Million Dollar Gift

by Ian Somers

  This was her opportunity and she seized it while her opponent was distracted. Marianne dashed through the hallway and slid across the kitchen floor behind the cover of the thick counter.

  She didn’t have any time to prepare her next move as Romand went on the offensive and started blasting precise bolts of energy at the counter. She couldn’t risk staying where she was; if one blast broke through the counter she could be killed instantly.

  She summoned her anger forward and released a powerful energy wave that shook the entire room and almost brought the ceiling down. She raised up and prepared a more concentrated attack, but Romand was waiting for her.

  He fired a measured shot of energy at the kitchen counter and there was deafening blast. Glass, concrete and wood were blown to smithereens and sharp fragments of the debris doused Marianne. When the dust settled she casually plucked shards and splinters from her left arm as if she were flicking off dandruff. Marianne was powerful and she had a high pain threshold.

  ‘I expected more from you,’ she said grinning. ‘After decades of training and all you can come up with are simple shockwaves and bolts you learned from reading old Mongolian manuscripts. How about I show you something more … dynamic!’

  Marianne closed her eyes and sucked in breaths through her nostrils then pointed at the ceiling and very slowly lowered her hand. She created a layer of energy that filled every millimetre of the room. It was so fierce that it was actually visible; the layer was affecting light and bright streams of white and red pulsed around the room. The layer of energy was falling lower and lower and would crush anything it touched. Romand’s abilities could not defend against such a radical and dangerous technique. Marianne was finally getting the upper hand in the fight.

  Suddenly there was a blinding light from across the kitchen that almost blinded her. A tiny blue light blossomed and grew rapidly into a large azure orb. Romand had created it and pushed it out across the room where it burst into a brilliant white explosion.

  Marianne shut her eyes just in time. A second later and she would have been blinded by the light-tuning trick. It broke her concentration and the lethal crush-layer fizzled out.

  She was losing patience with the battle, her old adversary just refused to die. Her anger rose and she opened her eyes. She intended to hit him hard … really hard.

  She spun her body and a bolt of psychokinetic energy struck Romand in the chest and sent him flying across the room where he crashed hard into the wall. His response was instant – an energy-slice came at Marianne. She tried to deflect it, but was clipped in the arm by the invisible disk. She looked at her bicep – there was a deep, clean cut and blood ran down across her wrist. She turned to Romand and her face tensed up as anger took control. Her rage drew in an incredible amount of power from her surroundings and every object in the room was blown to pieces.

  Romand was thrown against the wall, his right arm smashed badly. It was almost finished; Marianne knew he could not fight her off for much longer with the use of only one arm.

  The light bulbs in the kitchen had all been destroyed, the room became black, broken only by the glimmer of moonlight seeping in through the open patio doors. It was quiet too. She knew he was in pain, but his strength had not deserted him yet; there was not a wince, wheeze or even a heavy breath from the opposite side of the kitchen.

  In the brief moments of calm after the explosion she began to sense his emotions; the pain from his wounds was opening his mind to her. She sensed his love for those he was protecting. They had been the only family he had ever known and he remained determined to guard them, even if it would cost him his life.

  ‘A promise to an old friend to protect his wife and daughter. Eh, Romand?’

  ‘It’s not a weakness to have loyalty to those who care for you.’

  ‘It is a weakness, and one I know all too well,’ Marianne replied. ‘I learned that lesson from my loss. Someone will probably learn it from the one you’re about to suffer.’

  ‘And the pain will be passed on. The conflict renewed. A never-ending cycle of hate.’

  ‘You’re about to die, but you’re still philosophising. You are a strange one, Romand, but not too bright. You made a fatal mistake tonight.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘When the dogs attacked me you had a chance of winning this fight before it even started. I would not have been able to contend with the dogs, two psychokinetics and two mind switchers, yet you ordered them to hide in the attic.’ There was a long moment of silence. ‘Yes. I’ve read your thoughts. Bentley and two mind switchers are hidden above us. You failed them by not taking your opportunity, you fail them now by not shielding your emotions, and you will fail them yet again when I finish you off.’

  ‘This is not over yet!’

  Another large orb of blue light appeared in the centre of the room and became brighter and brighter. Marianne threw her arms across her face before it burned her eyes. She had dropped her guard just long enough for Romand to shoot a bolt of energy that sent her crashing against the metal stove. It was painful and her back stiffened, but Romand had grown weak and could no longer deliver a fatal blow.

  She pushed all her residual energy across the room at him and he was struck head-on by an invisible tsunami that almost knocked him against the wall once more.

  Marianne caught a glimpse of him scrambling out the back door. She followed, but he was invisible; he was using his old trick of body refraction to hide himself. The game was over; Marianne could hear his awkward footsteps and casually followed his trail of blood through the open patio doors and into the quaint little garden. She wouldn’t be able to track him through the fields beyond the garden, though, and she decided it was time to bring a conclusion to the duel.

  She revealed the ace she was holding up her sleeve: her gift of metallisiring. She raised her hands and used her abilities to pluck the eight silver rings from her fingers and bring them together in a line in front of her face. Without pause she used her metallisir gift to melt and shape the rings into razor-sharp arrowheads, then fired them across the garden.

  Romand’s light-tuning gift failed as the silver projectiles struck him. He slipped and staggered through the garden. There was no chance of escape for him; Marianne could see three of the arrowheads had ripped straight through his body and his wounds were too serious for him to go much further.

  He fell to one knee and managed one last burst of power that merely disturbed Marianne’s hair. She replied with a powerful thumping wave of negative energy that sent him tumbling twenty feet into the field beyond the little garden.

  Still he refused to give in and tried to gain a few more yards from the house. Marianne took great pleasure in seeing her enemy’s vulnerability. She would have liked to toy with him longer, but there was not time for such amusement. She pulled off one of her bracelets and allowed it to hover for a moment before metallisiring it into a sharp disk of silver. She took careful aim then shot it across the field. It sliced through Romand’s leg and finally brought him crashing down into the grass. She took her time and walked slowly to him then looked down and smiled gloatingly.

  ‘The mighty Romand,’ she sighed. ‘You should have killed me when I was a child.’

  ‘I never wanted to kill you when we were in California, Marianne. I wanted to help you.’

  ‘You? Help me?’ Marianne laughed. ‘You help no one but yourself, Romand!’ She took the two remaining silver rings from her thumbs, formed them into arrowheads and prepared to fire them into Romand’s heart.

  ‘Why did you kill Peter?’ she asked. A long-lost innocence had momentarily returned to her voice. ‘Why?’

  ‘I didn’t kill him. I never had a reason to.’

  ‘Will you not speak the truth this one last time? I will make your death quick and painless if you do.’

  ‘Your mind has been poisoned, Marianne. You cannot tell truth from lie. I pity you.’

  ‘I don’t need your pity, weakling!’

  She fired one o
f the arrowheads into his right shoulder, just to prolong his agony and to make him pay for his lies. She lowered her right hand and the second arrowhead slowly moved to Romand’s chest.

  ‘Who needs pity now?’ she laughed. ‘I just want to know this before I kill you: your friends will die a much slower and more excruciating death than the one I’m about to give you.’

  The arrowhead began to burrow into his chest and Romand let out a loud, agonised roar. Marianne would not grant him the warrior’s death that she’d given other gifted people. He didn’t deserve it.

  The arrowhead sunk through his flesh and worked its way to his heart. Marianne was standing directly over him. She wanted her eyes to be the last thing he’d see in life.

  It was over …

  Suddenly Marianne was knocked off her feet and sent skidding violently across the field. She tried to stand up, but her head was spinning and she fell forward. Her body shuddered from the shock of the blow and blood spilled from her nose and a wound above her right eye.

  How had Romand summoned such power? Even in his prime he was not gifted enough to deliver such an attack.

  There was a moment of panic in her as she tried to stand; she could not allow him to hit her this hard again. The blow could have been fatal if it had been directed more precisely. She had to end this immediately.

  Her vision was blurred and she stalked forward. She smeared the blood from her face then rubbed her eyes then gasped as her sight finally cleared. Ross Bentley was stomping forward through the garden.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX -

  A Fight to the Death

  I knelt next to Romand while Marianne was staggering and falling. He was in bad shape. His blood was splattered across the long grass, his face was purple and swollen and there were deep wounds all over his body.

  ‘What are you doing?’ he managed to ask.

  ‘You saved me. Now I’m saving you.’

  ‘T’es vraiment stupide.’

  ‘I hope that means “thank you” in French.’

  I spied Marianne getting to her feet and she looked mightily pissed off – the idea of facing up to her terrified me. I knew this would be a fight to the death. She would come at me with all her anger and rage, but I had powers of my own and would use everything I had to defend myself and those I cared about.

  ‘Hold on, Romand,’ I said as I stood up. ‘I have to take care of this.’

  ‘I knew you were stupid,’ Marianne said as she approached me, ‘but not quite this stupid. Didn’t Romand warn you about me?’

  ‘He did, but I don’t take orders from him. You’re going to pay for what you did to him and for that little stunt you pulled at the press conference.’

  She laughed and shook her head. ‘Ah, the press conference. You should have seen the look on your face, Bentley, when I snuffed out your gift. It was priceless.’

  ‘You should have seen the look on yours when I sent you across the field just now.’

  ‘Insolent little—’

  I created an energy spear and she wasn’t quick enough to dodge it. Again she was knocked into the long grass and when she stood up I saw blood trickling from her nose and mouth. She rubbed the back of her hand across her face and looked at the smudge of red. I could almost feel energy being sucked right out of the air and into her body.

  My precog gift spiked and I darted to my left as Marianne fired a bolt of energy so powerful it flattened about twenty square metres of the long grass. I would have been torn to pieces if she had landed such a terrible blow.

  ‘I’m toying you with, Bentley.’

  ‘Let’s stop playing around here, Marianne. Hit me with your best shot.’

  ‘All in good time. I want you to suffer first, like Romand did.’

  ‘I’m stronger than him. My gift is as pure as yours.’

  ‘You’re nothing more than a novice who uses his powers to do skateboarding tricks. You have no idea how to use your gifts properly. Allow me to show you how it’s done.’

  She swung her arm and a deadly slice cut through the long grass. I was fast enough to dodge it and I hit back immediately with another spear. She easily avoided my attack and laughed mockingly at me.

  ‘You need glasses. Romand should have brought you to an optician before he started teaching you cheap tricks!’

  Another slice came fizzing through the grass and I jumped from its path. When I tried to get up I realised there was a deep gash on my leg. I hadn’t been quite fast enough and I doubted myself for the first time. She was only getting started and I’d already used up most of the techniques I’d learned. I had to even up the scores, I had to put her on the back foot.

  I jumped into the air and was going to replicate the ground thump I had beaten Romand with in our combat match, but Marianne was way too fast for me and channelled a fearsome bolt of energy that hit my chest and sent me far across the field.

  I came down with an almighty thump and every inch of my body ached.

  ‘Was that as good for you as it was for me?’ she sneered. ‘The earth moved for me, Ross.’

  I couldn’t even manage to say anything back and she continued to insult me as she waded through the long grass.

  I was ready to collapse, but somehow tapped into some deep, residual anger and used it to suck in negative energy from my surroundings. I stayed low, making it appear that I was too weak to stand. She thought she’d outdone me and approached while taking a bracelet from her wrist. I watched as she turned the simple ring of silver into a sharp disc the size of a DVD.

  I raised my hand and released the energy from within, smashing the silver disc and forcing shards of it into her face. She hunched over and wailed in agony, but it wasn’t enough to stop her; she was soon back on her feet and I could tell she was drawing in a lot of energy. I wasn’t going to be able to avoid it and my body couldn’t cope with another powerful blow. I did the only thing I could – I ran away. I needed somewhere to hide while I built up enough strength to continue the fight and there was only one place in sight: the training barn.

  I ran as fast I could but was eventually downed by a small silver object that hit me in the back of the leg. It was burning hot and sizzled inside my hamstring. I reached down and yanked it out of my leg and my fingertips melted on its surface. How the hell could I contend with gifts like this? Romand was right about her, she was a weapon of mass destruction.

  I scrambled off the ground and continued towards the barn. I don’t even know how I managed to move one foot in front of the other; my entire body was aching and each step drained me. Marianne could have caught up with me if she really wanted to but she just strolled casually across the field. She really was just toying with me.

  I was swallowed by the shadows inside the barn, but I knew my way around inside and was able to traverse the hay bales until I reached the back wall. It would take a while to track me down and I used the time I had to suck the cool evening air into my lungs and try to build up my strength once more. I had some breathing space, but I knew I couldn’t defeat Marianne; she was far beyond my skills. Romand had overestimated my abilities.

  ‘Hiding, Bentley?’ she called from somewhere in the barn. ‘The poor young boy hiding in the dark, knowing that death is approaching. How afraid you must be. There is no need to prolong this. Give up those who you’re protecting and I will allow you to live.’

  ‘You’re a liar,’ I roared back. ‘You’re sick and twisted just like Golding.’

  ‘I’m nothing like Golding.’

  ‘Yes, you are! He made you into his mirror image. You’re a murdering monster who only cares for money.’

  ‘I’m nothing like Golding!’ Her voice was filling with fury and hatred. ‘You know nothing, you little fool!’

  ‘I know he made you into his puppet. He had Shaw kill your boyfriend, Peter, and then blamed it on someone else. And you believed them! You’re the foolish one, Marianne!’

  ‘I know who killed Peter! It was Romand or one of his friends in the guild.’
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br />   I didn’t know what she was talking about, but I knew Romand wasn’t responsible. I also realised there was no way to reason with Marianne. She was hell-bent on revenge and wouldn’t be convinced by anything I said.

  There was a long eerie silence in the barn and my nerves were on edge. Where was she? What was she preparing? How the hell was I going to get out of the barn?

  After almost two minutes, that felt more like two hours, there were pings overhead as the fluorescent lights came on. The interior of the barn was filled with light. I wouldn’t be able to hide for much longer. She was getting ready to make her move.

  I had expected it to take a while for her to find me, but I was outsmarted. The hay bales all floated into the air and hovered twenty feet above me. I was no longer hidden. I stood up and faced Marianne, who was standing near the front entrance. What would be her next move? I tried to sense what she was going to do, but my mind was blank; she was shutting me out somehow.

  I contemplated an attack of my own, but decided against it when I heard clanking from above. I gazed upward to see the metal roof of the barn melting and shapes emerging from it. They looked like stalactites, they were growing fast and their ends were sharp as needles. They grew longer and longer, piercing the hay bales then stabbing the floor. One was coming right at my face! I had nowhere to run. I started to panic and was suddenly filled with energy. I felt as powerful as I had when I’d destroyed the pillar in Dullbrook.

  I spun three-sixty and knocked a hole in the concrete wall, just about big enough for me to climb through. One of the spikes sliced my ankle as I pulled myself through the gap and I let out a yelp then fell onto the grass outside the barn.

  I couldn’t take much more of this. Marianne was not only powerful, she was really creative with her killing techniques! Where she could have learned that stuff was a mystery to me. Maybe she invented it herself. I didn’t really care to know, I just wanted to get as far away from her as possible.