Chapter 15 Runaway
"His trail leads straight West. I suspect we might be gone a couple of days. I'll keep in touch till the limits of our connection, then call you when I have more information." Ahleena told Jacob, using her telepathy to connect with him even though she was already a full mile away from the mansion.
He sent back a mental nod of acceptance, trying to keep his emotions under tight wraps, trying to keep Ahleena from sensing the depth of his worry.
Ahleena could still feel his concern. She knew how he felt about his students. They were more than simply students to him, they were family. Callin running away worried him, making him wonder what signs he had missed, making him wonder why Callin felt the need to run away.
She didn't think like he did, wasn't worried like that. She had sensed Callin's frustration and his lack of control. She figured he must have ran because he was worried about losing control, and because he was scared of others truly seeing what he was.
Callin was her most frustrating, and also her most interesting student. He had been at the mansion for almost two months but still he kept his walls up with her and everyone else. She couldn't begin to train him if he wouldn't trust her, but she hadn't yet been able to figure out how to truly gain that trust.
She increased her speed, racing through the lush California forest, confident she would notice if he changed his direct West heading. She ran for most of the day, stopping only for a fifteen minute rest and a quick snack. She was traveling light, just the clothes she wore, a small backpack with a some dry foods, a tiny tent, and her two swords.
When the sun finally began to paint the sky with fiery colors and the shadows stretched across every clear opening, she made camp. Her legs complained from the demanding pace she had set all day, but she knew she would be ready to run all day again tomorrow, if necessary.
The water thrashed and twisted, rising up in sudden, frothy swells as if trying to break free of gravity's unrelenting grasp, then swirled back in sullen, gray fits when it was denied. Callin sat on the end of the longest dock in the small, seaside town, his thoughts as chaotic and turbulent as the storm-tossed ocean.
He stared down at the moonlit water, trying to keep his thoughts from skittering back again and again to what he had given up by leaving the mansion. He felt like he had left behind his one chance at a family, at some semblance of a normal life. But he knew it was for the better, because he knew the lab would not stop hunting him, and when they found him, bystanders would get hurt or killed.
The labs assassins weren't the only reason he had left. He didn't want to dwell on what might happen if he were to lose control of his power around so many others. He had never had his walls tested so thoroughly, so constantly, at the labs. Nothing they had done to him that he could remember was ever as destructive to his walls as the combined attraction he felt for Carmen, Ahleena, and Raina.
Carmen was a walking danger to him. It was bad enough that his attraction to her was nearly uncontrollable, but what made it simply impossible was the fact that she was just as attracted to him, and his treacherous nose knew it. Just the scent of her was enough to begin cracking his walls. He seriously doubted his ability to control himself if he had to be in the same room as her for more than an hour, no matter who else was in the room. His nose was simply too sensitive, taking her subtle, all-female scent and thrusting it directly into his imagination, where it recklessly threw open the doors of his primal side.
So now he was in this tiny, seaside town, sitting on this dock at night, trying to figure out his next move. Thoughts of Ahleena, Carmen, and Raina jammed up his brain, making him nearly growl in frustration. If the mansion had just one beautiful telepath, he may have been able to cope. But the triple threat of the three girls was far more than he could deal with. He sighed, feeling frustrated and penned in, restless along every nerve in his body. Just then, his keen ears detected voices behind him.
The subtle vibrations along the wooden dock alerted him that at least three people were walking towards him. The wind was mostly offshore, but it occasionally spun about, and he scented two teenage boys and one girl.
"Hey freak! Dontcha know this dock isn't for losers? Get lost." One of them called.
Callin stood up slowly, but kept his back to them, fighting back the surge of dark fury. Fighting for control. He heard them still advancing and was amazed they didn't possess the basic instincts to recognize the mortal danger they were so casually walking into. He could actually hear their confident swagger as they came closer, and his bone claws began to burn in their sockets. Some muddled part of his brain was screaming at him, howling over and over that he didn't want to do this. The thing of it was, though, that with the darkly electric, frustrated mood he was in, a fight was exactly what he wanted.
"What, you deaf or something? I said get lost!"
They were close now, just behind him. Callin turned and faced them, a cold, hard smile smearing across his face. It did not reach his eyes. The two boys were close to his age, maybe seventeen or eighteen. They were both big, wearing the expensive clothes of high school football jocks. Callin had seen TV shows of high schools and he was surprised how much these two seemed like the types he had seen.
A tiny warning of surprise skittered through his mind as he noticed that there were two girls. For some strange reason, he had only scented and heard one. Then the bigger, blonde boy stepped right up to Callin's face, making him forget the girl.
"What are you smiling about? You like that you're about to get your butt kicked in?"
Callin felt himself reacting to the threat, to the dangerous physical proximity of this potential enemy. His lips peeled back in a wicked parody of a grin.
"Stop talking. Let's do this!" He snarled.
The football jock cocked his fist back, and then froze, every muscle completely still. Even his eyes didn't move. The other three were standing frozen, also. Callin was bewildered, until he heard Ahleena's voice as she walked down the dock towards them.
"Callin. Power down. Now!" She called, unnatural steel ringing in her voice.
Callin felt the surge of power she had put into the command, trying to force him to obey through her telepathy. His walls deflected her power, but it still made him reel back a step. The simple fact that she had just tried to force her will on him using her power heightened his rage, making the animal inside surge against his walls. It was exactly the tactic the telepaths at the lab had used on him so many times over the years.
He knew Ahleena had used her power to put the teens into what was essentially a waking coma, every higher brain function locked down by her power. It made him sick, to once again see the power of a telepath over the helpless. He stepped around them, stalking towards Ahleena, his claws sliding fully out, his blood leaving a crimson trail on the dock behind him.
"Let them go!" He snarled.
Ahleena stopped walking, immediately falling into that familiar, dangerous half-crouch. Her full lips curved into a little smile, her dark, almond-shaped eyes fathomless.
"I was hoping I would find you in a mood to spar."
Callin shook his head and slowly lifted his hands, his bone claws glittering coldly in the watery sunlight.
"I'm not in the mood to spar. Let them go. Now!"
Ahleena sighed and waved a hand dismissively at the teens.
"Fine. Go run and play, children. And your only memory of this trip down the dock was just a peaceful stroll to the end and back." She said, her power vibrating the air with every word, never taking her eyes off him as she spoke.
The teens all turned and mechanically walked past Ahleena, heading back towards the beach houses, their expressions matching in their total lack of emotion.
It was too much like watching the telepaths at the lab as they mentally commanded their helpless teens to do anything they wanted, even telling them what memories they were allowed to have. Even creating memories that didn't happen, so their control would last far beyond the moment. It made Callin see red.
He launched himself at Ahleena with a wicked, ripping snarl, forgetting all of his martial arts training as the beast inside sought to kill. Ahleena moved like lightning on water, sidestepping his lunge and planting a direct, thrust kick into his stomach. Callin folded over her foot like a wet rag and flew backwards through the air, landing on his back and sliding along the dock.
He was on his feet instantly, the beast inside raging ever higher at the burst of pain. He threw back his head and screamed out his agony to the uncaring sky as his bone armor grew wildly out of control, reacting to the danger and his rage. Curved bone spurs grew straight up from his shoulders, ten inches long and razor sharp, and more spurs sliced their way out from his forearms.
Ahleena felt a twinge of unease. She wondered if his power was going to go Alpha right now. As she watched, she could almost feel his power ramping up. She rapidly pulled up every shield she knew, her power holding it in the air in front of her like a multi-hued oval. It hurt to hold this much power in one, steady state, and she closed her eyes and concentrated, feeling the ebb and flow of his energy signature.
His power was spiking wildly in every direction, snapping like a whip as it changed direction hundreds of times a second. She flinched as a tendril of it struck her shield and was deflected down into the dock, instantly burning a fist-sized hole in the thick wood. She had certainly never felt anything like that before!
Callin staggered, his face contorted by pain. Blood ran freely from his mouth and nose, his forearms and shoulders, a dark, quickly spreading stain on his clothes. He sagged to his knees, gasping, no longer able to form a single, coherent thought. He swayed there for a moment, his eyes rolled back in his head. His mouth worked, a silent scream of "No!" and then he passed out, falling flat on his face with a solid thud.
Ahleena sighed and let her shields down. She stepped closer to him, fascinated by the bone spurs. Although his body had obviously taken great damage from the uncontrolled bone growth, she could see it already healing. His healing power was simply amazing. Even as she watched, the bone spurs began to diminish, sliding back into his body, the bloody holes they had made knitting shut behind them in seconds.
She had never seen anything like his bone growth, and part of her brain was already assessing its potential usefulness in battle. It appeared that his body had the ability to grow some sort of armor out of his own bones, although it obviously caused extreme pain and damage as it forced its way out through muscle and tissue.
She remembered learning about a type of bone growth program the labs had been working on. They had called it RAGE, or Reactive Armor Growth Exoskeleton. Now that she had seen firsthand the results of it, she wondered if the labs that were still operating had refined it more or if it always killed the teens they tried it on.
The only way she could see anyone surviving such massive damage caused by RAGE would be if they had a healing ability like Callin's She wondered if he had been born with it, if it was the key reason he had been kidnapped and experimented on by the labs. Callin fascinated her on many levels. His mental walls were so formidable, so wildly varied, that she doubted she could ever get past them unless he were weakened somehow first.
From the first moment she had met him she had been unable to resist her curiosity about his mind and defenses. It was a daily routine to try to get past them, to learn what little she could about him by his reaction to her. He was so closed around her, not just mentally, but also physically. He rarely spoke to her, and if he did it was usually a growled warning. She had learned that if she flirted with him, it threw him off and weakened his mental defenses.
She hadn't yet figured out why that should be, but it was yet another way she was fascinated by him. It also was kind of a rush, seeing her power over him, seeing the way he reacted so physically to her, even against his considerable will. Even though he was considerably younger than her 25 years, it was still gratifying to her ego to see how he reacted.
She hadn't flirted with a guy in years. Living in the secluded mansion didn't offer all that many opportunities for such a thing, and the few trips into town each year were never spent on personal adventures. Being a telepath of her level made relationships nearly impossible anyway, unless the person she was with knew how to truly shield their mind. Like Callin. Now that she reflected on it, she realized he was the first person she had ever met, besides Jacob, who could truly shield their mind from her.
She pushed those thoughts aside and pulled out her cellphone and called Jacob, quickly explaining where they were and what had happened. She also arranged for Carmen to come pick them up.
Jacob seemed surprised that she had requested Carmen, so she explained she thought it might be possible that Carmen's abilities might offer her a way to understand Callin's powers better. She explained why she needed to understand them fully now, before he killed himself or others, as his power was on the verge of going Alpha.
She went over her plan briefly, not yet sure on the details herself. As she had asked, Jacob promised to send Carmen without telling her any details.
Ahleena didn't want Jacob trying explain what had happened. She wanted to explain it all to Carmen herself, face to face, knowing she wasn't likely to accept it all very well.
She hung up the phone, wondering what Carmen would think when she heard that she had requested her specifically. She knew Jacob wouldn't give away any details. She was still forming her plan at the moment, and felt it was critical she kept both Carmen and Callin unaware of what she was plotting.
She picked up Callin and moved through the moonlit night, silently slipping through the shadows, until she reached the thick woods at the edge of the town. Once she was sure they were out of sight of anyone, but still able to see the road, she settled down to meditate, sitting cross-legged and back straight, eyes shut. Waiting for Carmen to come pick them up.