Bladed Wings (38 page)

              “I look at this world. I see too much evil. Too many people have to suffer. Kids don’t have food. People have broken hearts.” Seth paused like this next part would hurt too much, but he spoke like he had to punish himself, “Too many kids lost their parents.”

              “We could help them.” If they had these abilities, they could use them. He saved her, one act which proved they could change lives.

              “Maybe.” His answer proved he had listened, not that he agreed with her. As they continued to walk, Kayla reached down and took his hand. She thought he’d pull away. He didn’t, and that felt good in a couple ways. “You want me to teach you?”

              They cleared another five steps when he loosened his hand from her grip. Kayla tried to pretend she didn’t miss the heat from his fingers. She shouldn’t have cared.

              “I need to be able to protect myself.”

              “You did a good job last time.”

              “That was accidental. I can’t be helpless, Seth.”

              “It’s not like I can give you a textbook and tell you which chapters to read.” He looked around again, probably checking to make sure no one heard this. “But I can do something else. I don’t know if it would even work.”

              “What?”

              “I’m good with thoughts and memories. I’ve done this before, but never with someone like me.”

              “What?”

              “I’ve spent a lot of time using my abilities. I could try to transfer that same information to you.” He glanced away, then met her gaze.

              “You can do that?”

              “I did it with some other people when I wanted them to have my information and experiences. It worked fairly well. But you’re like me, Kayla. I don’t know how you’d react.”

              “Would it hurt?” Kayla shook her head, “You know what? I don’t care.”

              “You’re sure?” he said. “I think I know what I’m doing, but there aren’t any guarantees.”

              “What do we have to do?”

              “I take your hands, you clear your mind and try not to think of anything, and I show you everything you need to know.”

              “When can we do it?”

              “I don’t need to prepare. We just need to be close.”

              “Like now?” she asked. “Okay then, now. We do it now.”

              “You’re kidding.”

              Kayla stopped. Hands on her hips, she hoped she looked intimidating. “Yes. I need to know what I’m doing.” She wanted him to know he could trust her too. “Let’s do it now.”

              “I don’t want to hurt you.”

              “I trust you.” She closed her eyes for a second, exhaled, and waited for him to do it.

              “Are you ready?” he didn’t sound nervous the same way he never sounded lonely.

Kayla nodded once. His breath slowed as he bit down on his lower lip. In another moment, she would’ve said he looked cute like that, this scary mindbender who got scared of what he was about to do. He did it before, and Kayla knew he wouldn’t try this if he didn’t think he’d succeed.

              Seth took her left hand. Kayla reached out and took his right. Their palms touching, she followed his lead as he laced his fingers through hers. Against the cold, their hands were warm together, but then Kayla lost sense of that.

              At first, she felt a trickle of imagery. The cold and sound of wind and cars faded away. She didn’t feel the ground beneath her feet or the flutter of her pants against her legs. The feel of something hard beneath her replaced that and there was warmth on her face. This was Seth’s memory, she realized and started to see through his eyes. A dog sat in front of him. He stared at it until he could feel its thoughts and instincts. The image flashed to something faster. A clerk at some empty restaurant. Seth reached out and felt her fatigue and started to read through her thoughts, the jabbed feeling that her boyfriend was probably cheating on her. Days blurred into weeks, into months, into years, more practice for sharpened abilities until Seth could read any thought or memory, insert any compulsion or need. No one could say no.

              As he taught her the intuitions and instincts to control her abilities, Kayla saw flashes of his life. She saw him at eleven when he skipped a field trip because he didn’t have parental consent. She saw him at fourteen when he caught the flu and waited it out, alone in an empty house. She saw him at fifteen with a razor in one hand as he figured out how shave without a father’s advice. She saw him in class when the teacher said to partner with a friend, and he looked around for someone to coerce. Kayla could feel Seth, the real Seth, fight against those images. It was like he was trying to hold it back, and she tried not to look, but those flashes seeped through. There was too much to hide, too much he couldn’t block.

              It ended when he let go over her hands. That connection broke and the flashes vanished. Kayla stumbled back, and Seth had his fingers pressed into his forehead, his eyes locked shut. “Are you okay?” he wanted to know when he could blink his eyes open. It was almost dark, but it looked like every sliver of light stabbed into him. “Did I hurt you?”

              Everything spun around her and she almost fell into the grass. She managed to keep her footing. “No. No, I’m fine.”

              “Did it work?”

              This time it didn’t take any concentration. She used the same instincts he’d trained in himself for the last six or seven years. She saw a rock on the sidewalk. He held out her hand, palm up, lifted her hand and watched the stone rise at the same speed, same angle.

              “Yeah,” she said, “It worked.”

              “Good,” he said. “Goodbye.” He strode away, graceful and lean like someone who wanted to be polite and escape too much to say. Kayla wanted to call out to him and ask him to stay, but she didn’t. As he got back into his car, she wondered why he left so fast. At first, she thought it was because he thought it was a mistake. Seth just handed her a powerful weapon. Before that, she didn’t know how to use her abilities, not really. Any fight would’ve been hit or miss, but now she had perfect control. He gave her that and now he left.

              It was a plausible idea and it would’ve made sense, but it didn’t feel right. No, she realized, he was scared she saw something. As his car’s tires scraped up dust and gravel, she knew he was right. She saw more of his life, all of those little flashes that still hovered at the edge of her thoughts. He might’ve been alone, but he wasn’t the paranoid freak who wanted to conquer the world. He wasn’t that at all.

              Kayla walked home through the dark. Once in every few steps, when she was sure no one was around, she even held out her fingers and flicked them along the ground. Random rocks, a random paper cup, a derelict soda can were flung away. To anyone else, it would’ve looked like a corny magic trick. Someone would’ve looked for the fishing line. To Kayla, she saw the swirls of energy. It was like she could see the atoms and molecules, how they moved, and a flick of her wrist could move them around like a breeze against grains of sand.

              When she got home, her parents were gone, both of their cars gone. Inside, she found Everett at the TV, a controller in his hands. “Hey,” she said, feeling bad about how little she saw her little brother. That wasn’t entirely true. She saw him lots. They just never talked. It was hard with a sixth grade boy who played games that looked more like nightmares.

              Everything mottled green, darkened red, and black, it took Kayla a second to understand what she saw. Yellow explosions blossomed over an orange sky. Slate red ground rushed by. To one side was Everett’s gun, a hulking cannon of some kind. It looked like it should’ve weighed twenty or thirty pounds and sparked every few seconds. Numbers and symbols circled the screen.

              “Doing well?” Kayla asked because she remembered her little brother’s five minute lecture on how modern video games had evolved away from the win/loss binary. Most games now were about mission objectives which could be met with varying degrees of success. She couldn’t ask if he liked this level since most games were made of zones and were sandbox style which meant the player could move through his objectives in whatever order he chose. He could make those kinds of points, but he struggled to write a paragraph response for his literature class.

              “Not bad,” he said as he slammed a button. The cannon fired. Arachnid aliens crested the horizon just as Everett’s first round exploded among their ranks. He switched weapons, the cannon disappeared, replaced by something that looked like a two handed Uzi. He sprayed bullets, but thought this was easy enough to glance over at his sister, “You?”

              “Fine.” She had her eyes on the screen. He didn’t like it when she stared, “How about with mom and dad. You’re okay with that?”

              “They love us, right?”

              “Yes.”

              “Meh. Doesn’t matter then. Food, shelter, power, games, what else is there in life?”

              “You really zone out into this stuff, don’t you?” Kayla didn’t expect an answer as the screen flashed red as different spider pincers bit into his character.

              “Concentrating.”

              “You don’t think you should go outside or something?” that sounded so lame. Kayla knew it, but it was out before she could stop herself. Even the boys from Youth Group spent most of their free time on these games. Unless it involved singing, dancing, or playing with her friends, those games didn’t make sense to her.

              Everett didn’t take offense, probably because he’d heard that question from teachers and librarians through most of his life, “No. The outside is boring. I’ve been there thousands of time. I’ve seen houses and sidewalks. But I’ve never had the chance to face down an Araracnizar swarm with just two power clips.” He spoke and clicked the same time, his thumbs a furious storm of combinations and commands, “If outside can fill me with the same excitement as saving a planet, wiping out a species, or make me wonder about the best strategy, then sure, I’ll go outside. Until then, I’ll stick with the next best thing.”

              Kayla smiled and shook her head. “Seriously,” Everett said. “You go out and play baseball. You have three possible outcomes: win, lose, and tie. Play a game you don’t know and suddenly there are trillion different plot points. It’s what you decide, it’s what the game’s programmed to do, and you’re usually dealing with a bunch of other people. Did you know there are games that have millions of players? Millions of players means millions of different possibilities.”

              “So you’re really okay?”

              “Fine,” he went back to the game. Face blank, he smiled when he got to hear the splatter of a spider when its skull was blown off under a storm of simulated lead.

              Kayla swallowed the awkwardness at this part. Maybe she didn’t want her parents using her as a weapon in their two-person war, but she had to keep track of her siblings. They were right about that part anyway.

              Upstairs, Kayla stopped by Skyler’s room. Everett had her video games. Skyler didn’t have the same kind of refuge. Tapping the door, Kayla pushed the door open. “Sky? You awake.” It was dark inside.

              Skyler had her knees pulled up, her hands wrapped around her phone. She texted with one of her friends. Kayla didn’t want to interrupt, so she just asked, “You okay?”

              “Fine,” Skyler said back without glancing up.

              That left Kayla alone to her room. She had some time to catch up on some more homework. Deciding that her teachers handed out too much homework, Kayla got out her books and started working through the different assignments. Some Spanish exercises, a response paper for English, and some equations that made her skull hurt for math.

              After another hour and a half, she wanted to get something to eat. Her parents weren’t home, so it would’ve been pretty safe. Having either parent down there would be a minefield. Arms stretched over her head, she decided to do one more problem before she went downstairs for food.

              Kayla’s phone buzzed from her pocket. For an instant, she hoped something would happen. This would be the message from Dean that would explain what happened. It would be Allie or someone else from Youth Group, and the fight could be over. When she flipped her phone open and saw the message, it read:
Kayla. We need to talk. I’m outside.
The number was listed as unknown.

              When Kayla looked out from her window, she didn’t see anyone on the street. It was dark and there could’ve been someone down in the shadows. Flexing her thoughts and the control over her abilities, Kayla grabbed a coat, slipped on some sandals, and headed outside.

              If this was Vigo, she wouldn’t say anything about Seth. If he wanted trouble, she figured she could drop a car on his head. Definitely not her first choice, but she didn’t have to feel like the helpless princess either.

              Silence clouded down on the street. Little sounds jostled from the dark. Crickets and a car somewhere in the distance filled the silence with slow, distant sounds. Kayla walked toward the sidewalk until she noticed someone leaning against a car across the street. A woman with blond hair lounged there with her arms over her chest.