Chapter 27
The Mind-Link and The Kiss
The door to his room violently shook in its frame, cracks appearing along the edges by the door handle. The thunderous sound brought Callin back from the memory flooding through him, due to the mental block failing.
He saw Carmen's foot come bursting through the door, right at waist height, and part of his mind faintly analyzed the path and position of her foot, and knew she had threw a spinning back-kick at the door. The undisputed most powerful kick of all martial art disciplines. He wondered how she had learned to throw that kick with enough precision and power to kick through a solid wood door.
Then Carmen threw the door open and stopped short, seeing him on his knees, covered in blood, his face streaked with tears. Her face paled as he met her eyes. As she caught a glimpse of the raw misery he was feeling.
"Callin...what happened?" She whispered.
He shook his head slowly, his thoughts still scattering back and forth from the present, to the new flood of images of Mirage. He felt like his heart was being ripped in two as he thought about her, trapped in the labs still, brainwashed and under control of the telepaths there. He dazedly wondered when this boiling cauldron of emotions would snap to uncontrolled insane rage, when he would just let go and run, when he would go after the labs with every last wall, every last block, gone. With his power fully unleashed.
Carmen turned to face Raina, who was climbing to her feet out in the hallway, her face wet with tears and her entire body shaking, her arms wrapped tight around herself.
"Raina?"
Raina hiccupped once, wiping away the tears with the back of her hand, then met Carmens eyes. She took a long, deep breath before she answered.
"A block broke. He remembers a girl...a girl he knows very well. She's still trapped in the labs. And there's something...something connecting him to Ahleena. And he's utterly, completely terrified of it." Raina said, her voice cracking with emotion at the end as she momentarily relived his terror.
Callin heard her. He abruptly realized Raina had been experiencing everything he had been going through. That his walls were so weakened that her empath power had been tracking his emotions and sensations, deep enough for her to deduce what his memories of the lab had been, on a high level. He was stunned she wasn't unconscious, due to the sheer depth of pain he had felt when he was trying to rip the mind-link out.
He snatched at his walls, desperately pulling deep at his willpower. He hated the idea of being spied on in any way, especially now, with the hurt and the guilt of leaving Mirage behind gnawing on his very soul at the moment. His walls were in tatters, but they were still standing. He pulled them high, burying his emotions, his memories of Mirage, and his confusion behind them. The moment he was safely behind them, blessed calm, coolness swept through him, displacing the memories he couldn't bear to witness right now.
Raina tracked it all. She let out a choked gasp, her hand covering her mouth, her large, dark eyes shining with misery as she stared at him.
"Don't...don't do that. Don't hide from yourself like that." She whispered brokenly.
He climbed to his feet, feeling trapped and vulnerable and hating every second of it. Like an animal, he peeled his lips back, exposing his fangs, and when he spoke, his voice was just a low hiss.
"You don't get to track me! You don't get to spy on me! One person in my head is more than enough!"
Carmen turned to face him, confused and feeling defensive for Raina.
"What? She isn't trying to track you! She can't help it!"
"Get out. Both of you, go, get out!" He snarled.
Kevin stuck his head into the doorway, raising his eyebrows as he saw Raina and Carmen in their pajamas.
"Dude. You got the two hottest girls to ever walk this earth in your room at night and you're telling them to get out? You sick or something?"
Then he looked at the shattered door, his eyebrows raising even higher. "Whoa! And they REALLY wanted to come in to your room, no less! I'm not a jealous sort, usually, but you're pushing me down deep there, man."
Carmen pointed one finger at him, jabbing it like a weapon, her back stiff. "Get out!"
Kevin smirked at her. "Not in." He gestured up and down the hallway, looking down at the threshold to Callins room pointedly.
"What is going on here?! Do you all not know how to just lay down in bed and stay there? It's called sleeping. You should try it sometime." Levi appeared in the doorway next to Kevin, looking at the shattered door distastefully.
Carmen growled and Raina leaned against the wall, closing her eyes, her hands lifting up to hold her temples. Callin knew she must be getting assaulted by all the strong emotions in the air. He didn't care. He needed space to think, and having these four here wasn't helping.
He opened his mouth, prepared to growl at them all, to scare them all away, when he felt a strange sensation washing through him. It was a very languid feeling, a very calming, peaceful sensation. He could feel how it was trickling into him through the holes in his walls and understood then that it was Raina's power. She was influencing his sensations and his emotions.
Then he saw how everybody was yawning, their eyes heavy-lidded, their limbs sagging with exhaustion. Raina was influencing them all.
It sent a new surge of anger through him, and he reacted. He darted forward, one hand snaking out to latch onto Raina's chin, pressing her against the wall, as he stepped right up against her. Raina's eyes popped wide open, her hands flying up to wrap around his wrist, and she gasped as she saw the fury burning in his eyes, as she saw his fangs glinting in the light, just inches from her face.
"You dare to use your power on me? I could rip your throat out right now!" He snarled viciously.
Raina didn't move or speak. She was frozen like a rabbit in the jaws of the predator by the primal fire in him.
"Whoa! C'mon now, that's not how you handle girls!" Kevin yelled, taking a step into the room.
Callin held up his other hand, his claws flashing wickedly.
"Touch me and I'll cut you!" His voice was ragged, low, and filled with unmistakable threat.
Kevin stopped, holding his hands up. "Ok, ok, let's not get crazy! Well, crazier than we already are, anyway."
"Let her go!" Carmen lunged forward, her bare hands flying forward towards his arm. Callin tossed Raina aside, ducking down under Carmens outstretched arms, his hands flying up to latch onto her wrist as it flew over his shoulder. Then he pulled down and bent forward, and Carmen shrieked as she went head-over-heels over him.
She arched her back in the air, wrenching her hand from his grip, and landed on her feet from the judo throw, spinning to face him, her eyes flickering with cold, golden pinpoints of light.
"Ok, you asked for it!" She snapped, lunging at him with a series of kicks.
Callin dodged and deflected her kicks, backpedaling due to how ferociously she was pressing him, and he couldn't help but feel grudging respect for the speed and power in her kicks. He hadn't known she was skilled like this!
The moment she paused to re-assess the distance between them, he attacked, lunging forward with a combo. It was a basic 3 point combo, a jab, a straight punch, followed by a low leg kick, aimed at her leading calf.
Carmen slapped the jab aside, then yanked her head back out of range of his straight punch, her leading leg lifting and twisting, so she could catch and absorb the impact from his low kick. She used the rotational energy that kick imparted to continue her spin, her arm flying out in a spinning-backfist, aimed at his temple.
Callin narrowly ducked under it, backpedaling as he recognized she was likely to continue her rotation and throw a spinning back kick at him. They circled slowly, both of them focused entirely on the other, forgetting everyone else in the room, their breathing deep and even as they entered the razor focus of the warrior.
"Whoo hooo! That was awesome! You guys look like you're dancing!" Kevin whooped.
"That was actually pretty impressive." Levi quietly mused, watching them intently.
Raina was sitting against the wall, her knees pulled up to her chest, her face buried against them. Her shoulders rose and fell with long, slow breaths. Kevin and Levi both realized she was trying to calm herself. And they both also sensed that she was using her power, somehow, but they couldn't tell what she was doing, or to who.
As Callin circled, his eyes locked on Carmen, he found his focus suddenly faltering as he was struck by how beautiful she was. As he was struck by a sudden urge to kiss her. It was so strong, so abrupt, that it made him stop moving, lest he physically lose his balance.
He saw Carmen's eyes darken, he saw her gently bite her bottom lip as she stared at him. And in an instant the animal fury in him was replaced with a different animal instinct.
"Callin...?" Carmen was standing still, her voice just a whisper.
They stepped forwards at the same time, their arms encircling each other, their heads slanting into a hot, slow kiss.
"Finally! You had me worried for a bit there you didn't know what she wanted!" Kevin crowed.
Levi elbowed him in the ribs, then grabbed his shoulder and pulled him away. "Come on. We don't need to watch this."
Raina heard Kevin's protests all down the hall. She lifted her head, watching Carmen and Callin kissing. Feeling like her heart was tearing apart. She quietly stood, turning to go, when Callin broke the kiss.
"Don't go anywhere." He growled.
She looked back over her shoulder at him, her face streaked with tears and her eyes twin pits of dark misery.
"Why? You're not done hurting me?"
Callin gritted his teeth. "You used your power on me. When I was out of control."
"I used my power on everybody. Not just you. And I was trying to keep my mind from fracturing from the out of control emotions everywhere."
Callin ran a hand through his hair, looking away from her. He knew she was right, he knew she hadn't been trying to control him, but that she had literally been trying to save herself from what was going on in the room.
He looked back at her, a muscle twitching in his jaw. "I'm sorry. I wasn't...I wasn't myself."
Raina nodded, accepting his apology. "I know." Then she turned and walked away.
"Are you ok?" Carmen stepped closer to him, placing one hand on his arm.
Callin looked down at her hand, then back up at her. She narrowed her eyes at him.
"Oh no, you don't get to kiss me like that, then get all cold and scary when I touch you!"
Callin clenched his jaw, taking a ragged breath, and slowly, carefully pulled his arm out of her grip. He looked away from her, his fists clenched at his sides, his arms taut with tension.
"You should go." He said, so quietly she wasn't sure if she had imagined it or if he had really spoke.
"Callin..." She said, trailing off as he stepped away from her. As he pulled himself ever farther away from her.
"Your powers just now...they helped stabilize me. Thanks." He said quietly.
Carmen's eyes flashed angrily at that. "Is that what that was? You were using me, using my power?"
Callin shook his head in disbelief. He couldn't believe she thought that was what he was doing!
"No! I was...I wanted to kiss you." He said quietly.
"Carmen, you should go back to bed. I believe Callin needs a rest, his power and his body are completely exhausted." Jacob appeared in the doorway, his voice firm.
Carmen sighed and walked away, casting one last, longing glance back at him. Jacob watched her go, then looked back at Callin, his eyebrows raised. Callin shrugged at him.
"Don't look at me, I don't understand girls."
Jacob chuckled at that. "I know."
He looked around the room, at the blood on the floor, and the hole in the door. Then pointedly looked at Callin's blood covered chest and sweatpants.
"So. Care to explain?"
"Nope."
Jacob's gray eyes darkened. "Let's try this again. Explain." He ordered.
Callin scowled. "Nothing to explain."
Jacob stepped closer, waving his hands about the room. "Callin, I'm not your enemy. Surely you know that."
Callin instinctively fell into a balanced crouch, his hands lifting up, as his battle instincts were still raging through him.
"Then why did you just step closer to me?"
Jacob stopped, heaving a sigh, and looked closer at him. He saw the dangerous glitter in his eyes. He saw the trapped animal edge to his every motion, to his aura itself.
"If you try to use your power to calm me down, or otherwise try to influence me, I'll make you regret walking into this room." Callin stated, his voice laced with raw threat.
"I will never try to use my power on another, unless their life, or anothers, is in danger."
"Should teach Riana that..." Callin muttered.
"I can tell you're on the very edge of consciousness, Callin. I can tell your power has been exhausted so far that it's likely starting to rob you of body heat, even. You know what's next, if you don't get rest? Your heart will stop. You will die."
Callin heard the truth in Jacobs words. He finally focused inside, past his walls, examining himself. And he was stunned to see exactly how accurate Jacobs words were. Just recognizing how exhausted his power, and his body, was made him feel light-headed.
"Ok..." He mumbled, then collapsed face-first onto his bed.
Jacob sighed again and turned, walking out, contemplating all that had happened in this room tonight, as he had been tracking everything using his telepathy. He needed to speak with Ahleena as soon as she was awake. He needed to ask her about this mind-link.
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