A Touch Of Lightning (COMPLETED!)

Chapter 19 Falling Walls

Callin heard the pain behind the words. He cast a surprised glance at Carmen, not surprised to see her eyes pleading up at him. He was surprised, though, at how much it affected him. He found himself slowly sitting back down, almost as if he had decided instinctively, instead of consciously, to listen to her.

As he picked up his fork and resumed eating, he found his thoughts scouring all that he knew about Carmen. He found that he knew so little about her that he knew he wouldn't be able to understand much about her at all, much less why her scent still had that cold, hard, underlying anger, even now.

"Good." Ahleena said, obviously pleased that he had listened to Carmen and sat back down.

Callin felt a nearly irresistible urge to give her the finger.

"Yup. Great." He stated flatly, grabbing a handful of bacon.

Carmen snorted at his sarcastic tone and quickly gulped some orange juice.

"Now, how old were you when the labs kidnapped you?" Ahleena's dark eyes were locked on him, her expression unreadable.

Callin sighed. He could tell Ahleena wasn't going to let this go.

"I was 10 years old."

"So how much of your life before the labs do you remember?" Ahleena noted how Callin's jaw clenched at that question. She understood that trying to remember his past was likely painful, and confusing, due to all the false memories and blocks the lab telepaths and scientists had placed in his mind.

"I...I don't know which memories are real, and which are fake." Callin stared down at his pancakes, his eyes clouded, not seeing anything in front of him. "They targeted my past more than anything. They knew if you wanted to truly own someone, you had to control their earliest memories. You had to shape those memories, add to them, remove some, in order to make someone yours to control."

Ahleena saw how much admitting this enraged him. She could see the cold hatred washing through him as he dwelled on how much of his life the Labs had taken away from him.

"Carmen's power, combined with my guidance, can heal your memories and remove the blocks. We can free you of their control, of their touch."

Callin lifted his head, and Carmen gasped at the green fire in his eyes. Ahleena didn't appear fazed, although her center of balance did shift ever so slightly, as she prepared herself for explosive motion.

"I will not allow her powers, or your filthy telepathic touch, to control me. If I allow either of you in, it will be by my hand, by my will, and I'll control your powers and what happens. I'll control what memories and blocks get touched."

Ahleena simply nodded. Then she turned to Carmen.

"Today we will begin a training system focused on teamwork. You and Callin will learn to work together. You will learn to trust each other. Your daily schedule will be rigidly controlled by myself and Jacob. Neither of you will be allowed to push your powers past level 2 without my permission. Is this understood?"

Carmen nodded, trying not to grin too hugely. The idea of training directly with Callin was better than she had imagined.

"This is not a good idea." Callin stated through gritted teeth.

Carmen turned to him, her eyes sparkling. "I think it's a fantastic idea."

Callin locked his eyes on hers. "Did you forget what happened last night?"

Carmen blinked, seeing Ahleena raise an eyebrow at that, and felt her cheeks heat up. She felt flustered and hot and very confused. It made her instantly furious.