Fragmentary

by LeAnn Mason

  I was telepathic however so I was fully aware that our big, bad stealth and tactical mentor had it bad for a Primal female who seemed to like the look. I kept that info tucked away for a rainy day – a day in which my dearest Devlin chose to once again don his douche hat – so that I had some ammo to launch in his vicinity. Adult? No. High road? Nope. But hey, I was only eighteen; a new adult. I could be allowed “intermittent regression to childhood behavior” as explained by Jade.

  I hoped this girl Devlin had his eye on returned his affections. I knew they’d had at least one “date” so far. I was of the mindset that he would be much easier to get along with if he had someone to act as a pressure release valve for his mid-twenties hormones. Dev needed fun in his life, and we were working on relaxing his stance on hating Sages. He seemed to be coming around, albeit slowly.

  “She kicked me in the balls!” The naked guy on the ground moaned, drawing my attention, only to have it quickly averted again. I didn’t need to see dangly bits. Unless they were Holden’s, and even those made me a little nervous…

  “You’re right. She did,” Dev chuckled as he maneuvered the no longer smoldering talking boulder into a sitting position. Actually, both men looked remarkably alike; sandy blonde hair, vibrant blue eyes and the stature of rock men. Their clothing styles were similar. Well, they had been – before he flamed out – both being dressed in faded blue jeans and tight shirts that showcased their remarkable physiques. I shook my head to dislodge the stray thought just as Devlin spoke again. “Were you really going to go through her?” Devlin cuffed the other male on the back of the head as he delivered his question.

  “Wait. You guys are brothers?” I shrieked as my telepathy finally delivered useful information to the situation though a few moments earlier would have been nice. Hands on hips and foot jutted out in front of me, I delivered what I hoped was a good “What the hell?” look. “You never mentioned that little tidbit, Devlin. Or the freaking fire!”

  Dev just shrugged, his face portraying a perfectly contrived apologetic expression, which was entirely fake. Damn him. Knowing I wouldn’t win this stare down without cheating, I decided to let it go for now. “Can’t believe you flamed, dude,” Devlin accused.

  “So, why are we here? Don’t tell me you’re just trying to give your little bro here a scare.” I nodded my chin at the now standing, albeit hunched-to-cover-his-bits man who looked like a prettier version of Devlin and was rather close to my own age if I had to guess.

  “Him, no.” Devlin answered. They gave each other a conspiratorial look, and matching smirks graced their mirrored faces.

  It took me a moment to decipher what I was seeing, what their minds were telling me; this was a trick for me. “Why?” I was genuinely confused. Why would they conspire to make me feel threatened? “This was a test?” My blood was beginning to boil as I cemented my belief of that scheme. “What if he had hurt me?” I accused as I focused back on the assailant. Bad move. “Damn it, man, put on some clothes!” The Primal part of my genetic code was rearing its head, the temper flaring disproportionately to the inciting incident. Again.

  “Training.” Simple, concise, to the point and with no apology. All it did was fuel my anger at the situation. Luckily, at least the unabashedly naked, formerly flaming male re-entered the house, hopefully to don apparel. I was getting tired of ignoring the obvious.

  “Training,” I said, deadpan. “What was the lesson?”

  “That you need to be able to handle yourself in uncontrolled situations,” Devlin said matter-of-factly. “You need to be able to take down a Primal on the rampage. Did you even remember that you had the prod?”

  I hadn’t actually, not until he mentioned it. Weapons were new, and I was still not used to having anything other than myself at my disposal. We hadn’t worked up to real guns or knives yet. We were still doing basic handling of lethal weapons at this point. I shuddered as I recalled my introduction to the juiced little “less-lethal” zappers. Thanks Jade. They were small but powerful, looked like collapsible cattle prods. A rod with two little prongs on the end which danced blue when charged.

  Electricity usually worked to dissuade an attack and made it difficult to injure someone severely or irreparably, so it was what we were currently allowed to carry outside of training and only just. Though I guess we were still training even when I wasn’t aware of it.

  “How’d you slip this by me?” My telepathy should have clued me into Devlin’s master plan, but it hadn’t.

  “Well, let’s call this training for me too.” He smirked.

  Oh, I got it now. That’s what all the internal off key screeching was on our ride out here. Devlin had been belting out all sorts of old hair band songs, and badly. That’s all right, he needed the practice on his skills just as much as I did. Touché, Devlin, touché. I began a swinging legged stroll back up the walkway toward the Harlow brothers, the second of which had returned to the porch. When I was but a few feet from them, I halted and raised my eyebrow and my mouth into what seemed to be my trademark “You’re an ass” look. I gave it to many on the team, often.

  “So, Brother, what do they call you, and how did you get roped into being my faux assailant?”

  The younger Harlow drew himself up to his full, considerable height and took up his “intimidate the Sage” pose, staring down his nose at me with jaw clenched and arms crossed. I’d give him credit. To the average Sage – hell, to the average person – the image was enough to cause physical quaking. I however, could not squelch the bubbling laugh that forced itself through my lips.

  My reaction to his intimidation caused a great deal of confusion. His brow furrowing as he mentally tried to reassure himself that he “still had it.” A snorting laugh escaped me at the line. He was part of the blindly hating Enhanced who thought the other groups were somehow inherently inferior to his own, to him. How did this thought pervade so many minds? If we succeeded in our tests, if our team could in fact contain, if not curtail, rogue Enhanced, we would need all the allies we could get. Our numbers were nothing compared to the Non-Enhanced. We would be the minority all others could unite against. The different. The unknown.

  Sick of the mental tirade Young Harlow was dishing, I reminded him that he was the one who’d been on fire and naked after a lowly Sage had put him on the ground. That peaked his bubbling rage, but I just shrugged and pulled my music player from my pocket, pulling the magnetized ends apart and looping the electric blue cord behind my neck. Man, I loved these new cordless earbuds. They were so much more convenient and a nice little gift from Trent. He’d made them especially for me, and I adored him for it.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m sick of listening to you spew about how much you hate Sages. It’s no longer amusing. I’m going to listen to music so I don’t have to hear it.” I tilted my head and looked to where Devlin stood just behind his brother’s left shoulder as I pushed a bud into my ear. “Am I to assume training is concluded for the moment?” Devlin nodded once. “Good, then I’ll be in the truck waiting for you to sweep me away from here once you’re done informing your brother of the things you so obviously neglected to mention when you enlisted his assistance in my training.” I spun on my heel and did a twinkle finger wave goodbye to the Boulder Twins as I marched back to the team vehicle we had used for this little exercise.

  This truck was a deep blue where it wasn’t flaking or scratched, and like the others, a heavy and rusted metal box. The door creaked as I yanked it open and threw myself into the torn fabric seat, but I made sure to hang onto it until I was well and truly situated so that it didn’t slam closed on me – it had happened. Now I was cautious in my entry.

  Once seated, I pushed the remaining nub into its respective ear then searched for a song which would appeal to my current mood. Scrolling through the long list of contained audio therapy, I came across a lively and upbeat track that would lift the black cloud which hovered over me whenever I thought too hard about the current state of
our divided town. The rhythmic thump, thump of the bass drum had me nodding along. I closed my eyes and got lost in the music like I knew I always could and would.

  The heavy shift of the vehicle and reverberating slam of the driver’s door pulled me out of my melodic Zen and forced me back into the present. I opened my eyes and slid a look at Devlin. He sat perched on the front edge of the seat, arms folded across the steering wheel and staring ahead, while his mind thought out different things to say to me. It was kinda cute actually, how Dev was talking out his excuse for his brother and his apology.

  An apology from Devlin. Hell must have officially frozen over. I smiled to myself and reached over to lay a hand on Dev’s closest shoulder. I was going to piss him off with my pompous and magnanimous words, and that was fine. That’s just what we did.

  “I forgive you.”

  Devlin turned toward me and glared before reaching up to remove my hand from his person, “You’re hilarious.”

  I twitched my head proudly and smirked. “I know.”

  He smiled, begrudgingly and fleetingly, but a smile nonetheless.

  I knew I was growing on him, and that made this training exercise worth it.

  Pushing through the enforcer entrance at the rear of the building, I followed Devlin into the information hub for our burgeoning agency and was immediately engulfed in the smell of paper and the acrid and overpowering stench of dry erase markers. I really needed to figure out if we could get any that smelled better. Like candy or fruit because the cloying scent, currently invading my nostrils, made me want to hold my breath to escape it, and that could be detrimental to my health.

  Scanning the room as I walked toward the door leading back out into the gym, I noticed that Trent was the only other occupant in the large space. Unsurprisingly, he was hunkered down in his rolling chair, his intense glare roving between three different computer screens where, presumably, he was rooting out some diabolical scheme.

  I liked Trent. He was pretty open minded for a ninny though I was sure being stuck within the walls of Minefield along with the rest of us had forced his tolerance level a bit. Trent was also a great insight to the world outside our walls. The world whose leaders were afraid of the potential fallout of the Enhanced. Plainly put, they were afraid of what we could do. That fear implemented the establishment of “communities” solely for people with Enhanced abilities… and their entire genetic line thereafter.

  Our numbers are small in comparison to NEs, but with our abilities, we could definitely be a force to be reckoned with should we decide to do harm. What those outside our walls seem to conveniently forget is that anyone had that potential for destruction. Horrible atrocities have and will continue to be implemented by normal people. Enhanced abilities could just as easily be used to help as to hinder, as many demonstrate daily.

  There would always be destructive, masochistic and anarchic people in the world. Yes, there were some within our walls, but just like on the outside, there were also people who devoted their lives to keeping others safe and putting pieces together so crimes could be stopped, if not flat out avoided. Those people should be celebrated, not shunned, for they kept the masses blissfully oblivious to the truly vile nature of some.

  “How was today’s training, Nat?”

  The question knocked me from my internal rant about the unfairness of our situation. I really needed to knock that off. We were moving forward in proving we could handle the rogues of our confinement, not that we should have to. Add that to the fact that we were involved in a murder investigation, and I needed to keep my head in the game. “Interesting,” I said remembering Devlin’s brother charging me full tilt. I finally registered Trent’s thoughts and slowly swiveled in his direction. My eyes narrowed as my grip fell from the door’s handle. “You knew.”

  Trent still wasn’t looking at me and definitely hadn’t registered the threat in my voice, my body language. The man was still too absorbed in whatever he was pinballing between on his screens to pay attention to such things. I rolled my eyes in exasperation. I mean what good did it do me to practice my laser-death-glare on someone who wouldn’t even notice if said lasers could actually burn his flesh. Nothing disturbed Trent when he was in the zone as he called it. You knew if he was in said zone by the state of him and his station. The area was littered with energy bar wrappers and old coffee cup carcasses. Trent himself was disheveled and bleary, his hazel eyes more bloodshot red than brown or green. There was no use talking to him.

  “Why’d you even ask if you weren’t going to listen?” I threw my hands up in defeat. I wanted to spar, and Trent was here though I’m sure the rest of the team, or most of it, was right on the other side of the door I still stood in front of.

  “I am listening,” Trent chimed distractedly from his spot across the room. The screens each had something different upon their faces. The lower left was surveillance; from this distance, I wasn’t sure what of. The lower right monitor had scrolling numbers, reminding me of any time I saw gibberish depicted on a computer in the movies. The top screen, which was centered between the two lower, had a sketch like the ones witnesses use to describe an assailant.

  Something was up. I would need to locate Commander James to find out what, and to do that, I needed to leave this room because he obviously wasn’t in here.

  “Did you know the fake situation was centered on Devlin’s brother?”

  “Hmm?” Trent so wasn’t listening, and I was done talking to the walls.

  “I’ll check you later, Trent. You know… maybe find out what’s holding your attention so raptly.” I waved dismissively over my shoulder as I turned back to the door and yanked it open.

  Once the doorway was breached, I was enfolded in the scents of sweat and blood. The sounds of metal and pain.

  Pain being delivered… and pain being received. I tended to be on the receiving end though I did have some advantages in a fight. The fact that I could mentally glean my opponent’s intentions before they were delivered gave me a leg up in dodging them. But, sometimes I just wasn’t quick enough. Those days were rough and the fights brutal, this morning being a good example. I was still bruised and sore but luckily nothing so bad as to keep me from working or bringing attention. They were still holding back though, and I could still get away with the Primal recovery as an excuse for my lack of injury the days after such trainings. Luckily, I was coming into my own, learning what I was capable of, both mentally and physically, and was able to keep the fallout to a minimum.

  I hadn’t been able to explore my physical limitations before joining the enforcers because my father didn’t want people taking an undue notice of me. Funny, that. People have noticed me in a negative light since my telepathy manifested fully at sixteen. I never would have guessed that two years later I would be on an enforcement team, paired with Primals. Pretty much exactly what most Sages normally tried their hardest to avoid.

  But again, there was more to me. I wasn’t just Sage but a hybrid. The only Enhanced hybrid, that I know of, who did not fall strictly into Sage or Primal Enhanced categories.

  Plainly put, I had abilities from each and no major flaw of either. Could you imagine what kind of position that put me in? Alone. Flying solo, never getting too close. Never letting anyone know the real me. True, I had Jade, but even she didn’t know about me, which brought up my internal debate as to whether it was time to open up to her. Trust others with my secrets.

  It was a scary proposition. Was it wrong to hope that these people, my squad, would be the likes I could finally confide in? One day my untruths would be discovered. I only prayed I made it out unscathed.

  CHAPTER 18

  I FOUND DEVLIN SPARRING in a boxing ring with another enforcer not of our team. He was glistening already. You know that point before outright sweating where you still look attractive? Little moisture droplets swelled on his temples and at the base of his throat amidst the stubble, catching the harsh fluorescent overhead lighting as he bounced lightly from foot to foot
, waiting for his opponent to recover from the last blow he’d delivered.

  Dev was brutal when he chose to be. I knew he could destroy any of his trainees, none of us Primal, if he truly wanted to. That’s how I knew he didn’t hate the idea of me anymore. Or maybe it was just that he was scared of what Commander James would do if he stepped over the line. I chose to pretend it was the former. That I was slowly breaking down those walls and prejudices my tactics mentor wore like armor.

  The dance continued, Devlin always one step ahead of his opponent. If the guy stepped in to jab, Dev would take a step back to open the space again. A full force swing was usually his counter though he would also block the move and return directly into a combination that left the guy seeing stars, unable to avoid the flurry of movement while in close.

  He was beautiful to watch. Smooth, calculated… glistening. Even the long portion of his hair knew to stay out of his face while he was in the ring. It stayed plastered to his scalp by sweat and a blue elastic band which I was pretty sure would rip some of that blonde mass out by the roots as it was pulled away.

  I was jostled from my internal speculation, literally, when I was tossed to the side as a body came up on my left.

  Hey, Nat. Holden chuckled mentally at the ease with which he knocked me from my position. I’m sorry. Was I interrupting? You looked mighty intent on that spar.

  He was totally laughing at the fact that I truly had been rather absorbed in the match. But again, because I was the one with the ability to listen in on others’ thoughts and not the other way around, he didn’t know that I had definitely been appreciating the picture that Devlin had put forth.

  Being around Holden was still the only time I was really grateful for my telepathy. It allowed me to hear him, to hear the voice no one else ever got to hear. It was deep and smooth and sent shivers across my body when he laughed outright or growled. Oh geez, the growling! I smiled a little thinking about it, and also distracted myself from the whys of his muteness, only to be bumped out of my internal speculations once again. “What?” I huffed, heat blazing up my neck and pinking the tips of my ears.