When Lightning Strikes [COMPLETED]

Chapter 4: Dance, Dance, Dance (Part 4)

Mr. Black jumped up onto the pad. “Are you okay?”

Julie nodded, touching her head with her left hand. A little spot of blood was wet her fingertips. Her ears were ringing. “I think I’m okay.”

He opened the door to the kitchen and crouched by the man lying inside.

“He’ll live. You dazed him.” He looked at her for a moment as if he expected her to respond. Instead, she stared at him blankly. He looked down at her hands. She was too tired to care about any of this right now. Her head ached. “Hang on. I have a trick that may help.”

Mr. Black crouched in front of her and took her gloved hand. He carefully peeled each glove tip from every finger. The satin slid it off her arm effortlessly.

She shivered, feeling like he was exposing more than her bare arm. Carefully he took her hand in his own. Cradling it, he looked into her face. His wide blue eyes seemed to pierce into every corner of her mind.

This was the first time he had touched her skin. His gaze was intense. She looked back down and shivered as his rough thumb traced the inside of her palm in a circle. A warm tingling spread from her arms into the rest of her body. All the hair on her arms stood on end. She was warmer and stopped shaking.

“You will be okay, Julie,” he whispered. She glanced back at him, her eyes meeting his again.

She blushed. He was still staring at her, like he had never seen anything like her before. Like she was the most fascinating person he had ever met.

An unfamiliar voice broke the spell. “You were right, Black. She may have more wallop than you.”

Another man walked toward the platform where they stared at each other. He was shorter, with kind eyes and short hair. He might have been cute if he wasn’t standing next to Mr. Black, who was so good looking that it overshadowed the other man’s features. He looked confused as he got close. “Black? Should we call it in?”

His grip tightened on her hand briefly. He looked at the man who was speaking and back to Julie. He shook his head. “They will figure it out soon enough. That attack two weeks ago has woken up what she had hidden. It will come out again. Let her have a few more months of peace, to keep her dreams.”

He squeezed her hand again as if to comfort her. She cocked her head to the side.

What did he mean—to keep her dreams?

“Her family is moving.” He continued ignoring her. “She’ll be safe enough. Once her Tribe figures out what she has, they’ll report it. She will be recruited, like me.”

The man cleared his throat. “Isn’t that a bit dangerous?”

“I’ll keep an eye on her until she moves. No one will be able to get at her in a few days anyway. Her family has to move back now because of her brother. We may even be able to draw out whoever is sending these agents too.” Mr. Black shrugged. He still didn’t look at the man standing below them.