When Lightning Burns [COMPLETED]

Chapter 6: Lessons

           

"All right, let's get started." Julie waved to the one small couch in her apartment, eyeing Rory and Luke.

"You take the couch," Luke said to Rory.

"No, you take it," Rory bit back.

She rolled her eyes, sorry now that she'd ever wanted them fighting again. "I'll take the couch, and you two can sit on the floor. Does that work?"

They picked opposite sides of the wall on either side of the small TV stand. Julie couldn't even remember the last time she had turned on the TV. She was simply too busy. They all sat still for a few minutes not really meeting the others' eyes.

"Didn't you say something about being able to teach me to get over the tranq darts?"

"Yeah," Luke said, looking over at Rory.

"Okay." Julie took a deep breath. She could do this with them. "Let's start there."

"Well, it's really a sedative." Luke corrected her. "It's not designed to knock out our powers, but it makes you ill if you try."

"I'm aware." Julie remembered waking up in the back of that truck the day A.R.S.E. kidnapped Kara and her. She'd tried to draw on her powers, only to get sick. The effect took a full day to wear off, not exactly reassuring for someone like her.

"So you have to power through that," Luke said.

"What, like, make myself sick?" She crossed her arms, thinking the last thing she could have done that day was use her powers with that stuff. She'd almost passed out from her reaction.

Luke looked at Rory apologetically. "Yeah, but it won't work for everyone."

"What do you mean?" Rory leaned back, taking the opportunity to glare at Luke.

"I mean, you need to have Julie's and my ability to burn it out."

Julie scrunched her eyebrows. "What do you mean 'burn it out'?"

"Well, instead of trying to burn something outside you, you are trying to burn it inside. Kind of."

Burning herself from the inside with lightning didn't sound that great.

He sighed then pulled over the bag that he'd brought with him. A second later he brought out a big bottle of vodka.

"Holy crap!" Julie put a hand over her mouth. "Where did you get that? We aren't old enough to even buy it!"

Luke rolled his eyes, his gaze met Rory's, and they laughed. "We aren't even human. So their stupid laws don't matter to us. It's easy enough to get when you use your powers."

Rory shook his head and looked back at Julie. "Besides, I know from what you told me...before," his gaze slipped to Luke, "that you used to go to parties where there was drinking back in Atlanta. It's not like you aren't used to it."

"Yeah, but that was before, and I never drank." Julie rubbed her arms. She was living on her own here. One wrong move, and she could lose her parents' support—lose everything.

"Don't worry," Luke said. "You're only getting a tiny bit of this to practice on. I'll go first, and you can hold my hand. Maybe you can see what I do or feel it somehow. I don't think it would be wise for all of us to drink together. We never know what might end up happening."

"Yeah, you guys would get in a fight, and I might have to kill you for wrecking my apartment," Julie said darkly.

"Or other things..." Luke grinned.