Awakening - The Last Science #1

Chapter 13 - Fugitives - III

  Rika cackled with glee. "Nice try, but you gotta remember that I can come at you from anywhere." She dropped the stick and held out a hand to him. "Come on, let's go home already."

  Alden hesitated, but took her hand all the same, bracing himself. The jolt of electricity rolled through him, and he wasn't jumping at it anymore. It was a friendly greeting, familiar and exciting and the tiniest bit dangerous.

  They crested the hill, and Rika crept up to the edge of the apartments with Alden at her heels. Their apartments were at the far end, but this was the most covered approach up the hill, so it was the route RIka had elected to take. She crouched low and peeked around the corner wall.

  "Looks fine," she murmured. They rounded the corner and were halfway down the row when Rika held up her hand. "Shit!"

  "What?"

  "The door handle. Someone's in my apartment."

  "What?" As Alden whispered, they both saw the door start to swing inward.

  Rika turned to the nearest apartment and closed her eyes, holding up her hand and moving her fingers intricately. A second later, the door lock clicked open. "In!" she hissed.

  Alden had a split-second glance of Ryan's distinct blonde head peeking out the door—thankfully looking the opposite direction—before the surge of electricity in his fingers told him that Rika had dragged him inside the apartment. She slid the door closed silently behind them.

  "Who lives here?" Alden asked nervously, glancing around. There were two bedroom doors in front of them, one slightly ajar. He could see the edges of a chalk drawing on the wooden floor through the crack.

  "Fuck if I know," Rika whispered. "We just need to hide out until they leave."

  "He. It was Ryan."

  "That motherfucker," she growled. "Next time I see him, he's getting ten thousand volts."

  "Mmm?" came a noise from downstairs. They turned simultaneously to look at the staircase. A girl with brown-blue hair—the same one Alden had nearly run over that morning—was looking at them through wide frameless glasses from the bottom landing. Her eyes widened in shock. She lifted a hand, muttering something neither of them could make out.

  "Fuck!" Rika stampeded down the stairs two at a time, her hand plunging into her bag. Alden felt a crackle in the air, but it wasn't from Rika.

  The girl's fingers burst into life twisting torturous patterns in mid-air. A ring of fire burst forth around her outstretched hand, blue-colored and spinning madly about. She flicked a finger at them. Two fireballs launched themselves toward Rika. They hissed menacingly as they flew.

  Adrenaline shot through Alden with a cold burst of fear. This fire was nothing like the little yellow-orange candle lights he and Rika had been playing with. It wasn't even like the bright orange fire that had been hurled at them at Dan's, licking off rubies hurled through the air. This was pure, elemental flame with nothing to subsist it. The sheer heat pounded him in waves, like someone had suddenly lit a campfire inches from his face. Alden could feel sweat beading on his forehead and neck.

  Rika dove to the landing halfway down before the stairs curved inward. The fireballs impacted against the wall where she'd been a second earlier, splashing out in a stunning display of color before reforming and zooming back into place around her wrist. There was no damage to the wall whatsoever. This girl, whoever she was, had amazing control—and tremendous power.

  The girl backed up. She threw her arm forward and sent another pair at Rika's chest. Rika shot a fork of lightning at them, but it fizzled through harmlessly. Apparently deflecting them only worked when the fireballs were tied to the rubies, as they had been in the diner.