around Lucas goes out.
“Leave. Now. Before I change my mind,” Lucas hisses at The Jackal.
He doesn’t need to be told twice. He knows how close he came to being barbecued. He drags himself up with a loud moan and limps to the door. I nod at RJ, who follows him.
“You will pay for this,” he hisses as he hurries out.
Lucas and Nikki stand a yard or two apart, just looking at each other. Something unsaid is passing between them, and I’m unsure what will happen next.
RJ comes back in.
“He’s gone,” he announces.
His words break the strange moment between Nikki and Lucas, and she crosses the gap between them. She reaches up without a word and brushes away the stray strands of hair that have fallen down over his eyes.
He lifts his arms up and she falls into them. They embrace tightly.
“It’s over now, Lucas,” Nikki says against his chest. “We can go back to how things were. Back to each other. Me and you against the world.”
Lucas holds her tightly, one of his hands pushed into her hair.
He nods along to her words, but he’s not looking at her. He’s looking at me.
We all stand there, quiet, relieved. No one seems to know what to say.
Lucas still hasn’t taken his eyes off me as he embraces Nikki.
Talk about awkward.
I force myself to look away before my face gives away what I am feeling. Like everyone else, I am relieved that Nikki stopped Lucas from doing something stupid. I’m also kind of worried. I have a feeling this thing with The Jackal is far from over.
And I am jealous. There, I said it.
It hurts me somewhere deep down inside that I couldn’t make Lucas stop but Nikki could.
I have to get ahold of myself. I am so sick of being this confused, whiny little girl. It’s time to step up and move on from Lucas.
“Let’s go,” I say. “We need to get Nikki back to the hospital. I assume the healers don’t know you left?”
Nikki finally steps out of Lucas’s arms. She shakes her head sheepishly.
“No. They would never have allowed it. But I had to come.”
I nod curtly and head for the door, biting back the cutting response that forms in my mind. The team follow, and it’s not long until Nikki is back in her room and we’re all perched on the usual assortment of uncomfortable seating.
“I’ve been thinking, guys. I’m ready to leave here.”
“The healers have said that?” Parker asks, raising an eyebrow.
Nikki shakes her head.
“No. But I know I’m ready, and even my parents are on board.”
“It’s too soon. You need time to rest and be looked after,” Lucas says.
Nikki turns towards him.
“I do. And what better place to do that than with you and the others?”
Lucas frowns, confused.
“I was thinking of staying with the team. I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather be, and my parents agree that being around everyone is the best way for me to move on from all of this,” Nikki explains.
She suddenly goes shy and looks down at the bed.
“Would that be okay?” she asks Lucas.
I feel the world shift out from under me. Nikki wants to move in? Wow, maybe I can stand in the corner of her bedroom when she’s with Lucas and give her tips.
Stop it, I tell myself.
Lucas hasn’t answered, and I realize everyone is looking at me. I have a feeling it has nothing to do with the fact that I’m the leader.
I could just say no and be done with it. They’d go along with it. I know they would. But I can’t. I’m not going to be that petty. And I’ve already decided I’m going to move on from Lucas. This will force me to do just that.
Nikki looks at me along with the rest of the team. She is as ready as everyone else to accept my answer.
I force myself to smile in a way I hope doesn’t look as fake as it feels.
“Fine with me,” I say.
Nikki’s face breaks into a relieved beam.
“Great, I’ll start packing.”
I can still feel the eyes of the team on me, and I know I have to do something to show them I’m still in charge here and that I’m not going to let my personal feelings cloud my judgement.
“Lucas. A word?” I say, nodding towards the door.
He stands up and heads for the door.
“This is going to be great,” Ryder says as I get up too.
“We’re going to have front-row seats to the best show ever. The Desperate Housewives of the Angel World,” RJ says, hitting his shoulder.
That worked then.
“Ryder,” Parker hisses.
He ignores her as he and RJ laugh. Nikki looks like she wants the ground to swallow her up.
I glare at him as I leave the room, and he winks.
Lucas ducks into an empty room along the corridor and I follow him. He stands in the center and I stand by the door.
“I’m sorry, I know I should have stopped when you told me to, but the things I saw…”
He trails off and looks at me, his eyes begging me to understand.
“And then Nikki came and I don’t know. I guess I just saw sense. And she was saying those things and I wanted to say something, but I couldn’t. All I could think of was you.”
“That’s not what I wanted to talk to you about,” I say, my voice cold.
I see the hurt on his face and I soften my voice slightly.
“Look, Lucas, this is going to be strange at first. I think we both know that, but you’ve made your choice, and now it’s time for us to both move on with our lives.”
He opens his mouth to say something, but I’m not in the mood to hear it. I really didn’t bring him here to talk about us.
“If you ever go behind my back like that again, you’re off the team. No second chances,” I say, my voice cold again.
“I don’t understand,” Lucas says.
“You sought out a healer who could give you your powers back,” I explain.
Lucas sighs and sits down.
“I didn’t seek him out. I went to see my father about something. And when I bumped into Sorten we got talking. He told me he could give me my powers back, so I agreed.”
He pauses for a second.
“He specializes in power suppression and mixtures.”
“Okay. I believe you. You didn’t actively seek him out, but the second you had a chance to disobey me, you took it.”
“Yeah. I did what I had to do. I needed my powers back, and you’d already admitted you had no idea how to return them to me. And you had no right to take them.”
“I am the leader of this team. And you were about to start a war to get revenge for Nikki. I had every right to take them and you know it.”
“I did what felt right, Summit. Yes, it was about avenging Nikki in the beginning, but after what he made me see, it wasn’t just about Nikki. It was about you too.”
I sigh.
“I appreciate the sentiment, but I don’t need a knight in shining armor. What I need is a teammate I can trust to follow my rules. Are we clear?”
Lucas nods, but I’m not convinced he wouldn’t do the exact same thing again given the chance. At least now he knows though. He knows if he goes against my orders again, he’s off the team. And he’ll know that it’s on him.
I turn and go to leave the room.
“Where are you going?” Lucas asks.
“There’s something I have to do,” I say.
I head outside of the hospital and pull out my cell phone. There’s still one mess I can hopefully sort out. Dylann.
I type out a quick message outlining what has happened to her and send it to Rage,
begging him to go and talk some sense into her.
The idea came to me while I was telling Lucas not to break the rules. I remembered Rage telling me he was responsible for me in my father’s eyes and that I should go to him about things.
I can’t imagine how mad he would be if he found out thirdhand that Dylann is in Bliss, but that’s not why I decided to call on him for help. If he feels responsible for me, he must feel the same about her, and if anyone can get through to her about Davis being bad news, it’s Rage.
I also get it now. I feel responsible for my team, and when they don’t trust me enough to come to me about things and try to fix them behind my back instead, it hurts. And I won’t be responsible for making Rage feel that way.
I don’t have to wait long before my cell phone pings. Rage has replied: Leave it to me. I’ll get her out now.
I type out a quick thank you and head back towards the hospital.
So, Nikki is moving in with us, but I’ve given Lucas the warning he needed and hopefully gotten Dylann out of jail.
Me two, universe one. I’m actually winning.
As I step back into the hospital, the universe steps up its game, sending me yet more drama to deal with.
“Thanks for coming,” I hear Parker saying.
“Sure. What’s up?”
The second voice belongs to Fish. It seems as though Parker is also done with sitting around waiting for love to fix everything. I know I should walk away, but I’m curious, so I hang back, waiting to hear what comes next.
“I don’t know what your game is this time, but you need to stay away from us all,” Parker starts.
“In fairness, I’m only here because you asked me to come,” Fish replies.
I can picture the sarcastic half smile on her face as she says it.
“You know what I mean,” Parker says, refusing to rise to the bait.
“Stay away from Nix, Fish. Whatever mess you’re dragging him into, whatever game you’re playing with him, just stop.”
Fish snorts out a laugh.
“Oh honey, you have no idea, do you? I’m not the one playing games here.”
I hear footsteps as Fish walks away.