Chapter 7:
We made it back to the car without any more encounters. Probably because we’d taken out most of the attackers and those who hadn’t been taken out had seen the damage we’d caused.
James got behind the wheel and started driving. This time I was glad to be in the grandpa car and I let my head fall against the back of the seat. I was feeling very tired all of a sudden. All the energy put into hurting those people had left me dry. I needed sleep and it didn’t seem to matter that we were heading back to the base in my kidnappers car.
“Don’t tell them,” I whispered as my eyes closed.
“Don’t tell who what?” James asked, his voice quieter than usual. He was probably just as tired as I was. He’d taken a direct hit from that lightning guy. I could tell that shields were not his strength and that most of that guy’s energy had hit him.
I was too tired to form words so I let my shields drop completely and thought at him, Dillon and the rest of them. My sister especially. They can’t know what I can do. Please.
I never knew if he agreed or not because I passed out before I could hear his answer.
When I woke up, I was in a bed. The room was dark so I couldn’t tell exactly where I was. I heard a light snore and jumped before I realized it was my sister. I was back at the base.
I sighed, putting my face into my hands. “I really didn’t want to come back here,” I mumbled at no one.
I glanced at the clock which read 6:00 am. I’d been asleep for almost 16 hours.
“Catching up on some lost Zs, I guess,” I mumbled again. I hadn’t really slept a lot since this whole fiasco had begun.
I decided to stop wallowing and flung my blanket off of me. I went into the washroom and looked down at myself. I was wearing pajamas. I decided not to dwell on who’d changed my clothes, deciding that it was the least of my worries. I took a shower and started to feel slightly more human. I walked out of the room and noticed my clothes, washed and folded just outside the door.
Huh, maybe living here wouldn’t be so bad after all. Now, only if it had been a whole new outfit. You can only wear jeans and a tank top so many days in a row.
I put the clothes on anyway and noted that they now smelled like tide as opposed to stale beer.
Next step, coffee.
I made my way to the kitchen which was completely empty. I put on a pot of coffee and munched on some stale Cheerios while I waited. I was standing at the kitchen counter when Angela walked in.
“So you’re alive.” Her tone wasn’t exactly happy about the news.
“Don’t sound so excited,” I said after a second. My brain was functioning very slowly this morning. C’mon coffee, brew faster.
“Excuse me for not appreciating the return of a deserter.” Red managed to elbow me in the ribs while reaching for a coffee cup. As soon as it had stopped dripping she snagged the pot and filled her cup. I didn’t have enough energy to bitch at her and considering I’d drank half her coffee the day earlier, I had no right to argue.
I ignored her comment and, taking my precious coffee with me, I sat at the table. She sat down too and stared at me.
“You’re weird, you know that?” she said to me.
I raised my eyebrows and thought, What, like you’re normal? You live with a bunch of circus freaks.
When I didn’t reply she took it as an invitation to keep talking. It hadn’t been but I wasn’t about to stop her.
“You clearly don’t want to be here. You already ran away once. James had to go find you and he even got hurt doing it. I mean, I understand you’re worried about your sister,” I saw something flash in her eyes at the mention of my sister, “but that’s not reason for you to stay here. In fact, your sister is probably all the more reason for you to leave. You’re just going to be in her way.”
Oh yeah, we were going to be the best of friends. Like Cher and Dion. Ren and Stimpy. Like-
“Are you listening to me at all?”
No.
“Yes.”
“Then what did I just say?”
It occurred to me that I’d been tuning her out for some time. After that last bit about me getting in the way, I decided she’d had enough of my attention for one day.
“What’s your specialty anyway?” I asked, changing the subject.
“That is not what I just said,” she said, her face getting red with anger.
“Yeah I got that. I’m actually asking you a question.”
Her eyes narrowed and she glared at me but eventually she answered. “I can do a bunch of things at a fairly high level but what I’m really good at is projection.”
“Projection?” I thought about Cain and the way he’d been half transparent when I’d seen him in the alleyway. Is that what this girl did?
“Yeah. I’m guessing you don’t know what that is considering you didn’t grow up with your birth parents.”
Don’t sugar coat it or anything. Not like it’s an open wound.
“Basically, I can appear in other places while my physical body is here.” She sat up a little straighter in her chair, clearly proud of her little power.
Strange, my power was only bringing me fear. I’d never even considered being proud of it.
“Ah I see,” I said somewhat pissed about her smug attitude. “So you can use your power to, what? Spy on James when he’s taking a shower?”
Red’s face matched the colour of her hair as she shot out of her chair and leaned towards me, furious. “I would never do that!”
So redheads really do have bad tempers.
“Okay I believe you. Sheesh, I was only using it as an example, you don’t have to get all hyper about it,” I said smothering the grin that was spreading across my lips.
“I am not hyper,” she hissed, clearly forgetting about the cool image she was trying to project.
“Right,” I said, sarcasm dripped from my tone.
She let out an exasperated breath and stormed out of the kitchen. In the doorway she collided with Will but his over six foot, well muscled body didn’t seem to faze her. She barely paused before continuing to stomp loudly down the entire hallway.
What was she, twelve?
I smiled into my coffee as Will started to move around the kitchen. Something about pissing Red off made me quite happy.
Did that make me a bad person?
Probably.
“Making friends this morning?” Will asked as he popped a couple slices of bread into the toaster.
“Definitely,” I replied, still enjoying my temporary high.
“I wouldn’t piss her off too much. She’ll show up in your dreams and give you nightmares. Trust me, it’s no fun.”
“Nightmares?” I thought about the circus dream I’d had. The one where I’d first seen Caine. You’re going to lose her, he’d said before disappearing. Was that a part of projection?
“Yeah, she’s really good at it too. I think she likes to watch scary movies or something.” He sat down at the table and took a bite of his toast before continuing. “One time, I was playing a little prank and I accidently cut her hair a little,” I raised my eyebrows at the ‘accidently’ but made no comment, “and she haunted my dreams for a month.” He grinned. “It was kind of worth it though. I mean you should’ve seen her hair. It was bloody hilarious!”
I smirked with him, “I can just imagine.” Actually I could see an image of it from his mind. He’d cut her bangs telekinetically so that they were about a half an inch long. A girl’s worst nightmare. I could kind of see why she’d haunted him so thoroughly.
It was at this point, when the mood in the kitchen was comfortable that James made his entrance. My back stiffened immediately as I remembered the events of the day before.
He scowled and walked straight for the cereal cabinet silently.
I heard Will think, What’s with him? Could he be jealous? I saw an image of myself in his mind and realized that he thought I’d looked quite charming when I laughed.
So I’d attracted the attention of the world’s sexiest guy. Two points for Cassie!
However, he was way off on the whole jealously thing. James was probably thinking about the injuries he’d sustained trying to save my ass the day before. Not to mention the big secret I’d asked him to keep. Which, so far, he seemed to be doing.
We ate in silence for a little while. Well, the guys ate and I pushed around the soggy Cheerios at the bottom of my bowl. I got another cup of coffee so I’d have a reason to stick around and when Will left I turned my attention to James.
“Look, about yesterday,” I began but he cut me off.
“I said I wouldn’t tell.”
My eyes widened. “Really?”
He glared at me. “What, you weren’t listening again?”
“I fell asleep. Sue me. Anyway, so you’re going to keep it a secret.”
He looked at his cereal, deep in thought. I gave him his privacy. I could’ve found out exactly what he was thinking but everyone has a right to their own privacy. “I won’t tell...for now.”
I didn’t like that ‘for now’ bit but the rest was good.
“You’re going to have to tell them sooner or later,” he said.
“I was really hoping for later.” Actually I was hoping for never I thought, smiling innocently.
He didn’t buy it. “I don’t get it. Why don’t you want them to know? You could really help your sister! Not to mention the power you have now, with no training is incredible! Just think of what you could do with a little bit of training.”
I shuddered. “That’s just it, James. Didn’t you see? That guy...” I said, trailing off. I swallowed and tried again. “That guy, I hurt him. I...don’t even know what I did. I just thought that I wanted him to know pain. To feel real pain.” I shook my head, remembering. My shields slipped as I thought about it and James cringed as he got the image of the guy convulsing on the ground. “What the hell am I?” I whispered mostly to myself but the guy sitting one chair over naturally heard me. Besides, my shields were still down.
“You’re not a monster, Cass,” he said. I met his eyes briefly and saw something flicker there before he avoided my gaze. What was that? “You just don’t know the extent of your power yet. You can use it for good too. Like when you helped me with the shield. It was amazing!” His dark blue eyes lit up and suddenly he looked like a kid. I couldn’t help but smile a little. “That was the one of the strongest fields I’d ever felt. When his bolt hit us, I thought we’d be done for but it was like a mosquito had bumped into us.” He shook his head in disbelief.
“Yeah well, I think that’s what I’ll be doing from now on. Shields.” I smiled weakly. “A shield won’t hurt anyone.”
James frowned. “Shields hurt the one making them.”
“What?” I thought about it for a second and remembered James crying out in pain at the first lightning attack. “Oh yeah. Well, I can take a hit or two. From now on you and Jack or whoever else is around are going to have to take care of the bad guys.”
James was going to reply but I interrupted him. “How are you feeling by the way? It seemed like you took a pretty hard hit yesterday.” I did a quick scan and didn’t see any casts so at least nothing was broken.
“I’m fine,” he said, avoiding my eyes some more, “just a little sore.”
“Really?” I asked. He nodded. I still didn’t believe him but I let it drop.
“Listen,” I began and hesitated. “About yesterday, thank you and I’m sorry for letting you get hurt. I shouldn’t have run away like that. Next time, I’ll make sure you don’t get involved.”
“Next time?” James put down his spoon and looked me in the eyes. “What do you mean ‘next time’?”
I shrugged and avoided his gaze. “Just that, next time I leave, I’ll make sure I’m not sneaking away in the night. It’ll be my choice and no one here will have to run after me.”
“And where are you going to go?” James asked, his voice calm like he didn’t really care where I went but I thought I could hear an undercurrent of some emotion I just couldn’t put my finger on it. “You saw your apartment. There’s nothing of yours in there.”
He was right, I had no where else to go. Which is why I was talking about later as in the future.
“I’ll stay for now,” I said. It was the only thing I could do. Besides the fact that I had no home, I also had no intention of joining the circus permanently.
He was about to protest when Jack showed up in the doorway carrying a duffle bag and grinning from ear to ear. “Morning y’all!”
“What the hell are you doing here?” James scowled.
“Well isn’t that a fine way to greet the man who saved your life yesterday. I’ll forgive you this once but next time, try not to let your pms get the better of you.”
James flipped him off.
“It’s nice to see you and everything but why are you here, Jack?” I asked.
“Well, since you asked nicely,” he said, sending a glare James’ way. “I’ve been evicted. And fired. As it turns out, once you’ve missed opening the bar five times, they’ll stop paying you. Seeing as how I have no other place to go, I came here. Not to mention, I have this feeling that things are going to be getting a lot more interesting around here what with the arrival of the Cole sisters and all.” He grinned looking pleased as punch. I felt my stomach do an uncomfortable flip flop as what would probably become an ulcer started to form.
Perfect. Not only was I a magical freak, but I was also an eighteen year old with a developing ulcer.
I sighed, focusing once again on my Cheerios when I heard a new set of footsteps moving to the kitchen. I didn’t have to be telepathic to know it was my sister.
“Good morning everyone!” I cringed at the super cheerful tone. Jeez, it was only six-thirty in the morning.
Speaking of six-thirty in the morning, what the hell was everyone doing awake?
“’Morning,” James said.
“Good morning to you too, darlin’. You must be Sam.” Jack stretched out his hand to my sister who was staring at the real live cowboy in the kitchen. “I’m Jack.”
She batted her eyelashes and tossed her hair a little before gently placing her hand in his. “Nice to meet you,” she purred.
“Jesus, don’t you ever turn that off?” I asked, not entirely politely.
“Turn what off?” Sam asked, innocent.
Did she seriously not know?
“Nevermind,” I mumbled and was about to take a bite of my Cheerios when I realized that now they were not only stale but completely soggy. I got up to dump them down the drain.
“That’s it?” My sister asked as she stepped close to me, grabbing my arm.
“Yeah, I guess so,” I replied, yanking my arm out of her grasp. Cheerleaders were freaking strong. I was totally going to have a bruise there.
“You guess?” Sam’s voice had a definite edge to it. “You ran away without a word leaving that silly little note and that’s all you have to say?”
I stopped trying to avoid her and instead faced her head on. She was an unstoppable force anyway. When she wanted information, she got it. Maybe that’s why she didn’t have telepathy. She didn’t need it. “I’m sorry, Sam. I was going to come back for you.” I sighed, running a hand through my hair. “Honestly, I didn’t think it would be such a big deal. Had I known what was going to go down, I would’ve definitely stayed here.”
“Well I guess you’re really not clairvoyant, then.” Her lips quirked a little showing the first signs of forgiveness. Then what I’d said clicked in. “Wait, what do you mean you were going to come back for me?” Any forgiveness she may have been considering disappeared. Her bright blue eyes lit up with anger. “Haven’t I mentioned that I want to stay here? Don’t you see that I like it here? Why do you always think you need to take care of me?” Her voice was shrill and barely restrained. I could practically feel her hold on her powers weakening as her emotions took over.
Oh shit, she’s going to explode.
Did I think that or was it someone else? I glanced at Jack and James and realized it could’ve been any of us. Their faces would’ve been funny if I wasn’t afraid for my life.
“I’m sorry, Sam. I didn’t mean it like that. Of course I don’t need to take care of you. It’s just that, mom and dad never really paid too much attention. I felt like I had to be more responsible.” I backed up with my hands raised between us.
My apology didn’t seem to register. “Mom and Dad?” She snorted. Samantha Cole, cheerleading captain, actually snorted. Granted, it still managed to sound kind of ladylike but it had still happened. “Mom and Dad loved me. They were so proud that I was a cheerleader and popular. It was you they didn’t pay any attention to. You’re so boring and geeky and plain. Who would care about you?”
Okay that stung. I realized my parents were never really interested in anything I did but I at least thought my sister cared about me. I mean, we never hung out in the same crowds but she’d always tell me about her boyfriends and school. I thought we were at least friends.
I took a step back and the backs of my legs hit the kitchen counter.
Sam grabbed my shoulders and pushed her face close to mine. “You can’t even do any magic. All your brains and you can’t wrap your little head around the simplest of magic.” She threw her head back and laughed. Out of the corner of my eye I saw James and Jack shoot each other bewildered looks.
Come to think of it, this was not typical Samantha behaviour. She was usually so cheerful and nice. What the hell had gotten into her?
She was talking to me again, saying insulting things that I didn’t want to hear so I tuned her out. I let a sliver of my magic go and tried to push into her mind to see what she was thinking. What I found was an impressive block. One that looked like an angry barbed wire fence. Actually, it was really ugly. So ugly that it was very suspicious. Sam would never think up something ugly as her mind block. She’d have a row of indestructible flowers or something. Not barbed wire.
I pushed at the block but nothing moved. It I searched for a weakness, some kind of crack and eventually I found one. At the base of the structure there was a hole. It was small but I could probably make it bigger with some more force.
Going on instinct, I concentrated on letting a little more of my energy loose and started to push at the hole. It was growing, getting wider. Vaguely I could still hear Samantha yelling at me. I could even hear James and Jack trying to sooth her but it was like she didn’t hear them. I concentrated harder and when the hole was big enough for a person to fit through, the entire barrier disappeared.
Her thoughts were still hard to read. They were foggy. She knew she was saying mean things to me but she didn’t know why. She couldn’t understand the irrational anger. Something was majorly wrong here.
I pushed in a little further, hoping the fog would clear. No luck.
All I could see was rage everywhere I looked. Then I saw the beginnings of an idea forming. An idea I was less than excited to see there. She wanted to use her powers against me. She mentally went through a bunch of different options for what she could do to me, dismissing each one until an idea involving her telekinesis and the small bones in my hands took over her thoughts.
Holy crap she was serious.
Sam, I said in her mind, hoping she wasn’t about to maim me, what are you doing? Why do you want to hurt me?
You keep trying to take over. It’s wrong! I should be the one in control. I’m the one with all the power! Her voice was pitched lower than it normally was and I could feel the malice dripping off her words.
Sam, listen to me. I don’t want to be in control. You can do whatever you want. Except for breaking every bone in my hand. You don’t really want to hurt me. Think about why you’re doing this. Where’s the anger coming from, Sam?
I felt her waiver for a second. She was thinking about the rage she was feeling. Why am I so angry? Nothing usually bothers me this much. Besides, it’s not really that big a deal...
The fog started to dissipate and I could finally see what was causing all of this.
Or should I say ‘who’ was causing all this.
“Bravo, little girl.”
Little?
“You’ve really impressed me this time,” Caine said as he took a few steps towards me. I wanted to run but couldn’t bring myself to leave him in my sister’s head.
“Thank God, now I can die in peace.” I rolled my eyes wondering if he could see me as clearly as I could see him. I thought I was just a floating energy in here but he looked real enough.
“Die? No my dear. You are not destined to die. That power inside of you can’t go to waste. I only hope you realize which side you’re meant to be on before it’s too late.” He shook his head sadly, his creepy eyes and creepier voice didn’t show any of the sadness that his body language conveyed.
“Any side but yours seems to be about right.” I shrugged trying to act nonchalant. Hard to do considering I was having a conversation with my nemesis inside my sister’s head. Did I even have shoulders to shrug?
Not important Cass, so not the point right now. I shook myself mentally. Or was it physically because I currently existed only in mentality?
Oh god this was way too confusing.
“So cheeky, Cassandra. Maybe you should think about your words a little more before you speak. After all, this,” he gestured around him with his arms, “was remarkably easy to do. This little display would be virtually impossible with you. Your sister on the other hand has weak barriers. That’s why she’ll never be great. But you, you will show us all what power truly is.”
I shuddered at the sparkle in his eye. He had some pretty big plans for me. Plans that I wanted nothing to do with.
I closed my eyes, sucked in a deep breath and concentrated, annoyed with this conversation. I tugged at the fire inside of me, feeling it rise and prickle along my skin. The more I did this, the better it felt. The shiver up my spine, the burst of energy, it was addictive.
I opened my eyes and looked directly at him, realized he’d been speaking while I’d been concentrating.
“...give me the chance to explain the kind of things you could ...” he trailed off and gave me a look that said ‘I’m getting pissed off’, “Are you even listening to me?”
I ignored his question. “Go away now,” I said, not even recognizing my own voice.
His eyes widened as a wave of concentrated energy hit him and his image started to disappear. The last thing I saw was stark rage burn into his eyes before he was gone.