Bladed Wings (33 page)

              When she blinked, Kayla’s vision shifted. All around her, she saw the people, desks, and posters. But she saw another layer. Strands of energy tied the world together. She saw them sway and vibrate, a hundred different colors overlaid on everything else. Kayla blinked looked around and saw it everywhere.

She turned back to the pencil and flicked her finger from beneath her desk. The pencil slid half an inch. She did it again. It moved another half inch. She arched her hand under her desk and heard the pencil hit the linoleum floor.

Terrified that someone saw that or made the connection, Kayla ducked down. When no one said anything, she peeked at her classmates. No one noticed. No one cared.

              Someone knocked at the door and came inside. Sunlight sliced across the room, but Kayla didn’t look back. It was most likely just one of the office aides who went around the classes to pick up the attendance rosters. “They need Kayla Knack in the office.” That’s when she turned around. Before she saw whoever said that, she expected a police officer. Erin was wrong. Tristan said she attacked him.

              But it wasn’t a cop, or at least he didn’t wear a uniform. Instead it was a guy, maybe twenty or so, who just looked bored. He had on jeans and a suit jacket, probably one of the office secretaries. Their teacher decided the same thing because he just nodded for Kayla to go. “Do I need my stuff?” she asked and aimed for casual.

              “Yeah, you should probably bring it.” Kayla tried to hear something in the way he said that. She grabbed her pencil off the floor, tucked her notes into her binder, and her binder into her backpack. Their teacher droned on with his slides, but it felt like everyone stared at her. It felt like they saw something. They knew something about her. She knew it wasn’t true, but the feelings still stuck anyway.

              Outside, the sunlight was bright and stung her eyes. It was cold even with the sun right overhead. A breeze cut through her jeans and sneakers even if it didn’t manage to get through her jacket. “Beautiful day,” said her escort.

              “Yeah.”

              “Any idea what this is about?” he started for the offices on the other side of campus. Kayla never really got why their school needed separate buildings for attendance, administration, and something called educational services.

              “No,” she didn’t look at him.

              “It’s about last night,” he sounded cheerful and didn’t glance back even when she looked at him, hoping for something more.

              “Last night?”

              “Last night something happened at a party.” When they came to a bench, her escort stopped and sat down. One leg over the other, he braced his arm against the backrest. “Something happened last night. Didn’t it?”

              “Who are you?” He wasn’t a secretary. Kayla would’ve felt really scared again except she saw one of the campus police about a hundred yards down the hall.

              He gave a little bow with a sharp grin. “My name is Cyrus, and I’m here to help you.”

              “Help me?”
              “I know what happened to you last night. I know what you were doing just now.”

              “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

              “You knocked a pencil off your desk.”

              “So?” Kayla asked. She didn’t know this man or what he wanted, so she wouldn’t admit anything until she knew he was trustworthy. In the first forty seconds they met, she saw him lie. “Lots of people drop stuff.”

              Cyrus nodded like that made perfect sense. “Except your didn’t touch it. You knocked it off a flat desk without touching it. Tell me I’m wrong.”

              Kayla couldn’t, so she went with a question instead. “You know what’s going on?”

              “I do. That’s why I came to find you.”

              “What do you want?”

              “To let you know about certain opportunities that might present themselves.” He said it with the kind of smile Kayla usually expected from guys who sold cell phones out of kiosks at the mall. “But right now, I’m just here as a friend.”

              “We don’t know each other.”

              “Not yet. But there’s a lot you don’t know, isn’t there?” Cyrus asked like he already knew the answer. Kayla didn’t like how he knew about last night. Even if he didn’t know the specifics, he knew about the pencil.

              “Okay. What’s going on then?” She’d let him prove himself.

              “You’re not human.”

              “You’re crazy.” She didn’t know how, but everything must’ve been a lucky guess or something, because he had to be wrong. She had hands, feet, a heart, she’d gotten her checkup, and everyone agreed she was human. Even Alyssa wouldn’t go that far, no matter what else she might say. “I’m a person.”

              “Okay. You are human, but also more than human,” he said like he had to agree with some nitpicking point she just made. “You’ve changed. Something clicked inside of you, and now you’re not quite human. That’s how I found you.”

              “Because I’m different,” she finished for him in a tone that promised she still thought he was insane. “What am I then?”

              “You’re a nascent, someone with some very special abilities. Judging from the damage you did to that boy, I’m guessing you’re very strong.” Move didn’t sound like the right word. Throw, break, or toss might’ve been better.

              “This is real?”

              “Very much so.” Cyrus stood up and slipped a thin card from his wallet. “Give me a call once you’ve had a chance to digest this. Whether or not you want more information, you’re life has become just got a lot more complicated. A friendly face and some helpful advice might prove useful.” He gave another little when she took his card. Another smile before he headed for the parking lot. When he whistled, the sounds reverberated through the hall.

              As Kayla stood there, the lunch bell rang. Each classroom door shot open and students rushed out, hungry or just eager to get away from their teachers and class work. Kayla drift along with the crowd out between the arts, English, and math buildings, and toward the cafeteria at the center of the campus. Like always, she glanced around at the different groups. Athletes, overachievers, gamers, Goths, and a bunch of other labels hung together as they ate, laughed, and counted through those precious seconds of freedom before they had to be back at their desks. Kayla saw her old friends there.

              It always felt weird, seeing them and knowing she couldn’t join them. It wasn’t like before when she could sit down. No, everything from home spilled into there, and now she didn’t have those friends. Instead, Kayla went over and sat down with Erin and Isaac. Despite everything, Kayla knew it could’ve been much worse. If nothing else, this proved who she could rely on.

              Isaac and Erin were at the end of the same table where they sat each day. Before they started dating, they sat across from each other and teased each other. All flirting, they played their games back and forth. Now they did the same thing, except they scooted closer and laughed. Kayla kind of had to sit opposite them, so she always got to sit in front of the chipper couple as they teased each other.

              “Hear anything else?” Kayla asked.

              Erin shook her head. “Nope. Same stuff as before. We probably won’t learn anything else till after school.”

              Isaac shook his head, “We should have seen this coming. He wasn’t a gamer. You can’t trust people who don’t play video games.” Kayla shook her head, but she had to remind herself that they didn’t know. For them, Tristan was a rumor, something to distract them from the prison of high school.

              “I thought they were supposed to make you more violent. Not less.”

              “No,” he said as he unwrapped a sandwich. “Common misconception. People think that because you run around gutting bad guys that you must be violent too. But it’s kind of like watching movies. You spend two hours eating popcorn and watching some serial killer chop up some coeds, but it’s fun and you feel better when it’s done. It lets you get out all that darkness.”

              “I don’t know if I like that idea.”

              “That you carry something evil?” Isaac rolled his fingers on the air. “It’s true. Something could be inside of you. Something evil. And one day, it might take over.” He grinned. It was a joke, obviously. But Kayla still felt something squirm inside of her. Without thinking, she flashed on Tristan. He must have noticed the twisted expression across her face when he added, “C’mon. It’s just a good way to relax.”

              “By killing things?”

              “Imaginary things.” Isaac stretched his arms over his head and so-not-subtly wrapped one of them around Erin who snuggled against his chest. They were really cute, the kind of cute that made other people feel just a little nauseous. “Besides. They’re bad guys. Usually.”

              “Usually?” Kayla had out her half sandwich and a bag of chips she’d pulled out before heading to school.

              “That’s the joy of modern video gaming. Half the time you get to be the bad guy too. Because c’mon, everyone wants to slaughter some civilians every once in a while.”

              “You’re kidding.”

              “Nope. War crimes are the new way to play.”

              “That’s gross, really, really gross.” Kayla thought about some of those scenes she saw in what her brother played. Half the time he went around and slaughtered bears or goats. She didn’t want to think about him leading an army to cut down a bunch of regular people.

              “Maybe,” he said. “But how can you know good without knowing evil?”

              “You can.”

              Isaac stopped for a second, “You think so?”

              “You can. If you look inside of yourself. Or pray.” Kayla didn’t like bringing up that second part. All of her old friends, former friends, the kids at the other table, they would’ve understood. They all knew each other through youth group. Prayer was a given, but Kayla knew a lot of people didn’t understand. They didn’t have that kind of relationship with God. That’s why she kept it vague, “If you know where to look, you can find goodness anywhere.”

              “If you say so.” He held up his can of Coke in a toast that he probably didn’t believe.

              “Don’t be mean,” Erin said when she looked up from her phone. “She believes what she believes and you shouldn’t judge her for it.”

              Hands up like he wanted to surrender, “Hey, I’m not judging.”

              Erin held one hand over her mouth, “He totally was.”

              “I heard that.”

              “I know,” she said and grinned back at him. “You were meant to.”

              “Hey guys,” Kayla said as she rolled up the last bits of her lunch. “I have to go study for a little while in the library. I’ll see you around.” She pulled her backpack over her shoulder and headed outside. She thought she felt her ex-friends staring or at least notice her leave, but she didn’t turn around to check. She didn’t think she wanted to know either way.

              Cold air hit her with the first step outside. Heavy clouds hung on the air like a panting. Maybe it wouldn’t rain, but there wouldn’t be any sunlight for a while either. As she looked at the sky, Kayla really wished there would’ve been some light. She imagined warmth along her face and down to her skin. She thought of bright colors rather than the pallid gray and blue that seemed to filter out any chance of excitement. Winter used to be okay, but with everything else that was happening, yeah, she really decided not to like it.

One leg crossed over the other, Seth leaned against the wall. Arms over his chest, he had his eyes on her like she’d been expected. “Last night. Did you just fight him off?”

              Kayla stopped, stared ahead for a second, and said, “I thought nothing happened.”

              When he pushed away from the wall and came up on her, Kayla could see the irritation that lined his face. It was the special kind of frustration that came from someone who thought this should’ve been a lot easier and a lot quicker. “You didn’t just fight him. Did you?”

              “What else could it have been?” she asked. After Cyrus, Kayla didn’t know who she should trust. Seth wasn’t her friend even if he might’ve helped her last night.

              “Did something else happen last night?”

              “Just Tristan.”

              “How’d you knock him into the wall like that?”

              “Adrenaline?”

              “Bull. Something else happened. Something completely different. That’s why Cyrus was here. That’s why he came and spoke with you.”

              “You know about that?” Obviously, but Kayla didn’t see how he could have. She and Cyrus had been alone in the hall.

              “People saw you. They talk.” That wasn’t much of an answer, but Kayla knew he wouldn’t tell her anything. There was something about the way he looked out at the rest of the world, something about how he spoke and walked. He didn’t look like everyone else. Something pressed down on him, she realized, with no idea of what that might’ve been.