When Lightning Ignites [COMPLETED]

Chapter 1: Yanked Around

I'm just going to stick a few chapters up here so I'm not being to mean with the cliffhanger from When Lightning Strikes :)

Julie stretched a little, her aching muscles scraping against the wood floor. There was a pressure on both arms, and she blinked as someone yanked her hard. Her tired eyes burned in the light.

"What did you do to her?"

Someone else yanked her the other way. The tingling in her arm said it was Rory.

Or maybe it was Luke.

Memories spiraled back, making her head spin. Luke had been talking to her in the coffeehouse with Rory a few minutes ago.

Was that only a few minutes ago?

He'd touched her, and all the memories of the night of her dance had rushed back. He'd saved her from men dressed in black suits at the hotel—men after her. She'd zapped one of them unconscious.

Luke had kissed and connected with her before she even knew Rory.

And then wiped away her memories. Or was this all a dream?

The connection was mind-altering enough without both of them touching her at the same time. The tingles soared up and down her arms from both sides, colliding in the middle in a nauseating swirl. She felt drunk on sensations. It was too much.

"I didn't do anything. She was fine until you showed up." Rory. Her vision was blurry, but the person tugging on her right arm sounded like him and had brown hair.

Had she fallen? They were fighting over her, and she was hurt. Did they even care about her at all?

Her head pounded, the skin sensitive as she was pulled one way then another. Julie focused on the little spot of anger that helped drown out the overwhelming feelings from the connection. She fed it, taking in a deep breath and willing her mind to focus like when she danced, to push everything else away.

"She told you to let her go. Why didn't you listen?" She blinked to her left at Luke's light blond hair.

Her hair dragged the floor, getting tangled in tiny crevasses in the wood. A few long, red strands were jerked out as Rory pulled her again. They were going to wrench her arms out of her sockets if they kept this up. Julie took another breath, letting the sensations she got from her dancing merge with the one from her connection, trying to overpower it.

The tingling going up each arm made it plain that they owned her reaction to them. She struggled to gain control of her thoughts, her mind. Even if she wanted to kiss Rory... and oh god, Luke.

Her mind spun away again, her anger drowned out by longing.

No.

Julie pushed the thoughts away, fighting to regain the little bit of sanity she'd had a moment before.

My name is Julie Marin. I do not belong to either of these men. Her body prickled with cold fear.

She blinked again and let her anger build, crowding out her fear. She could overcome this.

Luke is a stranger, and Rory...

Well they had issues that she wasn't comfortable with. He was too possessive. He made too many plans for their future—things she wasn't sure she wanted yet with anyone. She'd considered putting her dreams to the side for Rory a time or two. The connection they shared was insidious and poisoned her thoughts.

She didn't love them.

She didn't even know them.

The two of them were influenced by the connection the same way. They had the same sensations. It was hard to be angry with them, when she knew they were struggling with this too.