Chapter 53 Ghost and The Teeth Of Memories 2
Callin lifted his head off the marble floor, wondering at the frenzied pace of his heart. It felt like he had just tried to battle two hundred Flayers all at once! Then he frowned as he saw the others stirring, crawling up to their knees and looking around dazedly. Why were they all on the floor? What had hit them?!
Jacob walked over, his eyes so distant that he looked like he was sleep walking. Callin felt his fangs and claws begin to burn in their sockets as a small part of his mind wondered if maybe Jacob wasn't himself, if some telepath had taken over his mind. It was a terrifying thought, so wretched that he shied away from it even as he imagined how bad that could be if it were to really happen. A telekinetic telepath as powerful as Jacob under the control of another would be nearly unstoppable.
When Jacob just stood silently by the stunned group as they all began to slowly clamber back to their feet, Callin recognized that he was just exerting his powers in multiple directions at once. One of those directions being some type of shield he had surrounded them with.
Then Callin felt strangely hollow, strangely empty. It was a feeling of disconnect, like a part of him was missing inside. This was too much, something too similar to the feeling of a telepathic attack, for him to bear at the moment. It was a sensation that struck deep, snatching up old memories he had only recently been exposed to. They came hurtling into the forefront of his mind, an insane freight train with gnashing jaws.
His claws burst out, spraying the air with a crimson mist, and his fangs cut their way out of his upper gums. His power was rising up, a fiery tide inside, lashing about inside his core, reaching out to lick up and down his arms with electric blue flashes. His head swung around as his hunter eyes scanned for the telepath that had dared to attack him.
Lost in his animal side, it took a long moment for his mind to recognize that it wasn't an attack. It was a break of his link to Ahleena. A break caused by the shield Jacob had covered the entire group with. Callin instantly hated that shield, instantly felt trapped and invaded. He struggled to control these animal instincts, managing to stand up straight and slowly approach Jacob, although he couldn't get his claws and fangs to retract.
"Callin..." he heard Jace say, his voice low and dangerous.
Callin felt how a bubble of heat had surrounded him, making his bone claws ache, and he could feel the tips of his ears beginning to burn.
He turned to face Jace, snarling softly, hunter eyes blazing with a dark, inner fire.
"Back off. I'm going to talk to him, I'm not going to hurt him. Can't say the same for you, though, if you don't power down." Callin snarled.
Jace sneered at Callin, crossing his arms confidently.
"Go talk, then. But if you try anything, I'll fry you where you stand, freak!"
Callin stared at Jace for a moment, then smiled and lifted his head, exposing his throat, before walking back over to Jacob. Jace scowled at Callin's back, not sure what that meant, but understanding that he had just been dismissed as less than a threat. He watched Callin closely, not trusting him when he was like this, especially with Jacob so vulnerable at the moment. Callin reminded him more of an animal than a human when he was like this, from his eyes, to his claws and fangs, to even the way he walked.
"I need to find Ahleena. I can't feel her, I can't feel our link through your shield. Let me go." He said, standing in front of Jacob, who hadn't acknowledged his existence.
Callin felt his arms hairs shivering as he stood this close to a telepath using so much power that the air in the room felt electric, alive, and yet somehow ultra-heavy. Like an invisible giant ghost hand hovering over them all, supercharged with power and about to come crashing down.
Jacob didn't move, didn't blink, but Callin felt a slight shift in the air surrounding his skin. As if an invisible barrier that was wrapped tightly about his entire body was being peeled back.
"Use your walls. Raina is an Alpha empath. The most powerful empath I've ever met." Jacob's voice sounded in his head like a whispered echo of a memory. So distant, that Callin wasn't even sure if it had actually been Jacob or if he himself had been thinking that thought.
Callin pulled himself tight behind his walls, not sure what Jacob was getting at. An instant later, he felt Jacob's shield drop away completely, and then his nightmares rose up from the dirt inside his memories and began to flay his mind. Raina, an Alpha empath, was using her power to resurrect his most tormented memories and send him right back into them fully.
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"Focus! Center yourself!" The spin kick accented the words, smashing Callin's jaw and sending him spinning to a crumpled heap on the floor. The floor of the underground lab was concrete, yet it somehow seemed even harder to Callin, every time he hit it.
Stars of pain flashed across his vision, his heart was racing painfully, and his lungs were burning. He couldn't remember ever having been this exhausted. They had been sparring for hours, and Callin was wearing down. The telepaths here in the underground lab seemed intent on seeing just how far he could be pushed before he literally couldn't move. It seemed like it took longer than normal for his healing power to drag his jaw back into place, a slow, bone-grinding, throbbing pain that felt like it took hours.
He rolled over and looked up at his martial arts master. The one he had been training with for years now. The man with the emptiest eyes Callin had ever seen. The man known only as Ghost.
"Hard to focus when your jaw is nibbling on your ear." Callin mumbled, reluctantly climbing to his feet.
Ghost circled Callin, a slow, sliding sideways dancing step pattern that mimicked a snake so perfectly that it made Callin unconsciously bare his fangs.
"Oh. Fangs again, huh boy? Are you ready to let go again and learn again why you should never lose control?" Ghost said, his voice little more than a grating whisper.
Callin hated when he heard that harsh whisper. It meant Ghost was about unleash his own powers. It meant Callin was about to get truly thrashed.
He thought about the last few years when he had sparred like this with Ghost, how near the end when he had finally lost control and let his animal instincts take over, Ghost had used his powers and nearly killed him. He couldn't see those memories clearly, all of them tinted red with his rage, but now he noticed a pattern. Ghost had waited till he had attacked, then had went to his left and attacked with a high kick to his head. All three times that he could remember.
Callin let his fangs drop fully, let his claws slide out, and did his best to ignore the seething agony of the open air on his bare bones. He smiled at Ghost, a vicious grimace, all blood and fangs, and then he darted forward with as heartfelt of a rage-filled scream, yet still fake, as he knew how. Except even as he attacked, his right hand was coming up, claws outwards, to sweep across directly in front of his own face, moving towards to his left.
As he had predicted, Ghost went left, neatly dodging the attack, his foot rising up in a devastating side-kick, aimed at Callin's temple.
Ghost's foot smashed into his hand and plowed on through, slamming his own hand into the side of his head, but he had already begun a side flip. The momentum of the kick only accelerated him, the energy in it used up in sending him safely away, not sending a stunning shockwave through his skull.
Callin landed neatly on his feet and slowly raised his right hand, met Ghosts wide eyes, and licked a line of blood of one of his claws.
"Told you I would taste your blood one day." Callin whispered.
A puddle of blood was forming around Ghosts foot. Five long claws had sunk deep into the top of his foot, driven home with great force by his own kick. And Callin had been quick enough to curl his claws as he had went through his side kick. Curling them within Ghosts foot. Ripping out five deep furrows of meat as his claws had been yanked away.
Ghost looked down at his foot, his expression frozen, holding himself very still. Callin waited, bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet, claws held low and ready. Letting just a tiny trickle of his power form an invisible webbing over his entire body. Letting it wrap around him like a second skin. He suspected Ghost would attack with his power next, and he wanted to be ready. But he didn't want Ghost to know he was ready. He wanted to surprise him again. He wanted to use that surprise to kill him.
Ghost raised his head and Callin was stunned to see him smiling. It was a pain-tightened smile, backed by eyes of gray ice, but it was a smile. Callin had never seen Ghost smile. He never wanted to see it again.
"You're finally learning, boy."
Callin only lifted one hand to sniff delicately at the blood covering his claws, then flick his hand away dismissively. Then he lifted his head and dropped his hands, exposing his throat. A vulnerable pose. A direct taunt.
Ghosts smile evaporated, replaced with a thin blade of perfectly controlled fury. He stalked towards Callin, a predator on the move, his eyes beginning to flicker with gray lights.
"Still have more learning to do, I see." He whispered.
Callin held his open, vulnerable pose, not taking his eyes off Ghost. Inside, his power was roiling wildly, just beneath the surface of his conscious mind. Cracks were forming, the beast within was howling and snapping, gnawing its way past his control. He had mere seconds left.
Ghost accidentally timed it perfectly, launching himself at Callin at the very moment that his control broke. The webbing of power that had wrapped around Callin flared to life a split second before Ghosts foot connected with Callin's exposed throat.
Ghost yelled in horror and tried to reverse his direction, tried to pull back. But it was too late. His foot touched Callin, and that sparking, hissing web of power flicked off of Callin and wrapped around Ghost in less than an eye blink.
Callin stepped back as Ghost shut his eyes and clapped his hands together in front of him and pressed his thumbs against his chest. Falling into meditation nearly instantly. Even as the lines of power, the webbing surrounding him entirely, were beginning to sink into his flesh with a smoking, sizzling sound. Cutting their way in, through clothes and skin with a ferocious heat.
Callin crouched down and readied his balance, centered himself, and lengthened the claws on his right hand far past their normal length, ignoring the fiery agony this brought, watching Ghost closely.
He saw the very moment that the web of his power was repelled, when Ghost threw his own power outwards and ripped the web away. He saw the momentary confusion that always followed whenever Ghost drew too deep on his powers. And he launched himself forward silently. A blur in the air, his right hand leading the way, five wicked curved claws leading the way.
He howled with victory when he buried them completely in Ghosts chest, pressing his face right up against his pale, shocked face. He could feel Ghosts heart beating in between his claws. He could feel his very life force, held in his hands.
Ghost was beyond stunned, beyond words. His eyes were stretched eerily wide, looking like comic replicas of human eyes, and his body was rigid, both of his hands wrapped in an inhumanly strong grip around Callin's wrist. Callin could feel his bones flexing under the pressure, but he ignored it. He met Ghosts eyes and snarled as viciously as he could, as loud as he could, right in his face.
Ghost blinked, his eyes seeming to focus on Callin.
"Told you." Callin whisper-snarled. Then he ripped his hand back and out, his claws curled within Ghosts chest cavity. Ripping Ghosts heart into pieces.