Dentelle (42 page)

Jason, roped to the chair, struggling to get loose

Rafe, with his hands raised above his head, standing over
Jason with an evil smile

Me leaning over Jason, sobbing

Sienna standing over Jason, smiling brightly

Jumping to my feet, I turned and spotted Jason.
What did all that mean? With all the pandemonium going on, it was a miracle he
was still lying on the floor untouched. I could see him struggling, wiggling
around, and trying to loosen the knots. “Hold on, babe,” I muttered to myself.
“I’m coming. I’ll get you before Rafe does.”

But as I said those words, Rafe dropped from a
metal grate above and landed on top of Jason, undoubtedly knocking the breath
out of Jason and breaking a few of his bones in the process. Lacking all his
normal strength, Jason was completely vulnerable, and his body had no power to
begin healing itself like it would if he was linked.

Blinking rapidly, Rafe’s wide-set eyes were
alight with deathly fervor. He ground his foot against Jason’s head, and in a
voice rankled with hatred, he said, “You don’t care if I crush his skull or
stake him through the heart, do you?” He pulled a hand out from behind his
back, revealing a rusty metal pipe about four feet long. He raised it above his
head, and the madness in his face intensified. That’s exactly how he’d looked
in the snapshot.

“Noooo!” I screamed. Without even realizing it,
my mind had already picked up the oil drum lids and unleashed them like they
were heat-seeking missiles. Although, I’d tried for a second time to move Rafe,
he was still resistant to my telekinetic ability. I couldn’t lift him off
Jason, and I could see the drum lids were going to be too late. I watched
helplessly as Rafe plunged the pipe through Jason’s stomach. In that moment my
heart stopped beating, and I stopped breathing. Or maybe it wasn’t me at all.
Maybe it was Jason’s heart and Jason’s breath that had stopped, and I only felt
it along with him.

Why had my premonition failed me?

 
Rage and
fear intensified within me, heightening my Flair. Seeing the love of my life
stabbed to death was horrific. Excruciating. Unbearable. I turbo-boosted those
oil drum lids into NASA rocket speeds. One sliced right through Rafe’s body,
and the other one flew on by, missing its mark completely. It was a sight so
gruesome, my stomach started gurgling, and I knew I was going to be sick. But I
didn’t have time to deal with a weak stomach when Jason had a pipe sticking out
of his. I refused to believe he was dead. Or that my premonition had failed me.
Or that I had failed to react in time.

When I was not more than four feet away from
him, I sensed I was about to be clobbered from behind. I ducked, wheeled
around, and came face to face with Zola. Realizing I was an idiot and hadn’t
reinstated my invisibility skills, I immediately disappeared from her sight.
She started kicking and swinging frantically every which way. With no time for
games, I lifted her off her feet and spiraled her towards the ceiling grates.
Over and over, I banged her against the metal platform until she stopped
moving. Then I let her fall to the floor where her lifeless body landed in a
pool of crude oil.

When I finally made it to Jason’s side, there
was blood everywhere, but I couldn’t tell how much of it was from Rafe and how
much of it was his. Dropping to my knees, I cried out in relief to see that at
least he was awake and staring at me. “I’m here. You’re going to be okay. I’m
going to pull this pipe out of you, and it’s going to hurt something terrible.
But I’ll take away the pain. I promise.”

I touched his forehead but registered shock when
I felt nothing. I started screaming and shaking him. Eventually, I found my
voice. “No. No. No. This can’t be right.” I held him, trying to untie ropes and
deliver Essence at the same time. “It’s not supposed to be like this.” Tears poured
down my face in a hot stream. I couldn’t feel any Essence in him. His eyes
weren’t open because he was awake. They were open because he was dead.

I freaked out and yanked the pipe out of his
stomach. I placed my hands over the wound, and infused him with Essence. But he
was unresponsive. I placed my ear against his chest but couldn’t detect a
heartbeat; nor could I feel a breath. Essence flowed through me and into Jason
with hurricane strength. I felt violent like a thunderstorm spawning into a
tornado. Energy coursed through me and into Jason violently – that tornado now
wreaking havoc across his body. I needed my energy to hit him hard, overwhelm
him, jumpstart his heart.

Nothing happened. Everything around us spun in
fast motion. But nothing happened with Jason. I’d never felt more hopeless in
my life. I was a Dentelle, and I couldn’t save the one I loved most in this
world. It wasn’t right. If the Guardians conquered the Ray-pacs here today, and
by the looks of things I imagined they would, how would I carry on without him?
Did I even want to?

Pouring my Essence into him, I gazed around
frantically. I might be invisible, but everyone else wasn’t. I even caught
glimpses of Trevon and Shelby and Jason’s brother Michael. And then I
remembered that Sienna had been in one of the snapshots from my premonition. Of
course, Sienna with her lightning Flair. I needed her to help me bring Jason
back. If Sienna could send a bolt of lightning straight into Jason’s heart
while I saturated the area with Essence to protect the rest of his body and
heal any damage done by her electrical currents, then maybe we could start his
heart. That’s how a defibrillator worked. It delivered a dose of electrical
energy to the heart.

I shot to my feet, remembering I’d read that a
human brain started dying four minutes after a person stopped breathing. I
needed Sienna to shock Jason within the next couple minutes in order for him to
have the best chance of coming back. For once, luck was on my side. I went no
further than twenty feet when I spotted her unleashing lightning bolts.
Becoming visible again, I called out her name. Her eyes registered shock when
she saw me, and she hurried my way, dodging a piece of sheet metal on the way.
I told her I didn’t have time to explain the situation, I just needed her to
come with me and do exactly as I asked.

First, I had her burn through the rope with a
couple lightning strikes, so I could get Jason free of the chair and get him
lying flat on his back. Once she did that, I gave the next order. She was
scared and shocked when I told her to zap his heart with lightning. Looking at
me bug-eyed, like I was crazy, I screamed for her to do it, and she did. All
the while, I continued blasting him with my Essence.

Against all odds, it worked.

Jason shot into a sitting position. Slack-jawed
and wide eyed, his short blonde hair stood on end. He looked stunned and
confused. But damn, he was a gorgeous, welcome sight. I expected him to ask
what had just happened or say something about how he was feeling like he’d been
hit by a train, but he didn’t. Selfless and focused solely on me, he pulled my
body closer to his. “Alex, thank God you’re okay. I’m sorry I couldn’t protect
you from Kieran.” He cupped my face in his hands.

“Oh, Jason,” I cried, wrapping my arms around
his neck. “I’m the one who’s sorry. Are you okay?”

 
He
nodded, his thumbs gently caressing my cheeks. “I feel…electrified. And I feel
like….like I’m drowning in your Essence. Which is an amazing feeling.”

Sienna cleared her throat. Reluctantly, Jason
released me, and we glanced up at her. Rolling her eyes, she said, “I hate to
break it to you, but we’re in the middle of a warzone. And while I’m happy for
you, we’ve got some Ray-pacs to kill.” Blunt and to the point, always eager to
inflict pain – that was Sienna. Before rotating on her heel and bounding away,
she smiled down at us and added, “And this is all Kieran’s fault. So go slay
the beast.”

“Alex,” Jason said anxiously, “are you really
linked with Kieran?”

Taking a deep breath, I nodded. Turning crimson,
his face contorted and his nostrils flared. He started swearing, which he
rarely did, even slurring some of the words. His anger was lethal.

“Listen, though,” I said, grabbing his chin.
“I’m also linked with Ash, Dakota, and Madison. And now I’m going to link with
you too.”

His mouth froze in an open state, and the last
profanity on his lips split in half. He tilted his head sideways and looked me
over like I’d lost my mind. “What? Are you kidding me?”

“Incoming fireball,” I yelled, slamming myself
over him so we were stretched out flat on the floor with me lying on top of
him. Even though he was a bloody mess, and his hair was all electro-static, he
still looked amazingly hot to me. Being this close to him was crazy good even
with all the fighting going on around us. I grabbed his hands, interlocking his
fingers with mine. “Jason Walker, will you link with me?”

“Serious?”

“I’d never joke about this.”

“Is it forever?”

“Yes,” I assured him. His eyes dilated, his pupils
expanding so far there was only a thin ring of blue left surrounding them. I
stretched, so our arms were extended out above our heads. Then I leaned in and
kissed him gently. The heat that rose between us went from warm, to hot, to
intimately sizzling in a matter of seconds – mixing Essence, kissing, passion,
love and linking all at the same time. It was beyond ecstasy, beyond rapture,
and beyond my wildest dreams.

“Alex, I
love you.”

 
Hearing
his voice in my mind sparked a thousand thoughts, a thousand dreams, and a
thousand emotions. Tears of joy, tears of relief and disbelief, and tears of
love cascaded down my cheeks. I was linked with Jason, and there was nothing
that could ever hold us back again.
“I
love you, too.”
Although I hated to, I pulled my lips away from his and sat
up.
“We better join this fight. Because I
plan on winning so we can spend the rest of our lives in each other’s arms.”

“We stick
together,”
he said, squeezing my arms.

“Agreed.”
As we stood up, I realized I had another new Flair. “Oh, sweeet!” I said aloud.
“You just gave me the Flair I’ve been dying to try.”

“What’s that?” he asked curiously, rubbing his
head.

“Shifting!” I grabbed his hands. “What about
you?” He stepped back, and shook his head slowly side to side. “What?” I asked
with concern. “Are you okay?”

“You aren’t going to believe this but I think…”
His aqua eyes sparkled.

“I’m
coming for you, Lexi. You and Jason. Do you see me?”
I shivered and spun
around. Kieran was marching his way toward us. He started letting loose small,
zinging energy spheres. Instinctually, I sprang to the side to avoid one and
then vaulted several feet to avoid another one.

“Jason,
you need to get out of here or one of Kieran’s energy spheres is going to get
you,”
I started to say but noticed he was dodging around them like he knew
where they were going to hit.
“Seriously?”
I said.
“That’s your Flair?”

“
Oh yeah,”
he responded.
“But it’s so much better
than that. You aren’t going to believe it.”
I could hear the smile on his
lips as he spoke and wondered what he was so revved up about.

But right then Ash’s voice entered my mind.
“Lexi, get ready. Kieran’s going down, and
you’re going to witness the whole thing. If you have a weak stomach, you better
close your eyes.”

“Wouldn’t
miss it for the world,”
I said, keeping my eyes glued on Kieran while
dancing my way around his attack. Kieran looked savage and predatory like he
had the first time I’d seen him in the forest in Bellingham. I stared into his
one unblinking, soulless amber eye. The other one was swollen and bloodied, and
his cheek was crusted over with blood. I hoped it was the last time I’d ever
have to see his ugly, evil face.

“You’re
mine, Lexi. We’re meant for each other,”
Kieran roared in my mind.
“I will be a king among Ray-pacs and you
will be my queen.”

“I’m no
one’s queen. But I am, and always will be, a Dentelle,”
I said with grit.
Showing my superiority, I lifted him off his feet so he couldn’t come any
closer. His lips curled into an ugly sneer and his face scrunched up with rage as
he treaded air.

I spotted Ash. It was like he had one of his
energy spheres attached to a lasso. He was spinning the thin, cutting disc
round and round above his head. It glowed orange but was tinged blue around the
edges. Bronco colors, I thought. How fitting. The long rope-like lasso glowed
as well. It kind of looked like an LED yo-yo on a lighted string. But Ash’s toy
could slice through anything. And that’s exactly what he did with it. Extending
the glowing rope outwards, it stretched further and further, until the two-foot
round disc wavered a couple feet from Kieran’s head.

“You can’t hurt me,” Kieran screeched, returning
fire at Ash. But in that instant, Ash slackened the rope even more, and the
disc sliced right through Kieran. It zipped back and forth, chopping through
Kieran several times. I would have closed my eyes at the gruesome scene, but
all of a sudden a knife-cutting pain surged through my body. Almost as if Ash
had lanced me with his death disc, too. I could feel that my link with Kieran
had been severed, but the pain was building…excruciating. I stopped, gasped for
air and crumpled to the ground, writhing in pain.

Jason fell with me, covering me. I don’t know
why. Maybe protecting me from some other danger or possibly comforting me. Either
way, his touch relaxed me, and allowed me to focus on healing myself or at
least blocking out some of the pain. I was surprised. I mean, with all my
super-powered energy, how could I be so susceptible? No wonder Dakota had
barely survived her break with Kohana. It was all I could do to hold it off
with my Essence. Maybe it was because I’d been linked with a Ray-pac. At this
point, I didn’t care. Kieran Black was dead. And I was free. I cried. But this
time it was with relief.