by CC Solomon
Mae tried to paint what I believed was the truth of Luke being an angry alcoholic. She even had a couple of witnesses who testified to his history of public drunkenness, fighting, and inappropriate behavior towards women. I was actually proud of the case she made for Felix, who she painted as a friendly protector.
After both sides presented their cases, Phillip called a recess while he made a decision. There was no jury so I had no clue how Phillip would rule. He had to know that if he harmed Felix, we wouldn’t let it stand. However, if he didn’t find Felix guilty, it was possible that the pack would revolt and he needed them to maintain order in the town.
After an hour, Phillip entered and the crowd hushed. I looked over at Erik, who was looking straight ahead at Phillip. I turned and looked over to Lisa and she looked back at me with a curt nod. We were all ready. If the verdict didn’t go our way, we weren’t going to wait around; we’d teleport out of the makeshift court room as fast as we could.
“I have listened to both sides and I do not take my role as the decision maker lightly,” Phillip began. “While we can all admit that Luke had some character issues, his personality and past behavior cannot be a focal point when deciding whether or not his death was appropriate. Felix, although new to town, has shown himself to be a valuable member, but again we cannot look to that when deciding innocence or guilt. The only thing we can look at is if his actions were warranted. We have the testimony that Luke bit Lisa and there was blood on his teeth but we cannot verify if it was hers, as he was bleeding from the mouth from the impaling.” He paused and looked around at the audience in the pseudo court.
Just another negative of the apocalypse. No one was going around doing DNA testing.
“In any event, there is no proof or evidence that Luke was intending to kill Lisa, which would be the only justification for his death. Felix could have reacted to the alleged behavior a number of ways, but killing Luke was not the correct option.”
I did not like where this was going.
“Therefore, I find Felix Gonzalez guilty of the murder of Luke Brady. Because I do not believe it was premeditated and that this was a heat-of-the-moment action, he will not be sentenced to death. Instead, he will be sentenced to blindness.”
The crowd erupted in a mixture of shouts of shock and cheering. Some were satisfied with the ruling, others thought it was too lenient.
I looked over to Lisa but she was gone. I quickly turned to Felix and he too was gone. She worked fast.
The room went insane.
Seth McIntire, the leader of the town’s were population, rushed towards us and Erik, recently made his third in command, jumped up.
“Where did that bitch take him? He has to pay!” Seth spat.
I was enraged. I knew Phillip wouldn’t do the right thing but it was still hard to see happen. I somehow had hope that he would let us go. Letting Felix live would have made him look weak but to blind him was unacceptable when Felix was innocent. The pack, led by a crazy brute, wanted vengeance even if it wasn’t logical.
I got up and moved past Erik. Seth reached out to grab me and I threw my hand out, psychically sliding the tall muscular man on his heels, away from me. I had no more patience for his antics. I stormed towards Phillip, who was standing looking at me in confusion.
“That trial was bullshit and you know it. You never had any intention to do what’s right. You just want another victim to exert your control!” I shouted.
“And yet, he got away,” Phillip replied in a calm voice. His honey-colored eyes looked down on me with almost robotic coldness. “So, who will take his place?” He looked past me. “Maybe his friend, Erik, will do what’s right.”
I felt Erik’s presence behind me. “I’m not doing shit,” he stated.
“Not surprised.” Phillip looked over to Faith.
“Don’t look at her,” I demanded. Faith joined Erik and me in front of the counter.
From the corner of my eye I saw Raya Ortiz, Seth’s fifth in command. The brunette stood with legs apart, ready to fight. Seth wrapped a hand around a fist and glared at us. A few vampires I did not recognize stood behind him, and the small group slowly began to approach us.
“This doesn’t have to get ugly. Just let us leave this town,” Erik stated.
“No one’s leaving until Felix comes back to get his punishment,” Seth stated with rage-filled green eyes. The weretiger was built like an athlete. He had short, blond hair and a wide mouth that was typically set in a cocky grin. Today his usual grin was set in a scowl.
Phillip looked at me and smiled. “Erik’s going to stand in for him. Here.” Phillip’s lips moved but I could not hear what he was saying. A second later he opened his hand and a butcher knife materialized in his palm. “Erik, take this knife and cut out your eyes.”
Seconds later, Erik walked around me towards Phillip.
“Erik, stop!” I demanded.
He stopped in his path. We had to get out of here. We could teleport but when I turned, I saw that Faith was being held by were police. I couldn’t leave her.
I turned back towards Phillip in time to see him give the knife to Erik. “Erik, stop!” I screamed. But he took the knife and raised it over his left eye.
Phillip sucked his teeth, giving me a fake pity look. “Right, I told him to ignore your command.”
I ran to Erik and grabbed the knife from him in mid-motion to his eye, trying to prevent it from lowering. He held tightly to the knife but he was slowing down, as if resisting the blade.
“Please stop,” I cried, tearfully.
He looked down at me from the corner of his eyes, his face scrunched in discomfort. “I can’t,” he said through a strained voice. The blade was only an inch from his right eye now.
Still grasping the knife, I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I pictured the knife in my hand. A prickly heat stabbed at my fingertips but when I opened my eyes again, the knife vanished from Erik’s hands into mine. I turned and Seth was suddenly in front of me. He backhanded me across the face and I stumbled to the ground, momentarily dazed. The knife fell out of my hand.
Well, that was enough to snap Erik out of Phillip’s control. He turned and right hooked Seth in the face, shouting out in a spine-stabbing growl.
Phillip moved around the counter.
“Stop where you are, Phillip,” I shouted, getting up. I touched my soon-to-be swollen cheek from where Seth slapped me. “No one is dying or losing their sight. Let this go. You won’t lose control of your people.”
“Not happening and there won’t be any more discussion,” Phillip replied in a deep voice. His eyes were fully black now, no white could be seen.
I took a hesitant step back. What was happening?
A sharp pain came to my other cheek as if I had been slapped again.
Phillip’s hand was out in a stop motion, the other hand touching his cheek. He frowned.
Oh, he wanted to play witchcraft beat down, eh? I threw out a mental punch to his stomach but I was the one who keeled over in pain. I was certain that I had done the attack to him, not myself. What was going on here? I looked up and saw that he was clutching his stomach as well.
Erik grabbed me. “What’s going on, Mina?” he asked.
Phillip lifted a pointer finger and sliced the air. I screamed as a searing pain went across my forehead. I touched the pain spot, feeling wetness and a stinging cut. I brought my hand down and saw blood.
“What’s happening to you?” Erik shouted in a confused tone.
I had a horrible feeling I knew.
“The hell?” I heard Phillip cry. I looked up and saw that he had a long horizontal cut across his forehead, much like I expected my own appeared.
I knew where this was going and when I got out of here, I would appropriately freak out. But now I had to fight. I picked up the knife and quickly slashed my forearm, clenching my teeth at the pain.
Phillip cursed and rolled up his sleeve, a matching cut appearing on his forearm. He looked wid
e-eyed at me, stumbling back to the counter.
“Stop what you’re doing or you won’t like what I do next,” I demanded, pointing the knife to my crotch area. I wasn’t sure if I was really going to go that far but I was hoping he wouldn’t call my bluff.
“Mina, what’s going on?” Faith asked behind me, her voice careful.
The room had grown quiet and everyone paused their arguing and fighting, eyes focused on Phillip and me. “I’m not scared of you. Whatever you do to me will come back to you. So, let us go,” I demanded.
Phillip grimaced. “We were supposed to be partners. Don’t do this.” His voice didn’t match his angry face now. He sounded almost pained, but also like himself again.
“Then let the others go.”
Phillip shook his head. “No.”
I put the knife to my throat and froze the room of people with my powers, raising my left hand in a fist. I didn’t want anyone to play hero or jump me, especially Erik. “You let us go or we both die.”
Phillip cocked an eyebrow. “You wouldn’t do that.”
I pressed the knife harder to my neck, drawing blood. Phillip winced and touched his neck, finding blood on his fingers from the psychic nick. I had no death wish. I wasn’t ready to die and I was hoping he wouldn’t call my bluff. I just needed him to let us go. Despite how crazy this world had become and the gut-wrenching loss of my brother, I still wanted to stick it out. But Phillip was too dangerous to keep me under his thumb. I’d already been a prisoner helping some egotistical asshole get more powerful, I wouldn’t do it again. Never.
I looked over to Erik. “I’m sorry.” I whimpered, holding back tears.
“No, Mina, don’t!” He shouted, unable to move due to my magic.
I began to cut slowly. The others in the room who I called friends cried out in protest.
“Stop!” Phillip shouted, grabbing his neck.
My freezing magic broke and before I could recast the spell, a male Were punched me in the face. I felt a searing blinding pain on the right side of my face and I stumbled to the ground. I vaguely heard Phillip curse.
“Sorry, boss, I had to stop her,” the brute said before things went momentarily dark for me.
I opened my eyes and fought off the feeling of nausea. Erik stood in front of me, guarding me as he tossed pack members to the side. Faith punched a female vampire, knocking her on her behind. The vampire sat up and spat out blood. Faith’s eyes were already blood red now and she meant to kill. That would only make things worse. As a succubus, she would drain her victims dry of their life force. We didn’t need more death on our hands. We had to get out of here.
I threw out my hand to stop Faith’s attacker but a brick force knocked me sideways to the floor. I struggled to move under the heavy pressure and managed to see that it was Raya, her eyes were wolfen blue, and she snapped her teeth at me, scraping my arm.
I punched her in the face and kicked her in between the legs. Crawling backwards from under her, I clapped my hands together. “Inferno!” I shouted. A ball of fire appeared in my hand but I felt no heat from it.
I threw my hands back as if to pitch it like a baseball. A hand grabbed my wrist.
I looked up, enraged. It was Erik, his face neutral and stoic. “Don’t,” he said. “Let’s just get Faith and get out of here.”
Faith backed up to us. I looked over to Phillip who looked at me with curious eyes. They were their normal light brown again.
“Let them go. For now. She lost her brother. Perhaps we should consider that an eye for an eye,” he said in a neutral tone.
Faith spat in his direction. I gave him my middle finger before grabbing Erik’s and Faith’s hands and teleporting away.
Chapter 3
Felix stood over Charles’ cloth-covered body, shoulders shaking with his cries. “He was a good man. He was my friend,” the large man said through tears.
We were now in the Hagerstown hospital, in their basement morgue. We’d sent my brother’s body here in anticipation, prior to the trial. Lisa and Erik moved him out of Silver Spring, in case we were going to really break out. We’d packed a few things prior as well.
I looked down at Charles’ body. Lisa had magically given him a new set of clothes. He looked like he was simply having a peaceful sleep. It’d been four days now since he’d passed and he hadn’t shown signs of decay. I’d assumed it was because he was paranormal and this was just another part of that power. We’d have a funeral for him tomorrow.
I slouched on a stool near the table where Charles lay. I was exhausted and sick. Felix had healed me from my battle at the library but I wish I had kept the wounds. I’d rather focus on that pain over what I was feeling now. Charles was all the family that I had left. While I realized that most people weren’t lucky enough to have close family still with them these days, I started to take for granted that Charles and I would remain together. Charles kept me going. I didn’t want to go on anymore.
Lisa got up. “I feel like I’m going to be sick,” she said before running out of the room.
I didn’t go after her. I was starting to feel numb.
Upon her exit, Mae entered the room with Bill Locklear, her partner and Silver Spring’s best medical mage. They were silent as they walked over to Charles’ body. Felix moved away and Mae touched Charles’ shoulder, closed her eyes, and prayed.
“Did you know?” I asked, looking across Charles’ body to Mae. “Did you see it in a vision and just not tell us? Maybe you didn’t want us to worry or do something differently. You said it would all work out for us. How is this working out?” My voice was restrained but I wanted to shout and kick chairs.
Mae turned and looked at me with sad eyes. “I knew things would change for you all. I knew things would become difficult. I thought the six of you had to be together to make a difference. There had to be six to stop what’s coming.” Her face looked genuinely saddened.
“But you didn’t know if it was the six of us, exactly,” Felix stated.
For the first time since my limited exposure to Mae I found her looking unsure. “I’m so sorry, honey. My visions have never failed me but perhaps I misinterpreted something.”
I shut my eyes and sighed. I couldn’t blame Mae for this. She didn’t kill Charles. I looked at his body again. My breath quickened and fresh tears ran down my face. I got up and ran out of the room, struggling to breathe. Mae rushed after me and gave me a tight hug. I didn’t think I would ever get past this. I thought of my mother and father and cried for them too. I was overwhelmed and I didn’t have the fight in me anymore.
“I know, honey. I know this is hard. But you are not alone. Don’t forget that. The others will help you.” She rubbed my back as she spoke.
“I need to know what’s going on!” I cried out. “Who helped David escape? What is this power that Phillip and I have over each other? Do you know? Is Phillip a threat to me? Did he help David?” I could feel my heart beat faster. I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I struggled to maintain my composure and wrung my hands together.
Mae sighed. “He would never want to hurt you. Helping this David man would not be something he’d do.”
“Can he be killed?” Faith asked, standing near Felix, hand on his arm.
Mae shook her head. “You can’t kill him.”
“Why not?”
I pulled away from Mae. Also confused.
“If Phillip and Amina hurt themselves the other gets hurts. If they hurt each other, they, themselves, get hurt,” Mae explained.
“What? So, if Amina cuts herself, Phillip gets cut too? And if Amina cuts Phillip, she still gets cut?” Felix asked, shaking his head.
Erik nodded. “That’s what we saw at the library,” he stated.
“Yes. So, you see, you can’t kill him or Amina gets killed,” Mae said.
“What if someone else kills him?” Faith offered.
“I was punched by one of the pack members and Phillip felt it,” I stated. “A lot of this is new. When
I was locked up, Phillip was never hurt and I didn’t have mind controlling abilities. I didn’t really have body controlling powers either. At least not over humans. Now I do.”
“It’s because you’ve begun to connect with him now,” Mae said. “Before, you were just in each other’s dreams. But when you met, that’s when your individual powers really grew. And they’d continue to grow if you had stayed together. It would also make you more vulnerable to each other, as you saw.”
I sighed and threw my head back, staring at the ceiling. “What is he?” I asked.
Mae clasped her fingers. “What are the both of you? When Phillip spoke to me about you, I knew. You are soulmates.”
Nausea took hold of me again but this time it wasn’t because of pain. I leaned against the cold hospital wall to steady myself. My head rested against the cool tile.
Mae looked at me and frowned. “I know that isn’t what you want to hear. And I don’t mean to insinuate that you two are lovers meant to be together. That is only one definition of soulmates. It’s the one we came to understand in the Pre-world and it was true for people we used to call power couples. That was a pairing that would make one or both very successful in life and career. In this new world, soulmates are beings filled with powerful magic. They are extremely rare and fated to meet. I’ve never met any others in this new world but I met some in the Pre-world. I’ve had visions of soulmates of the past. My hope was that Phillip would come to Good and the two of you would reach your full potential. You need to be strong in this impending fight.”
I frowned. “If this is true, why didn’t we know of each other earlier? It’s been nine years.”
“That’s a good question. I honestly don’t know. Either you weren’t tuned in to your magic well enough then or something was blocking your connection.”
“What kind of power do I have now?”
“You’re both life mages but have your own soulmate magic too that connects and makes your individual gifts even stronger. You can never hide from each other. He will know where you are,” Mae explained. “If you open yourselves up, you will be connected in ways you never knew. Shared thoughts, shared pain. Telepathy. Energy. Which he already did to help you get free. You can make him better.”