Nighthawks (Children of Nostradamus Book 1) (16 page)

They all grew quiet as they watched Conthan open another void in the air. Vanessa smiled at the confidence she could see building in the man. She knew for him, this was a form of playing hero. She worried about when reality caught up to him and he saw none of them were the heroes of comic books. For now, she was happy to see he felt as if he belonged.

Chapter Thirteen

May 18th, 2032 10:07AM

Are
you all right, Twenty-Seven?

I am.

“I am,” she said.

There was a pause. Twenty-Seven watched as people rushed back and forth, yelling for medical supplies. Since they had returned from the raid, there had been little rest. She had played medic until a small child had been brought in. Unlike the wounded soldiers who participated in the raid, the kid had died from radiation poisoning. His small body had admitted defeat and given up, shutting down organ after organ.

I can feel the guilt washing over you.

I saw a child die today.

“I saw a child die today,” she said aloud.

She rested her face in her hands, trying to remove the image of the kid’s scarred face from her mind. Two more people ran into the makeshift trauma ward with supplies and began barking orders. A man was going to lose his leg. There was a surgeon who lived with them. He was capable, a volunteer who came to the Outlands like it was a third world country in need of saving.

I am sorry.

Twenty-Seven didn’t know how to respond. She was a housewife torn from her home for standing up to an abusive husband. She didn’t expect to be thrust into the middle of a fight between opposite sides of the fence. Worse, she didn’t expect to watch a child die. She covered her face while she cried.

I am coming.

What can you do?

Twenty-Seven dropped her hands, and instead of seeing the red carpet of the hotel, she saw pavement speeding by. She gasped. She could feel the wind blowing in her hair and the sharp turns as a person dodged and weaved through abandoned cars.

What’s happening?

I am coming to you. Right now you’re seeing what I see.

How are you doing this?

I assume all telepaths have the ability to enter another person’s mind. I’m unsure if they have the ability to call someone into their own.

The hotel was visible, but as if it were a distant memory. Instead, in that moment she was flying down the interstate at breakneck speeds. There was a calm about her despite the potential disaster. The hair on her arms stood on end as it responded to the phantom sensation of wind crossing her skin.

Vanessa’s robes flapped in the wind as she leaned the bike to the side, darting around a tractor trailer. She quickly reversed the lean to dodge a car. She gripped the accelerator and turned it further, watching the gauge on the bike push ninety-five miles per hour.

You’re riding a motorcycle?

My wings make riding in a car difficult. I have never been a fan of confined spaces.

Twenty-Seven was amazed with how fast the woman reacted to oncoming cars. There was something freeing about the potential for danger at every turn.
There is no danger,
she thought. At the first sign of losing control, her wings would carry her to safety. She wondered if the angel had always been so in control of her world, riding the fine line between reckless and secure.

All good observations.

Twenty-Seven could feel the woman’s smile on her own lips.

There was a long pause before she asked,
We’re going to die. I mean, me, I’m going to die here, aren’t I?

Vanessa considered the question. She had always avoided thinking about the longevity of the Outlanders. Their ranks rarely increased unless she brought individuals banished by law enforcement. If the bandits that ran rampant in the Outlands didn’t kill them, the radiation would ultimately end their lives prematurely.

See
? said Twenty-Seven from her perch on a hallway couch.

This is the first time somebody has been able to hear my thoughts. I apologize, child. I am on my way. I believe I have a solution for all in the Outlands. I will be there shortly.

Twenty-Seven blinked and was again in the hotel. She took a deep breath as her body adjusted to the lack of wind cooling her skin. A man holding blankets dropped several in front of her. She reached down and grabbed them. “What can I do to help?”

***

They
entered through the large mahogany doors. A grand staircase, made from a stone he could not identify, led them to the second floor of the museum. His synapses were firing, recalling lectures from art history. Each vase they passed up the stairs reminded him of long-forgotten cultures and how they used the vessels.

The others walked in front of him, oblivious to the masterpieces in their presence. He reached the rotunda at the top of the stairs, greeted by large marble sculptures of men holding spears. The titans lorded over him, threatening at any moment to break the silence with war cries or rallying Greek armies.

“You’ve never been here before?”

Conthan stared up to the stained glass dome covering the rotunda. The world outside was falling apart, decaying around them. In these walls, decay was a mark of triumph, an object’s determination to survive past its time. It wouldn’t be long before the building was reclaimed by nature.

“No,” he muttered.

Conthan caught Dwayne staring at him. Conthan noticed a hardness about the man. Physically he was a big softy, but something about his eyes and the clenched jaw made him seem tough. The scars on his neck and shoulders looked like a road map to a lethal destination. He was the leader in the field, barking orders to keep them all alive.

Dav5d rested his hand on Conthan’s shoulder, startling him. “You studied art history? College?”

Conthan was unnerved by the man. Dwayne assured him Dav5d wasn’t psychic, but his ability to read a person was frightening. Conthan nodded. “I studied at Parsons. I recognize the statues from textbooks.”

“Your eyes were darting back and forth slowly enough so I knew your frontal lobe was processing the information. The amount of time that lapsed suggested it must be a memory.”

Conthan walked around the rotunda. Dav5d’s abilities and social skills lacked Vanessa’s finesse. Where Vanessa could reach into his mind and pull at specific thoughts, with Dav5d it was his actions betraying him. He had close friends growing up, but every person kept secrets. It was becoming more and more apparent there would be no secrets between him and his newfound friends.

“You get used to him,” Dwayne said. “For a human computer, he’s slowly learning to respect people’s personal boundaries. You’re just a new equation to him. Once he has you figured out he’ll leave you alone.”

“So many parts of that sentence are wrong,” Conthan said, walking through a set of doors into a room filled from floor to ceiling with European masters.

“You should see him with my sister. He’s still yet to figure her out.”

“She’s a little…”—Conthan paused, seeing the change on Dwayne’s face—“…random?”

“Smart man,” Dwayne said, patting him on the back.

“Her predisposition for acts out of the ordinary could be attributed to a restructuring of her neural pathways during electroshock therapy.”

“Shut it, Dave.”

Conthan raised his eyebrows. The human computer reminded him of a kid in high school who suffered from an extreme case of Asperger’s. The kid had been a genius in math class, able to do things even the teacher had difficulty doing without a calculator. However, he had trouble expressing himself and more often than not would wind up yelling during conversations to make sure he was heard. He lacked the ability to read social situations. Dav5d was that kid on mental steroids. He put a mental pin in the conversation; he’d ask Dwayne about his sister at a later time when it was just the two of them.

“We should get started.”

“What exactly are we doing?” asked Conthan.

“We’re going to slap some doohickeys on you and let Dav5d figure out how you work. I’m here for moral support while you learn to control your powers.”

“I’ve used them once on my own.”

Dav5d reached into his pocket and pulled out small transparent circles. “These will read biological signs as you access your powers. I will be able to figure out the stressors necessary for you to create these voids.”

Conthan caught the expression on Dwayne’s lips. “Why are you smiling?”

“I’m the stressor,” Dwayne said, flicking his palms open. Small sparks rained down to the floor below.

“Oh shit,” Conthan groaned. “You’re all psychotic.”

“Back up,” Dwayne said. “You’ll need a little breathing room.”

Conthan took several steps backward as Dwayne did the same. The room was well over two hundred feet long. Conthan continued putting space between them. He knew they were going to test his powers. He didn’t think the senior member of this operation was going to hurl bolts of lightning at him for a warmup.

“I want to go on record that you’re both assholes.”

“I see why Skits likes him,” Dav5d said with an awkward grin.

“She’s always been a fan of loudmouth men.”

“Much like her brother.” Dav5d smiled at Dwayne, forcing the awkward expression until it seemed almost painful.

“We need to work on your puns.”

Dwayne pulled off his t-shirt, tossing it to the ground. Sparks continued to jump from his hands to his torso. He had done this with a dozen newly awakened Children before. This was the first time the person on the other end of the room had an ability more impressive than his own. He had spent the better part of a decade tackling the wild nature of his lightning. He hoped with some guidance, it wouldn’t take Conthan as many errors to get a grip.

Dav5d pulled out a small silver ball. He let it go in the air and it began scanning Conthan, projecting a plethora of vitals in front of Dav5d. “I’m ready.”

“Ready?” Dwayne asked Conthan.

“To have lightning hurled at me? Yeah, I woke up thinking this would be…”

Bolts erupted from Dwayne’s fists, flying in the general direction of the newest recruit. Lightning struck the floor and punched a wall near Conthan, leaving burn marks as it sought out its target. He jumped out of the way, rolling along the floor.

“Not liking this!”

“Heart rate elevated. His neurotransmitter epinephrine levels are rising. Temperature rising and lung activity rising.”

“He’s scared, I get it.”

Conthan clenched his fists, trying to find that sensation at the back of his skull. The smell of burning ozone brought him back to reality, distracting him. Dwayne had both fists up. The snap of the lightning sounded its release from his hands. Conthan ducked, his hands covering his head.

“You’re not going to be able to duck forever.”

“His vitals are remaining far calmer than I would have expected.”

Dwayne held his hands to his sides. The snap sounded again as electricity flooded from his skin’s surface all along his hands and torso. The lightning arced all about the room, more wildly than when he started. Dwayne squinted, looking away from the electricity.

Conthan raised his head long enough to see there was no way to duck the oncoming barrage from his trainer. He fell backward, landing on his butt. The lightning slowed. The pain ruptured through the base of his skull. The floodgates opened.

Conthan made no gesture. Survival was the only thought he could focus on.
Do not die.
The black disc appeared hovering in the middle of the air. There was no resistance as he opened the portal into nothingness. His mind raced, moving more quickly than the lightning approaching him.

His eyes were open, the scene before him didn’t vanish, and yet he wasn’t looking through his eyes anymore. One end of the portal was open and his power screamed to create an exit. It took effort to not let his abilities chose the destination of the second void. As the wave of lightning entered the portal, a surge in his brain forced him to open a second to the side of Dwayne.

Dwayne didn’t have time to react as lighting poured out of the second portal, hurling him against the wall. He hit the floor with an oomph and sucked in a deep breath. He inspected his body for burns but was lucky enough the electricity only knocked him to the floor.

“It’s fascinating,” Dav5d said, passing his hand through the portal. He watched it appear from the void on the far end of the room. The small sphere in the air produced a red beam, scanning the black circle hanging above the ground.

“You have produced a miniature black hole, or the closest thing to it I can relate. You’ve managed to bend space.” Dav5d turned to Dwayne, who was picking himself up from the ground. “Most of the Children of Nostradamus have benign powers that are repeated elsewhere in nature. Alyssa and myself and even Dwayne only have control over our own bodies. Yours, Conthan, has a release valve that is a bit more of a spectacle. Vanessa, Skits, and now Conthan are able to control things beyond their physical selves. Vanessa’s abilities defy a scientific explanation for the time being.”

Conthan stepped closer to them. His eyes were black orbs, void of any color.