The Ultimate Sacrifice

Chapter One

Chapter One - Kassia

Jana stood in front of me, her hands waving frantically in my face. My gift had taken over, and I could no longer hear her screaming. Jana had never liked me and she tried everything to piss me off. She wasn’t even a student at our school, but she had dated a few of the boys here. Although she was one of the increasing number of normal humans aware of us, she had no idea what my gift was, and that I could easily drop her to her knees in pain.

I narrowed my eyes and focused on her. She suddenly stopped yelling at me and began to rub her temples. I could feel my temperature rise as the anger continued to build in me. A small smile flickered across my face as I felt her pain building.

“Stop!” Mira yelled and jumped in between Jana and me. “She’s not worth it! Don’t let her push your buttons!”

I mashed my lips. Pity that my best friend was immune to my gift. Nobody knew why this was. It wasn’t her only talent; she was also a compeller. She could tell someone what to do and that person would do it. There had been many times I wished I could have had her gift instead of mine. All I had to do was wish someone to be in pain and within a minute, they were.

When I saw the concern in Mira’s eyes, I let up. She let out a sigh of relief and turned to Jana. “Go home, Jana. You were never here.”

Jana turned and slowly began to pace away in a daze with a confused look on her face.

“Sorry,” I muttered, ashamed that I let my gift get the best of me again.

“You know how annoying this is getting? You need better self-control.”

“You sound like my counselor.”

“Maybe I should be.”

I felt like smacking her, but she’d just smack me back, and she hit harder than I did.

We got in the car and took the two-lane road back to campus, which was nestled in the mountains in northern California. I glanced out the window at the towering trees on both sides of us. The moon had just peeked over the tops of the trees, lighting the way home.

After twenty minutes, the trees thinned out and before us stood Glendale Institute, one of two “gifted” schools in the country. Glendale was made up of a cluster of buildings enclosed by lush forests.

We parked in the parking lot and hiked up toward the courtyard. Directly across from the parking lot was a training field. As we entered the courtyard, there were dorms on our left and right, one for girls, one for boys. Straight ahead were the faculty quarters, dining hall, and learning center.

Each L-shaped dorm had two wings. The longer side housed the high school–aged students, and the shorter side was for the middle school students. When we walked into the room we shared, Mira told me, “Go to bed.”

“You don’t need to mother me.”

“Well, someone does and since nobody else is stepping up to the plate, I kind of have to.”

“What’s your deal?”

Her eyes narrowed. “I happened to be with someone when you went all mental.”

Oh. That’s what this was about. “You met a guy?”

“Yeah, a cute one, and you had to go and ruin it.” She sighed. “I rushed out of there so fast when Noe called I didn’t get his number.”

Guilt washed over me. “I’m sorry, Mira.”

Her face relaxed a little. “I know.”

“I didn’t mean to get so mad. She just…infuriates me.” I got angry just thinking about the little tramp.