by E G McNally
“The telepathy,” he singularly shook his body in one motion causing the remaining droplets of water to fling off and then looked down again at Taylor, this time with a smile across his daunting white face, still not saying a word out loud.
“The stone,” he said out loud. That caught Taylor’s immediate attention, snapping her right out of her little trance.
“What do you know about the stone?” A worried look drew across her face. She wondered if he could possibly know what he was talking about. “I can’t give up the stone, according to the professor that would kill me.” Then she wondered if she really could give up the stone, maybe the professor was lying, he did shoot her, what else was he willing to do or not do, say or not say?
“I’m listening, for now.” Taylor stated, quickly disregarding her first question, hopeful that there might still be a chance, a chance for her normal life back, and her grandparents back, and school, even never fun, ever so boring school back.
“This learning how to control my powers, it doesn’t involve guns or electricity does it?” She handed Jake her hand allowing him to swiftly scoop her up into his large arms, cradling her like a baby. Almost instantly, he leapt off of the bridge and into the air soaring gracefully toward the heavens.
“No, why would it?” He asked her, baffled by the strange question.
“Um, no reason, just making sure,” she smiled and held tightly around Jake’s neck trying not to let go. She couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed. She didn’t want to admit that she needed Jake’s help, and being wrapped so tightly to his body made her feel very secure.
“So where are we going?” Taylor asked, curled into Jake’s chest. It was getting colder as he continued to fly north. Luckily it wasn’t snowing and the sun was beginning to peek over the far eastern hills.
“I’m gonna take you to the Estates, try and teach you a thing or two,” he paused. “I believe you were there earlier,” the words lingered in the air.
“There earlier,” she thought. “The mansion in the storm, you mean?” Taylor asked, surprised. “I didn’t wasn’t sure anyone noticed me.”
“No one did, I could feel your presence though. The stone connects us.” He replied.
She thought about what he said for a moment and then replied. “I think I know what you mean. I’ve felt the connection . . . before.” She mumbled, and then slipped into a silent stream of comforting thoughts.
She wondered if none of this had happened, would she still be able to live with her grandparents, and who knew, maybe even date Jake. Long distance relationships don’t work out very well but it’d be worth a try. Who could trade Saturday morning cartoons and long mindless conversations, while driving out to the lake for a mid morning freezing dunk, for all this crap. And after she graduated high school, Jake and her could go to the same college, and be the annoying mushy couple that started out back in high school. Everyone would say ‘oh they’ll never make it, those high school sweethearts never do,’ but they would and everyone would be so surprised. And then who knew, maybe even kids some . . .”
“Hey I’m gonna bring us down for a landing now, I’m gonna bet that you’re freezing in this snow.” Jake interrupted her, swooping down close behind the back side of a very large three story estate.
“It looks different without the blizzard whirling around,” she commented, as Jake’s large clawed feet puffed into the newly white billows of snow, disturbing the fresh powder.
“Let’s get you inside,” he set her down onto the ground and rushed her into a back door of the estate. They moved quickly through a long faintly lit hallway and into a minimally decorated room.
“Sit there,” he pointed to his bed and disappeared into the bathroom, adjacent to his room, reappearing with two towels. “Wrap up with these. I’ll go find you something warmer.” As he was speaking to her she watched his glistening white body hurry out of the bedroom, scrambling around as if nothing was out of the ordinary.
“This is just too much,” she sighed, and snuggled into the towels tossing her body back against the pillow pile on the bed. A couple minutes passed by and she glanced around the room finding nothing particularly interesting. She watched the minutes flick by as she stared at an alarm clock standing on his dresser until close to fifteen minutes passed with no sign of Jake and then decided a bath sounded rather cozy.
Steam swirled around in the bathroom as the nearly scolding water filled the tub, and she quickly undressed tossing her partially damp clothes into a pile on the floor. Taylor shuffled through the drawers under the sink until she found a tie, and pulled her hair back hastily, wrapping her silky black hair loosely on top of her head.
A long sigh echoed through the air as she slowly sank into the deep tub, allowing the steaming hot bath water to warm the cockles of her heart.
She lingered in the tub until the water began to cool and then forced herself up, allowing the trickles of water to drain from her hair onto the floor. The mirror was steamy, so steamy that she wiped a hand over the glass, clearing a space off.
The reflection she saw in the mirror was familiar but so very different. She relaxed and took a deep breath as she realized that the little girl she once knew was growing up and changing. The whole world was changing; nothing would ever be the same for her, or for anyone. People were becoming greedy and hateful. Countries were fighting over material possessions just so that they could fuel the impersonal wars they were waging in the name of God. Technology had become so advanced that one person could kill thousands of people with a few clicks of a button and never feel the responsibility of those deaths because of how impersonal the fighting had become. The world she knew as a little girl was gone, and she of all people just might have the power to change that, but at the cost of what?
Just then the door opened in the bathroom and Jake stood, fully dressed and in his old human form, flushed with embarrassment. Taylor startled, quickly snatching a towel from the counter, and draped it around her naked body.
“Jake . . . a little privacy,” she harked.
“Sorry, I, I just never, seen, oh . . . so sorry.” He struggled with the words and backed away from the door, face completely red and walked over to the bed.
After a couple minutes had passed, Jake decided to say something, hoping to change the awkward silence in the room. “Sorry I took so long. I found you some warmer clothes and rustled up some food.” The words drifted into the bathroom.
“Can you hand me the clothes?” She leaned out of the bathroom door, surprised to find Jake standing there with a pile of clothes in one hand.
She let go of the doorknob and stood up straight towel wrapped tightly around her body and became fixated in Jake’s gaze.
“I never noticed how. . .”
“Shh,” Jake placed a finger over her lips and then slid his hand down around her chin and delicately tilted it upward as he pressed his firm masculine lips against hers.
“Handsome you are,” the thought dwindled out of Taylor’s mind as Jake’s strong lips caressed the small dainty creases of her own lips and sent a wave of tingling warmth all the way down to the bottom of her toes and caused her foot to lift slightly up, pushing her ever so slightly back into the long awaited kiss. The kiss lasted only a few seconds, but the chemically jolting atmosphere lingered for what seemed like a lifetime. She was completely entranced by Jake’s strong, guarding, blue eyes, until he broke the silence.
“Here,” he handed Taylor the clothes and then quickly left the room.
“Oh my God, that was amazing. What am I doing? What is he doing? Oh. . .” Taylor squealed with excitement. “Calm down, calm down,” she repeated over to herself, as she pulled on the oddly perfect fitting clothes that Jake brought her.
Jake left a bowl of soup on the dresser and a couple of rolls. Taylor quietly gobbled them down and drank the soup up, she was excited and nervous and hungry all at the same time, but the soup helped ease the tension.
After Taylor finished eating, Jake
returned and his more childish slightly less charming attitude had returned with him.
“Good, they’re not too small,” he said, pointing at the sweater and jeans he’d given Taylor. “Hope you’re feeling warmer now,” he winked at her.
“So tell me about this secret to controlling the transformation.” Taylor unfolded a blanket at the edge of the bed, and wrapped herself in it, then leaned back against the headboard.
“Well it’s much easier than you would think, but I’m guessing that one has to experience it to understand completely.” Jake began to explain. “I think the transformation is connected to your emotions, but not just everyday emotions. It takes an intensely strong emotion to trigger the energy required for your body to make the change. It doesn’t appear to matter whether it’s a really angry emotion or a really happy emotion or even a very sad emotion as long as it’s extremely powerful, then the emotion appears to trigger a rise in adrenaline which stimulates the energy required for transformation. That combined with a powerful focus on changing drives the body to begin changing. That’s pretty much all it takes. Some people have a harder time with it then others, but I think that’s just because they probably haven’t experienced something so powerful that they can’t reproduce the strong emotion.”
“Others, you mean you know about the others?” Taylor asked.
“Yeah, how do you think I learned all this in the last few weeks? They’ve been teaching me.” He commented.
“But aren’t you working with Major Bradshaw?” Taylor asked confused.
“Yes, and he’s a really great guy. . .”
“Really great guy,” Taylor’s voice strained. “Do you realize what you’re saying? He’s supposed to be the enemy. He’s been kidnapping little children from school and performing all sorts of torturous experiments on them. He’s also supposedly behind many of the missile attacks in Iraq, and China, and the assassination attempt on the president. Him and his monster strike force team.” She said accusingly. By now Taylor was standing beside the bed pacing frantically back and forth nearly shouting at Jake.
“No he’s not, he’s a good guy. He gave me this power to help save you. He said that if I brought you here, he would be able to get the other piece of the stone, and then you could have your normal life back, otherwise you were in serious danger.” Jake began shouting back at Taylor defensively.
“Danger? Getting back the stone? Do you realize what bringing me here has done?” Finally all the information and advise that the professor was telling Taylor fit into place and she realized that although the professor was a little cruel and demanding he probably realized that Major Bradshaw had been concocting a plan to bring her into his grasp.
“Jake,” Taylor grabbed his hand. “Listen to me, removing the stone will kill me, same as it would you.” She swallowed the anger trembling in her voice and covered up the fear.
“No he said, he can remove it safely and we can have our normal lives back.” Jake desperately tried to argue.
“No he won’t, he doesn’t care about us. He just wants the stone and its power. He just used you to get to me, do you understand? He used you.” She forced the words upon him.
“No your wrong Taylor and you’re in danger, just listen to me.”
An alarm began screaming through the entire Cyndac site, drowning out the words of their argument.
Taylor clasped her ears and moved closer to Jake frantically. “What’s going on?”
“It’s an alarm, intruders. I have to go.” He released her hands and ran off towards the door.
“No wait Jake, don’t go, this is all wrong, something is very wrong.” She cried after him, but he didn’t hesitate and before she knew it he was gone unlike the blaring sound of the alarm ricocheting off the walls.
Chapter XIX: Viper Task Force
Meanwhile as Taylor was getting reacquainted with Jake up until they were separated by the alarm at the facility, Shyla and Will had met up in the Kokrine hills and begun preparations to bust into the facility and free the kidnapped children suspected to be stashed somewhere on the facility’s grounds.
“Have you noticed anything new?” Will directed his thoughts to Shyla, who was silently and invisibly patrolling the northern and eastern sides of the Cyndac Oil Refinery.
“I haven’t seen much commotion since they brought in the boy. Although, there has been a steady stream of scientists, coming and going from the eastern entrance, no sign of any children though.” She responded in thought.
“I haven’t seen any children either, but I did pick up a steady stream of thoughts focused around Taylor coming from that boy they brought in. I think he must have known her before she found the stone. What he’s doing up here, I’m not sure, but he does seem to have some sort of self-righteous idea that he’s going to save her or something like that. I’m not sure how he fits in to all this though.” He explained to Shyla, perched quietly in a large snow covered evergreen, only meters from the base’s perimeter, blending in perfectly with his snowy blue-hued color as a gargoyle. “Well sit tight and keep watching something is bound to change.” He finished, settling back down into a slow steady search through the various minds scattered about the facility hoping to find a glimpse of any one of the missing children.
A couple hours passed as Shyla and Will patrolled the sides of the facility, Shyla at the northern and eastern walls and Will at the southern and western walls.
“Another scientist is exiting the eastern door. He’s the one that came in two days ago. See if he’s seen anything.” Shyla alerted Will.
Will pushed past the wall of thoughts waving around the outer structures of the main facility and singularly directed his penetration into the lone scientist leaving the facility at the eastern wall. He peeled past the protective sheen of consciousness and into the mind of the scientist. As he began to ruffle through the thoughts and memories of the scientist, as he usually does, to read into the persons past, he was slammed with a blank slate. It was almost like a billow of clouds completely shrouded each memory. He moved from one to the next only to be blinded with more cloudy unreadable memories. Each memory of the scientist was either hidden or destroyed and it left Will completely helpless.
“Shyla, something’s wrong?” He shouted into her mind frantically. “I can’t get a read on his thoughts.” He explained.
“Just tell me what you’re seeing, I’m sure I can explain the picture, I know words are easier for you but maybe I can help.” She harmlessly suggested.
“No, you don’t understand, there are no pictures. His mind, it’s completely shrouded by something and unreadable. I can’t tell what’s causing it.” He sent back the thought with a feeling of hurt in it, ashamed that he could be losing control of his power.
“You’re going to be fine. I’m mean you’re still reading my mind just fine. It’s probably not you,” Shyla tried to calm him down.
“You’re right. I can still read your mind. That means something is wrong with the scientist, but what could do that to him. What on earth could be so powerful that it could possibly keep, ME, out?” Shyla could sense a bit of ego gushing over into his thoughts as he spoke.
“Okay, let’s just put aside your little haughty attitude for a minute and think. What do we know that can block your mindreading?” At first she teased, but then got serious with Will.
“Well, nothing that I can think of. There’s nothing and no one that I can’t read.” He huffed.
“That’s not true, are you forgetting one key person?” She paused giving Will a brief moment to put together his thoughts. “Esa . . . Duh! You can’t read her. You can’t read anything about her, you can’t even speak to her with your mind. Maybe there is a connection there.”
“Well unfortunately I can’t read her mind nor can I send thoughts to her so that doesn’t really help us now, does it?” Will respond angrily.
“Don’t get flip with me, I’m just trying to help.” She scolded.
“Sorry, let’s just keep an ey
e . . . Wait someone is coming, on the road near the southern gate. Ooh I think I’ve got something.” He stopped arguing with Shyla, and focused on the armor clad jeep pulling up to the southern gate of the facility.
Shyla ran full speed through the snow, all the while holding her focus of invisibility, like second nature around herself, until she too could see the armor clad jeep pulling up to the southern gate. The window in the jeep rolled down revealing an old man with a pass and I.D. badge, stunning both Shyla and Will.
“Major Bradshaw,” the words echoed through both of their minds at the same time.
“There in the back, did you see? It looked like a little kid.” Shyla thought allowing Will to pick it up.
“Yeah, it was a kid, only I’m trying to read his thought and I can’t get anything. Both he and Major Bradshaw are shrouded by those same cloudy auras. I don’t know what it is. That must be why I didn’t pick up on him sooner. His mind is protected by something.” Will explained.
They both watched as the jeep continued down the snowy road that circled around the inside perimeter of the facility. It passed several different buildings, before it stopped at the far northern building on the east side where the scientist had exited earlier. The child stepped out, followed by Major Bradshaw, who then brushed his coat off, and gave a suspicious preview of the visible tree line outside the facility’s perimeter. The child stood, statuesquely still until Major Bradshaw roughly sounded an order to the child and disappeared inside the building’s eastern entrance with the child robotically following behind.
“Protected by something, or someone?” Shyla questioned suspiciously, eyes still locked on the door where the two had disappeared.