Bladed Wings

by Davis, Jarod

  Seth took her hand again. As hard as she tried, Kayla couldn’t tell what he felt with that gesture. Maybe it was just a touch of humanity he didn’t get from anyone else, like a wounded puppy desperate for any affection. When he touched her mind to teach her how to use her abilities, Kayla saw parts of his life, but she never saw him hug or touch anyone. Or maybe he thought this is how friends spent time.

  “That was fun,” he said, “Thank you.”

  “Hey, you’re the one doing the nice thing. Remember?”

  “Yeah,” Seth said, “but is it really nice if it’s fun for me too?”

  “Oh,” she stopped in mock horror, a hand over her mouth, “Wow. Maybe you’re right. If you like doing something good, then it must not be good at all. So if you had fun, you must be a terrible jerk even if you gave me a whole five hours without thinking about any of the garbage in my life.”

  They both stopped at the front of his car. They had to get in but didn’t. They didn’t say anything even as they both grinned back at each other. This was closer than necessary, closer than most people would’ve liked, but she always savored that sensation of being near him. He was always taller than she expected, stronger, and more intense. She felt her toes quiver as he pressed a little closer.

  He was going to kiss her, she realized. She closed her eyes. She held onto that moment and waited. Only she had to open her eyes when she felt him pull away.

  His stance changed. She turned around and saw why. Sasha stood there with four others behind her. They all wore torn jeans and t-shirts despite the cold. They stared ahead, thoughtless and cold. If the temperature bothered them, they didn’t let it show. But then they probably had more important things in mind like the knives in their hands. Kayla wanted to pull out her phone and call 911, but that wouldn’t matter. Even in the parking lot lights, she could see the blackened flickers of energy along their eyes.

  “Kayla, Seth,” Sasha said with a little nod. “A pleasant evening for a conversation.”

  “What do you want?”

  “A body,” Sasha said and shifted her gaze from Seth to Kayla. Her smile looked feral and revealed her fangs. “Tonight, finally, I’ll get my target.” Kayla felt her skin chill, because she was the target. She didn’t know what to say as she tried to reboot her brain and figure out what she as going to do. Fight, she had to fight. She had to fight and help Seth get out of there. Without thinking about it, she didn’t want him defending her. She didn’t want him getting hurt to protect her.

  Seth braced himself with a fighter’s stance, and Kayla realized he wouldn’t leave her. Not there. Even if he didn’t have a gun or knife, he’d kick and punch through those guys if that’s what it took.

  “You can leave here,” Seth said. “If you don’t. I will kill you.”

  “You think so?” she asked. “Poor little boy. You have potential, sure, but you’re not strong enough to take me. You’re not old enough.”

  “You really want to test me?” Seth didn’t sound scared. Somehow it sounded like a negotiation, two predators circling testing one another. It became a silent contest to determine the stronger and braver hunter.

  “It won’t be a test,” she promised.

  On cue, the four guys behind her slogged forward. They didn’t move like hunters. They lacked Sasha’s grace, but their muscles worked just fine. As they thumped forward, Kayla reached out and thought of how Seth saw the world. She remembered his training and channeled his instincts. Energies combined and twisted together. She tightened them in her grip and flicked her wrist. A tendril of energy snapped down. It was invisible, so the first guy didn’t know to dodge it. He was caught in the shins, Kayla heard a crunch, and he tumbled down.

  The other three moved forward. Seth stepped in front of her, and she felt touched that he cared and annoyed he didn’t trust her to fight for herself. She couldn’t see his eyes, but she guessed they’d flicker with that blue energy. Two of the thugs stopped, their blades loose in their lank hands.

  Sasha held her fingertips together to form two thirds of a triangle over her chest. She stared into her followers’ minds and fought Seth for control. Kayla couldn’t see anything, but she felt the sludge and darkness from one side wrestle against the control and heat from the other. Seth started to tremble with the effort.

  One of Sasha’s thugs slashed down at Kayla. She ducked and fell back. A swipe of her hand and force knocked him back, but the second one was there. Kayla felt a wall behind her back, dropped down, and kicked out. She never learned that move from Seth.

  The whites of her eyes simmered back and forth between black and their natural colors. Sasha stepped forward, a little at a time. She reached out with her own dagger. It looked like a curved blade, something good for chopping meat. Seth saw her coming, but he couldn’t hold back her followers and fall back at the same time.

  One of the thugs swung at Seth, but he didn’t duck. Kayla threw out a wave of energy that threw the blade off by an inch, maybe a little more. It still nicked him and a line of red and ripped cloth stretched across his stomach. If it hurt, Seth didn’t let it show.

  Sasha would win, Kayla realized. She couldn’t fight them all off. She wasn’t strong enough. As Seth held most of Sasha’s attention, they wouldn’t win. And Kayla wouldn’t abandon him. She didn’t care what happened. Kayla wouldn’t let him sacrifice himself.

  Sasha grinned, but her voice strained like she had to hold something back, “Nice try, but you can’t take me.” Sparks of black shifted across her eyes, but Kayla noticed something else: indigo. Seth focused on her, tried . If he could control Sasha, lock out her ability, then these guys would run. They might not even remember why they were coming after them.

  Kayla had to hope. She had to hope he’d be strong enough. Another one of the thugs was up and swung at her. Kayla evaded the blade, but just long enough to hop back. He was still on her. She swung out and knocked him back. When he turned on her again, he had a bruise across his face like he’d been smacked by a hose. Another one of Sasha’s followers closed in on Seth. He didn’t see her.

  Kayla was going to scream for him to duck, to move, to do something, but another one of them grabbed her. He slammed her into the wall, and the breath tore from her lungs. She got something out, a pathetic whisper that he couldn’t even hear. Terror ripped at her because she hated herself because she was going to watch him die.

  Even then, she wouldn’t leave him. Kayla wouldn’t abandon him. He wouldn’t be alone. Kayla swore that wouldn’t happen.

  Sasha held out her knife as the second thug got closer.

  Seth grinned, a note of triumph and the cockiness of someone who knows his plan worked, “You’re not going to kill me.” The guy to his right, the one about to slit his throat, stopped. The black disappeared from his eyes. At the same time, Sasha’s cleared as he let go over her. Stunned for a moment, like someone just stepped out of the way instead of holding her back, Sasha looked dazed.

  In the same moment, Kayla watched Seth take control of her fourth follower. He ran at Sasha and swiped down. His blade caught the Alliance fighter in the shoulder. Now she had her own gash. He tried to swing again, an uppercut that would’ve planted his blade in her stomach.

  One hand against her shoulder, Sasha grabbed the fighter, and their eyes flared back. She hissed with the pain, a curse on her lips. It didn’t matter. Seth had a different fighter. Her focus broken by pain and the idea that he could hurt her, Sasha couldn’t get their minds back under her control. Two more of her followers fell in on her. Kayla threw a wave of force that pummeled her to the ground.

  Sasha hacked through her thugs, Seth grabbed Kayla’s wrist, “We’re out of here. Now.”

  Chapter 7: Family Prayers

  Before Kayla got into bed that night, she held her hands together, eyes closed, and prayed in the dark. “Thank you Lord. Thank you for tonight. Thank you for my time with Seth, and thank you for giving us the strength to escape that woman. I don’t know what she wants. She wants
to control me? She wants to kill me?” Kayla halted. “But we were okay, and I know you were protecting us. So thank you.” She felt the fear still at the edges of her thoughts, “Please, help us protect one another. Please Lord. Thank you Lord. Amen.”

  By morning, Kayla got out the door without any word about Friday and their hearing with the judge. Kayla’s stomach tightened each time she thought about telling a stranger who she wanted to live with. By extension, her siblings would probably get pulled along with her. Worst, she’d hurt whichever parent she didn’t choose.

  The fear of Friday fade a little when Seth came up to her. He had wanted to take her back to Davis and his grad students to check on her and make sure she was okay. He even threatened to drag her there, half-joking, but she convinced him she was fine. Besides, she’d said, she was pretty sure she could punch him out without twitching a muscle if she really wanted.

  A few minutes later, Isaac rushed over to see her. Glancing around like he was afraid someone followed him, he walked way too fast to look normal.

  “Good,” he said as he gulped deep breaths. “You’re here.”

  “Yeah. School. Kind of required.”

  “I need your help.”

  “What’s wrong?” Kayla looked around and expected to see Sasha or some of her followers. She didn’t know if Vigo knew about that or if that was an Alliance mission. Kayla didn’t care. They almost killed Seth.

  “It’s Erin,” Isaac still sounded nervous.

  “Something happened?”

  He inhaled, held his breath for a moment, and said, “I need to know what she likes.”

  “What?”

  “I need to know what she likes. From a friend’s perspective.”

  “You don’t know?” Okay, so definitely not an emergency involving knives, blood, or bruises. She felt herself relax, everything still heightened and sharper. It was like she could feel the tingle of energy on the back of her neck.

  As they started walking, Kayla noticed some of her old friends from Youth Group. They didn’t say hi, and she ignored them.

  “I don’t,” Isaac said. “Not really.”

  “You were really sweet yesterday.”

  “That wasn’t bad,” he said. “But I’m looking for something better and I’ve been beating my head against a wall for the last two days. I need something good, something really good. Erin’s birthday is coming up, and I want it to be special.”

  “C’mon,” she said. “You’re a great guy, and you pay attention. You have to know what she likes.” Kayla didn’t want to sound mean, but it was hard with someone like Isaac. He could joke about being a jerk all he wanted, but he cared about Erin. It was obvious in the way he smiled at her, the way he talked about her, the way he walked with her.

  “I can’t think of anything. Not a single thing. So tell me what she likes. Please.” He looked desperate enough to remind Kayla of an over eager puppy.

  “Please. You’re her friend.”

  “I don’t know her that well.” Kayla still didn’t understand.

  Maybe Isaac sensed that because he decided to explain. “Look, I’m good at the PDA part. I’m the guy who can get in front of the whole school and shout how much I like her.” He shook his head, “how much I love her. But this is different, because this isn’t about me not being embarrassed. It’s about me knowing her.”

  “What do you want to know?”

  “Anything.”

  “You can’t be any more specific?” Part of her wondered what it would be like if Seth asked these questions. She imagined him over with Erin somewhere peppering her with questions.

  “Okay then,” Kayla told him. “She’s like anyone else. She likes music, movies, TV, good websites. Nothing unusual.” Making a mental note to get to know Erin better, “Just be yourself. I’m sure you’ll do great.”

  “Be yourself?” he asked. “Really? That’s your advice?” He smirked at that like he wasn’t sure if he should be annoyed or laughing. “No offense Kayla, but you sound like a PSA from the eighties. Early eighties.”

  “Hey. It’s what I’ve got.” Kayla didn’t want him to think she was wrong either. “Seriously. It’s not about what you do so much as how much effort you put into it. If you try really hard, she’ll see that and she’ll be touched.”

  Isaac watched her, skeptical. “I’m not sure I can believe you.”

  They were almost at her homeroom, but she wasn’t used to someone just saying he couldn’t believe her. “Why not?”

  “You’re one of them.”

  “One of them?”

  “Female, a girl.” He said those two words like the names of an alien species. “There’s kind of this thing where I can’t really trust you because I can’t be sure if you see the world the same way as me. You know what I mean?”

  “So because you’re a guy, you’re going to be different on some basic level?”

  “It makes sense,” he said and shrugged.

  “We’re not that different.”

  “Oh, but I think we are,” he said. They stopped outside of her homeroom just as Isaac glanced around. Kayla guessed he wanted to make sure he didn’t say the wrong thing in front of the wrong person. “The bigger problem is that we can’t even know. Our brains could work exactly the same way, but we can’t tell.”

  “What makes you think we’re that different?”

  He shrugged again. Kayla started to notice it was probably his favorite answer. “We were raised differently for one. You probably grew up on playing house, reading, or playing video games about taking care of kitties while everything I played with that explosions in there somehow. It just seems like that there’s a pretty big difference.”

  “We’re all people.”

  “But we like different things.”

  “What do you know about Erin?” she asked. “You’ve spent a lot of time with her.”

  “Yeah, I thought about it that way, and you’re right, I know a lot about her, but it’s only what she wants me to know. See my problem?”

  “She wouldn’t lie to you.”

  “No, but she might hide parts of herself, maybe play up others. For all I know, she’s really embarrassed about her hobbies. I’d like to do something special, really special. I want her to know how much I care about her.” Most guys wouldn’t have admitted. Dean definitely wouldn’t have.

  “I have to go back to that first thing,” Kayla said. “Just effort.”

  “Shotgun approach?”

  “What?” Kayla asked.

  “See what I mean?” he asked. “Guy language. Shotgun approach: I gather together every romantic fantasy and throw them all at her and hope one of them is what she wants.”

  “Every fantasy?”

  “They’re pretty standard,” he said. “Walk on the beach. Deep talks. A nice meal. Maybe a carriage ride downtown. Movie. Some present, probably a piece of jewelry. I like necklaces since rings can get creepy pretty fast.”

  “You know a lot about this.”

  Another shrug, “Why not? It’s a good skill to have.”

  “Should it be a skill?” she asked. “It’s not like you can just take what you learn from one relationship and throw it into the next one.”

  “Yeah, you really can. Work out a romantic fantasy with one girl, and it’ll probably work just as well with the next one.” He stopped. “Don’t tell Erin I said that.”

  “You don’t need to look at this like a game.” Kayla tried to sound honest and sincere. “She knows you care about her. That’s what really matters. Just be a good guy, be there when she needs you, and you won’t have any problems.”

  “You’re a good person,” Isaac told her. It almost sounded like an insult, just not quite. “Just effort?”

  “Pretty much.” She waited for the bell to ring. It wouldn’t be long before the empty halls flooded with students. She watched one boy grab some other kid’s hat and sprint off. They were supposed to be freshmen, but moments like that made her wonder if Isaac wasn’t right about guy
s.

  “A picnic at sunset, a movie, a walk through an orchard?” he said. “What’s best?”

  “Sounds romantic.”

  Isaac watched her like a scientist trying to figure out if his experiment worked. “I need to get some cupcakes for the picnic. Any suggestion on frosting or flavor?”

  That was one she knew. “Purple frosting. White cupcakes.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Isaac,” she said, “Don’t worry about it. You’re a great boyfriend and I’m sure Erin knows that. Just trust yourself. Take her out, listen to her, and do what feels right. That’s all it takes to make her feel special.” The first bell rang. They’d have three minutes before another warning bell pinged. Before he disappeared between the cliques, Kayla called after him. “You’ll do great! Don’t worry.”

  Isaac stopped and turned around. It wasn’t hard to hear him over the shuffle of feet and backpacks. “Would you feel that way if it was Seth?” He smirked at her as Kayla sputtered for an answer. By the time she found something good to say, Erin’s boyfriend was gone.

  Those precious seven and a half minutes between class were always an odd combination of stressful and fun. It used to be fun because she got to see her friends. They’d say hi or spread those thirty second stories about what happened in class. That usually bordered on gossip, but Kayla didn’t mind if it didn’t get too mean. It also go stressful because it meant they had to be in class or face the wrath of annoyed teachers eager to pass out bad grades.

  On her way to second period, most of Kayla’s thoughts swirled around what Isaac said. After Dean, Kayla didn’t think she’d like another guy for a while. Maybe not until college. Then Seth popped into her life, and he didn’t care about her at first, and that should’ve proved her right. They weren’t friends and they weren’t close. It should’ve been easy.

  For the last few days, they’d gotten closer. Quickened thoughts of his arms, the heat of his body, and the way they’d feel together poked at her and warmed her at the same time.

  Through her first class, Kayla listened to the teacher. It was probably a lesson she’d need for their next test, but she didn’t hear it. It was easy to lose herself in the embrace of daydreams about the boy who showed her how to use her abilities and risked his secret to help her. She’d lied to protect him too, and now she didn’t know what she was supposed to feel about him.