Siphon (Siphon Chronicles, Book One) (18 page)

“That’s for violating me.”

I punched Daniel in the shoulder making no dent whatsoever then let the masses know we were indeed somewhat of an item but not securely solid.  “And if for one moment you should think this makes me like you more, it doesn’t.  Kiss me when I want to be kissed Daniel Crawford.”

I side-fisted the door with a booming knock and screamed to be let out.  I’d won.  Unfairly and not very well by my own standards, but to the naked eye, I was superbly normal in their eyes. 

Grunting like pigs, both guys followed after me.  Stumbling and lopsided, they leaned on walls as they went.  High-fives went out to me from every direction.  The walls right outside were lined with blinding smiles.  The high ceilings held spotlights that focused on the sterile white replays of myself and the “battle” I’d just been through.  Every ten feet or so were hidden videos playing it out like a movie.  Cameras, players, sound proof walls…what else were they hiding?

The whole setup looked like an arena, but the room was the size of a rich man’s bathroom much like the taco shop style practice room.  The room could barely fit three people side by side while walking.  I guess an underground surround sound movie room was out of the question. The halls weren't any roomier.

I enjoyed the fame until I came face to face with Mr. Phoenix Crawford, Daniel’s father.  His stern look left me speculating over what he saw that I didn’t.

“Well done.  I’ve never seen a female knock my Dane out quite so formally.  You’ve just what we want.”

First, I wasn’t happy with picturing “Dane” taking out any other females.  Second, I was the opposite of what he really wanted, but he wasn’t in the know.  Third, IT WORKED!

I bowed with a scowl trying to not look so happy about the turn out.  Mr. Crawford touched my shoulder and pressed in, passed by me through the crowded hall, and shoulder clapped his son standing in the doorway.

“She is a beauty son.  You did well.”

I felt worse than I ever had.  No, I didn’t have my real parents, but Daniel did.  And his father was proud of his ability to bring in a human being, treat her like a dummy sack, and prove to him something he wouldn’t have believed from his own son’s lips.  Daniel had the look of pride in his eyes from pleasing his father, but it faded away the second he looked my direction.  Bent forward, his father was whispering in his ear.  I don’t know what was said, but Daniel didn’t like it.

He half smiled to his father and nodded as he walked away. 

Jason knuckle bumped Jock and congratulated him.  I had no idea why.  I didn’t even know they were friends. I had Jason all kinds of figured wrong for longer than I wished to admit.

Jock made a sneering comment in my direction ever being the bad guy.  However, he stopped abruptly in front of me, and without notice to anyone else, bowed his head.  Oddly, Jason winked in my direction the second after.  I smelled a conspiracy in play.

“If you are a friend of Crawford’s, you are a friend of mine.”  He shook my hand filling the corridor with wild gasps.  Then Jock added, “You would all do well to follow suit.  Lark Spur is not without power even if it’s a rather boring version of our own.  Mark my words, she will go places.”

Some cheered.  Some mumbled threats.  Some just stayed stationary in wait for what would happen next.  Tracy mentioned something about getting a sandwish to celebrate.  Ordinary high school wasn’t much different than this, just here it was with all eighteen and older and enhanced with freaky abilities.  In a way, I am not sure there is a growing up stage.  It’s more like a reality stage.  As in…no going back.

If anyone could have read my mind when I kissed that girl, they’d have called me insane.  Her voice was like an angelic seashell screaming at me to be freed.  The second verse screamed out like an angry ocean that only I could free.  I’d never felt pain in her kiss, but this time it was sheer torment.  Within seconds of the song ending, I broke free still captivated by her ability to immobilize me.  I felt the energy surge in her and transfer to me and back.  It was like no other kiss we’d had.

My father approached her giving her little space and even less appreciation.  He may not have picked up on our sideshow attraction, but he knew she had power.  Thankfully, it was well disguised as the formidable uniqueness he was accustomed to with our kind.  She just had more.

I made the mistake of asking my father once why I could only take from old.  He was disturbed by it and spent much of the conversation mumbling about experiments going wrong.  I never knew what it meant, so I didn’t ask.  In my later years, I overheard him tell a council member that all of the babies from his era will have the power to overtake the world someday.  From then on, I listened for when he talked about, “
the babies
”. He changed later saying they had turned on him.  I feared he was beyond fixable in the brain, but he was my father.  Now it worries me that Lark has more abilities than most.  She would be within the age to be included in the babies my father talked so often about.  After she falls asleep, I intended to find out more. I overheard a conversation involving my father that confirmed some ugly truths that I can’t ignore.

I needed to get Lark alone and tell her what happened.  I have no doubt that Jock followed directions well and will describe the experience per my judgment.  He’d feared my underlying reasons for asking another man to kiss my girl, but I explained to him that she was more powerful than I wanted my father to see and hated her to be put in harm’s way. Jock understood that above all else. 

We spend our whole lives marveling after the creation called woman, waste our time trying to figure them out, please them, and figure how we can wire them to our needs.  However, when that one finds a way to show that man cannot live by man alone and she, above all others, can destroy you in a single moment, life is no longer the meaningless pit it once lingered in.  A clearer path was in front of me now.  I’d take this council back to the way it should be and I’d do it only if it meant I could have her.  Otherwise, I’d be perfectly fine to take her away and hide forever.  It’s crazy how perspective leads you down different paths than you had originally planned. 

My father left us alone for a week before he called me to the council.  With only a few backing us now, it was a game to play not knowing what father might do next.

After calling home for the third time this week and egging them on with borrowing Sam’s clothes and working hard on the huge science project that was due the following Monday, I was exhausted from the lies.  Amber texted me like crazy accusing me of all kinds of atrocities.  Even elopement.  I answered her each time with what all I would owe her for helping me out.  If this went well, I’d at least know my life had purpose.  The worst was when she texted that mom might know where I really am.  It only proves they knew all along.

Silence is golden, right? 

My footfalls were nonexistent as I followed Daniel who left saying he was headed to visit his father.  He’d told me about the kiss and the affect it had on him. It was planned like I thought but left unsaid so I didn't give it away.  We tried it again and failed to recreate the same effects.  Determined it had something to do with adrenaline or fear, Daniel left it alone.  I had other thoughts.  The song was ignited when another guy kissed me.  I was so angry at Jock knowing he was either in on it or just trying it out to rule out the possibility.  Either way, it perturbed me to think Daniel knew more than he was telling.  Anger.  To me that was the key. 

The only way to know…was to recreate the actual event in the same kind of way. 
And that was not going to happen any time soon.

He said he would leave me to the heavy reading left on the bed in the form of, “The Siphonic Laws” all located in the Siphon Omnibus, the handbook for students of the Headquarters to know the siphon history.  It covers all creations within it’s history—i.e. siphons, ciphors, sylphs, electros, the nexus, and all manner of others created from the original host.  It was over two hundred pages and I was on page two.  Needless to say I had a ways to go. 

Daniel walked casually down the corridor and disappeared behind a door that didn’t close, but stayed ajar.  Luck was with me, if it really could be labeled as luck.  I for one would have closed a door with all the weighty secrets that man was keeping.  Tonight, Daniel did not.

The conversation started off light and moved forward with breakneck speed.

“She fought well son, but I stay with my original claim.  Her lineage has to remain buried because of what her mother was.”

“How can you think she will find out who her parents are?  And what does it matter?  No one wants a death wish,” Daniel pled with frustration oozing. 

The words indicated they both knew who my parents were and that the detail was important to keep secret.  I hated being right about Daniel.

“My point exactly.  If they say one word, I’ll not show mercy.”

They
as in the siphons?  Or my parents.  Are they alive?

“And what if she seems more apt to help your cause than any?  Our people will back her if so.” Daniel asked sounding calmer now.  I couldn’t see him, but rather his shadow moving in front of the door.

“Then all is well.  We will watch her for the duration.  If that is your only job, can it be done?”

Silence met the air.  I didn’t hear an answer or a response of any kind.  Daniel’s father led off with, “Have you fallen for the girl?”

“She is…appealing.  I don’t want anyone else near her enough to find out if she has anything besides the norm.  If anyone gets hurt, it should be me.  I can handle it.”

Appealing?
  That’s not what he said earlier.

I heard what sounded like a slap to a shoulder blade and his father’s proud voice saying, “Well done, son.  She is yours to fawn over then.  Enjoy her while you’re stationed with her.  She is a sweet little piece to behold.”

“And if she finds out about her parents?”

The deep timbre of Mr. Crawford’s growl vibrated even through the door. “If the Spur name is mentioned anywhere other than herself included, then I will personally desecrate the person responsible.  If she finds out her mother is alive, all will be lost.”

“Her mother?”

“Thought you knew.  She thinks she has me swindled, but I am aware she works in our Tennessee branch.  Kelvin has it covered.  If she makes one move towards her little brat, I will take her out so she can join her husband like I should have long ago.”

Just when I thought I might be falling for him, I find out he is holding out on me.  He may not of known she was alive, but he knows
something
.  No other guy had ever stuck up for me like he did, but how much of it was true?

Compared to eating sushi and diving into a pool of piranhas, this was minute.  I would see this through even if Daniel fails in the loyalty department.  It hurts though.  More than it should. 

“The Siphon Omnibus says the nexus will not know powers like they should.  Why are you worried?”

“Not your concern at the moment son.  Be on your way.”

Overhearing him and his father left me little choice if he chooses to leave me out of the game.  Instead, I have to play my own game to save myself—and my mother.

I heard the doorknob wiggle and took off down the corridor back to the room.  The different behavior he displayed was easy to examine only because he was disturbed by what he now knew. For when he came back, I waited for him to tell me what he learned. He never did.

To term my condition—hosed.  I was a new man fighting for the first time.  I was completely and madly in love with Lark Spur. She made me a better one.  She was like a drug or medicinal herb from this world that soothed your pain, yet she could cause such pain if she wanted too.

For now, I had her safe.  Something bigger is happening here and it is more than just a baby-making factory for siphons.  My father wanted her for other reasons unknown to me now.  But I would know soon.  They did not send the best Retriever for something trivial.  She was mine now and I am not about sharing the best thing that has ever entered my life. 

Playing their game was pointless in the long run, but I would not want to be on the run or put Lark in that position.  Saving our people is the best plan I ever conjured up.  Now I just have to figure out how to do it.

Pacing the floor while Lark slept, I outlined in my brain all the possible allies.  If I’d known her mother was still alive even four days ago, I’d have never brought her here.  Fate can be a sad creator and/or destroyer in life.  I was determined it would not guide Lark or I down the wrong path.  Less traveled by or not, it was the wrong path for the two of us.  The path of good intentions was never made easy.

There were a few questions that arose in my mind’s eye despite my enthusiasm.
What if the council got her?  What then? 
A fuse popped in my brain.  That could not happen.

It had to be an element of surprise.  Something my father could not see coming. And safe for Lark and her mother.  With that, the beginning of a plan was in motion.  I would have to involve others and Jock was the best I had.  His friend was with him.  And I thought I'd never speak to the Jason guy again promising myself it would be when Hell froze over, but I guess this counts as frozen.  The dude will do anything for her.  She has no idea how he fought or what he was enduring to get try to win her back.  Or what he is going through to be here...with her.  Only to lose her to me.  I wish I could say I was sorry, but I'm not.

I can’t tell her now, but soon.  For the time being, I would search out followers and guide her towards gaining confidence in the abilities she owns.  The power she exudes from one kiss is more than the most powerful electrical surge of any live wire I’ve ever played with as a child.  And that is saying a lot since most of our kind cannot handle touching electricity at all.  I was an odd exception with no reasoning for why I owned the skill.

The only time I did was in grade school when the power line fell across the street from the house my mom once took me too.  Visiting her human friend from her younger years, I’d been toted along to her repeated annoyance, I did not obey the stay close rule, and wandered into the front yard.  When the wire fell into the grass, I did not think twice.  I picked it up…and moved it.  My mother was agape with a flush of emotions and little answers for my doing.  The friend of my mother was easy to sway due to my mind erasure ability; my father was not.  From then on, I was the golden boy of extra powers.  My mother kept them hidden till her dying breath.  If he knew some of the other abilities I have kept hidden since then, he’d use me as a destroyer of mankind itself.  I would never let him know my capabilities.  Ever.

But involving Lark's mother might just be the missing link we need to get back the siphon order of her day.  My smile spread as I looked at her sleeping form.  Lark was the key.  It might just work.