by A. K. Koonce
Heat radiates through me and I feel it exit in waves. Screams and curses are the only sign that I’ve hit my target. The sound of his pain is quickly cut short. The tone of his cries lowers, sounding muffled and repressed. I force the power to a halt and find an odd, electric blue color shimmering just in front of me. I study it for several seconds, pressing my powers against it only to feel a snap of static pain any time my power collides with it. My heels turn against the grass and Derek lowers his hand slowly, taking the force field with him.
All my life, I’ve counted down the seconds. Sixty seconds has never felt longer than it does right now as he studies every detail of my face.
“You look like her.” Derek’s words are assured and his head tilts just slightly as he takes a single step closer to me. His index finger and thumb snatch ahold of my chin and I’m so confused by his statement that I don’t immediately react. “Down to every last freckle.”
Out of every dangerous thing that’s happened tonight, him speaking as if he knew my mother is possibly the most threatening words he could say to me.
My jaw clenches closed, and instead of using the power that’s ripping through me, I flatten my palm and strike quick and fast against the tip of his already crooked nose. He groans from the impact and my foot is already kicking off of the shining buttons of his shirt before he can react.
The wind catches my hair as I turn to face Armond. Rory’s power surges to the forefront at my command, and it rushes out of me in crashing waves. A reckless feeling steals my breath away as I lift my hands, reminiscent of the first time I saw Rory use his power. Without effort, I send Armond flying into the dirt, my fingers aching with the energy that’s storming through my veins.
I can’t seem to contain the power, and a tree near Armond splits down the center with a deafening crack, falling to the ground with a heavy thud. My eyes close and I focus hard on reeling that building power back in, even as a gravestone nearest to me bursts and crumbles into dust in the breeze. Pebbles and debris swirls around my tangled hair, skimming against my skin, scraping against my flesh. It’s too much. It’s too hard to control even as the power becomes harmful to myself.
With a deep breath, I clench my jaw, my hands fisting as I try to absorb that overwhelming energy back inside my body. The chaotic sounds and whipping wind settle when the power crashes hard, recoiling into my chest.
My lashes slowly open to find Armond watching me with admiring but fearful eyes.
It’s only him and I. I make slow work of walking toward him, my gown cascading behind me on the cool night’s breeze. I hope he remembers how well he trained me. I hope he’s thinking about how he took me in only to betray me.
I hope he knows I thought of him like a father.
The pain that slices through my skull is startling and my hair pulls back hard as I’m shoved to the ground.
Nala pounces on top of me, her legs straddling me as her hands fasten around my throat.
“We could have been friends.” Her pretty eyes are alive with a manic expression.
“I don’t have any friends, you fucking Jungle Book whore.”
The outrage on her face pulls her brows together so hard I think she might cry.
“It was the Lion King. The Lion King, Alexa. How hard is that to remember? You’re a terrible friend.”
As her small palms tighten with rage around my throat, I blink back the pain, trying hard to catch a breath as I shove at her shaking arms.
Armond lowers himself between us and Derek stands over my mentor’s shoulder, watching with rapt attention as Armond places his boney fingers against my temple and then places his other palm over Nala’s.
Happiness pulls at her lips. She’s beaming from his attention. Of all the dangerous assassins, he chose her and I can see that she feels very much like the chosen one in this moment.
“Relax, Alexa.” Nala coos, a wash of her power trying to invade my mind. “Stop fighting me.” Her smile is fucking frightening in that creepy Chucky Doll way. The evil underneath her Barbie exterior seeps through.
I consider the knife against my thigh but it’s too far out of reach. I try to calculate the best way to get out of this. Armond made my power to stop time yet he’d never allow me to use the simple ability. He’s prepared too much for this night.
Armond’s energy pulls at mine, nearly paralyzing me as he pulls wisps of my life force from my body and transfers them into Nala. She moans like she’s got a vibrator between her thighs and Armond’s eyes light up, momentarily distracted by her wildly inappropriate reaction to my life essence. The world is spinning around me, fading black around the edges, when his body is jerks away from mine. A hulking man leaps over me, slamming hard into Armond and throwing him to the ground.
Rory pummels his fist into the man's face. Derek takes a rushing step toward them. Rory raises one hand, holding Armond down with the other while he uses his powers to lift Derek entirely. He’s struggling. I can see how hard Rory’s struggling to hold on to his own reckless powers. I fully believe he could end us all right now.
But then he doesn’t have to. With a touch of his palm against Rory’s chest, Armond steals all that dangerous energy away. Rory stiffens, his wide shoulders tensing as Armond leans up, keeping his hand pressed flat against Rory’s chest. With a hard thud, Derek hits the ground.
The anger in the assassin slips away. A look of lost uncertainty settles into his pale green eyes as his lips part without words. A dull thudding sound is all I hear as he falls to the ground, as if he isn’t the strongest man I’ve ever met in my entire life.
My heart pounds, shaking through me and demanding I move. Everything in me needs to help him before Armond steals away the last little piece of Rory’s life.
I shove my palms against Nala’s face, and static energy buzzes through me as too much power lashes out. As much as Armond drained me, giving my power to Nala, what I have left refuses to be snuffed out. I pull at the power that I stole from Jameson. Some of it is gone, but there’s enough left that sparks light up the night, brightening her features as lightning flashes from my palms. The sound of her agony thunders with every bolt of electric energy until she’s left shaking at my side.
An awful smell lingers, but I don’t have time to dwell on if I just killed her or not. I don’t even spare her a second glance as I rush away, preparing to fry Armond just as I did Nala. My legs shake as I force my muscles to move, but strong arms wrap around me and pull me back, tearing me away before I’ve even taken three steps.
“You’re more impressive than Armond said. Your energy would have destroyed that girl had he given it to her. Even if she would have been easier to handle.” The man’s voice is a curious sound, like he’s in awe, but I can’t focus on a word he says. My eyes are locked on Rory’s prone form. I shove away from him only to be thrown in the dirt with a hard shove of his hand. My heels catch against the grass as my palms land against the ground.
Suddenly, Derek too is on the ground, right at my side. Tylin lords over us both in all of his dark, deadly glory, and then he strikes. His fist collides hard against Derek’s already bloody nose. A flash of lightning white washes over the lines of gravestones, and I know the cavalry has arrived in full effect. Derek halts the attacks in an instant, that peculiar barrier solidifying around him. The blue and white current of his protective structure bounces Tylin right off of him. The transparent force field protects him from every lashing strike of Jameson’s powers as he walks toward him with a deadly look in his eyes.
Derek Stallis, the higher power, the man responsible for this all, takes one last flickering look at me. It’s a longing look, as if he’ll never see me again. In one swift movement, he’s on his feet, brushing off his expensive clothing. Fear of him escaping trickles through me and on a last ditch effort I pull the blade from my thigh. In the next moment, I’m on my feet, and my fingers bite into the hilt before bringing it back and throwing it hard at the center of Derek’s chest. End over end the blade twirls th
rough the air, aimed perfectly at its target. The protective wall around Derek slips over his skin, sinking into him before it vanishes him entirely. The blade falls to the grass without a drop of blood on it.
Just like that, he’s gone.
Mason quietly stalks toward us but I’m spinning and storming across the graveyard. The amount of energy within me starts to consume my breaths until I’m gasping, but still I run to Rory. My ankles give out with every step until I kick off the heels and run harder. When I’m just a few feet away, I leap, my chest colliding with Armond’s. We hit the ground hard and the powers pour out of me without thought or intent.
His gray eyes shine up at me while my fingers sink into his throat, but choking the life out of him isn’t enough. My palms heat as I steal back all of Rory’s precious life force. The sheer destruction of Rory’s power gives me a new respect for the man. While the energy isn’t dark like Armond’s, it’s not light either. It feels like a brewing storm, oversaturated and always ready to be unleashed. Next, my powers pull at Armond’s, tearing away every last drop of dark energy with every second that ticks by.
I hate it. I hate the feel of it, but this power is the only thing keeping him alive. He isn’t immortal, but he isn’t mortal either. A simple mortal death will not do for him.
My hands glow blue and the color creeps up my arms with every ounce of energy that pours into me. I’m full, but I keep pulling.
Those seconds turn to minutes and the minutes go on for what feels like an eternity as I wait for his breath to halt. The energy within my veins is roaring and drilling through my body. It hurts. It hurts to breathe, it hurts with every movement of my muscles, it hurts deep down in my soul.
I push past the agonizing pain of it and I force myself to finish what I started.
This can’t be for nothing.
It just can’t.
I pull harder at the last little shreds that’s holding my mentor’s life together and I feel it the moment it snaps. I feel it the moment his heart gives in and power fades out of him.
Because it’s consuming me.
The drilling feel of my heart is a stabbing pain, like the organ itself is trying to tear right from my chest to be free of the overwhelming power that’s ripping me apart.
My muscles give out and I slump to the ground. Water fills my vision and it starts to slip down my cheeks as I stare up at the shining white stars that dot the heavens.
I haven’t put much thought into those stars. Not since I was a lost little girl who slept outside more often than she ever had a roof over her head.
The fleeting pounding of my heart suddenly starts to dwindle down into a quiet, almost eerily silent sound.
My lashes flutter just as four blurred figures hover above me. A warm palm pushes against mine, squeezing tightly but I can’t squeeze it back. I don’t have the strength to.
The pain in my lungs settles into nothingness. It doesn’t hurt any more. Because I’ve stopped forcing the breaths to come.
My heavy lids finally close.
We came here for a final assassination. One final life would be lost.
I just didn’t realize it would be my own.
Thirty
Her Demands
Tylin
Watching her destroy herself from the inside out wasn’t part of the fucking plan. That’s not how her story is supposed to end.
And I’m not about to let it.
When she’s gone, when her heartbeat against my fingertips is barely a caress within her veins, I slip inside that taunting mind of hers.
Rory’s gaze lingers on the way my hand’s wrapped around hers. The man’s pale and weak but upright. Mouse is kneeling at my side, his chest rising and falling rapidly as he waits in suffocating silence. Jameson leans over her other side, and I feel his current of power as he shoots jolts of electricity right through her heart. He’s so concentrated. He’s the most serious I’ve ever seen him in his entire life.
But he and I are working toward the same goal.
Only a percentage of living is the physical beating of our hearts. To live, you have to mentally want to live.
And she’s given up. That power within her has drained her will to live down to a nonexistent level.
But there’s always hope—even if it’s miniscule.
I have to find that sliver of hope within her, rekindle it, and bring it back to life.
Her mind is a mess of dark energy, it clouds over her consciousness and I have to force it away. I force it right out of her and I can almost find her beautiful thoughts beneath it all.
Wake up, Alexa.
Alexa, get the fuck up.
Alexa.
My jaw clenches. I feel like shit. I feel responsible. I dragged her into this, when all she wanted was to finish her job. She could have remained beautifully oblivious to all of this if she and I had never met.
Please, Alexa. Please get up.
The desperate plea is all I have left. I can’t make her get up. I can’t make her live this life. I can only support her. The way she’s supported the four of us this entire time.
My head lowers, my eyes clenching closed. I shouldn’t have pushed her so hard.
I’m sorry.
A beat passes in heavy silence.
Fuck, I’m sorry.
“Tylin, get out of my head. I seriously can’t even die without you haunting my mind, body, and soul.”
Shining eyes like the morning sky look up at me. My heart skips a beat just from looking at her. I shove my hand over my face, pushing hard until I can finally meet her gaze again.
“You seriously can’t even die without being a smart mouth, can you?” My teeth rake over my lower lip. The small smile that pulls at the corner of her mouth makes the tension within my chest bursts into waves of relief.
She’s alive. The solace I find with every breath that fills her lungs is momentary at best. Because she’s not safe. She’ll never be safe. Derek will never let her go after tonight. Not after witnessing the level of power Alexa holds.
The four of us knew that Armond and Derek were working together, striving to create a dangerous power source the likes of which the world has never seen.
None of us had realized that such a weapon would exist as a human… and none of us would have guessed that the power source we’d been searching for years for would have waltzed into our damn laps looking like a woman made for sex and sin.
Alexa was their creation.
And I’ll never know how to tell her that...
She sits up slowly, but none of us move back to give her space. The abundance of energy she still holds wracks her body in a wicked shiver, but she’s alive. The rest we can deal with later. Mouse’s hand pushes slowly up her thigh, over the dirt and blood staining her white dress, and she holds his dark gaze while her fingers start to trail back and forth against my knuckles as I hold her hand.
Her attention shifts to Rory and a sigh slips from her lips. He would have died without her. Not that he’s thanking her at the moment. A quiet look is all he gives her.
“Welcome back to the glorious realm of the living, baby.” Jameson leans into her, his palms skimming up the inside of her wrist.
“Of all the names, please stop calling me ‘baby’,” she says in a quiet whisper.
His temple skims against hers, and the lustful tension between them makes me shift at her side.
“If that’s what you really want, my little assassin.”
“Deadly. Your deadly assassin.” Her lips nearly brush his but neither of them close the distance.
Her comment makes him smirk, and I find myself smirking as well. She tilts her head just slightly, her gaze skimming along my mouth, seemingly memorizing the curve of my smile.
If things were different, I’d kiss her. If I knew how she actually felt. If I knew she really wanted me the way I want her. The memory of the night we did kiss flashes through my mind. One minute she was trying to kick my ass and the next she was kissing me.
She’s as confusing as her endless powers.
“And I want you to smile more often.”
My smile falls just slightly at the sound of her demand before a lopsided smirk pulls into place. Her gaze lingers on my lips for a moment longer with a heated look that I feel deep within me.
Her attention shifts to Mouse.
“I want you to start announcing yourself when you walk into rooms.”
His dark brows rise as he stares at her.
“That’s it?”
“And keep doing that thing with your tongue when you kiss me.”
Now he’s smiling like an idiot as well.
Fuck what is wrong with us?
Last but not least she looks to Rory.
“And you.” He glares right back at her as she speaks. “I want you to pretend to not be quite as big of an asshole. I’m not asking for much. A moderate asshole is all I’m asking for.”
He doesn’t nod. He doesn’t agree.
But he does smile a small but taunting smile.
Here we are. We’re alive. We made it out alive.
Even if we did fail. Even if I know tonight’s fight was the start of something that’s just beginning.
And now this woman’s making demands of us.
It’s almost as if she thinks she’ll be around for a while.
The End.
Author’s Note
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