The Zeuorian Awakening Page 16

  She bit her lower lip and thought about his plan. He was right. If they can hear someone thoughts, they would have more than enough time to run from them, especially if she used her telekinesis. She knew a perfect place to practice and spend time alone with Everett.

  “Tell me in the car,” he said, pulling her down the driveway.

  23 PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

  “How much further is the meadow?” Everett asked Lexi, wiping the sweat off his forehead and onto his dirty T-shirt. “I thought you said it was right by the dormant volcano.”

  “We’re here.” Lexi ducked under a low hanging tree limb and stepped into a meadow with yellow and lavender flowers sprinkled throughout the tall blade grass and large boulders. “Unless you want me to practice by the lake. That’s another mile from here.”

  “No this will do.” Everett kicked a rock, knocking the caked on mud from the sole of his hiking boot.

  She slipped off her hoodie and wrapped it around her waist. “So, what should I work on first?”

  “Well, let’s see.” Everett scratched his smooth chin, recently shaved. “By my assessment, you need to work on blocking your thoughts when you get upset and controlling the weather.” He rubbed the back pocket of his new jeans. “As for the rest of your abilities, you’re fine with your new appearance and—“

  “Wait a second. My appearance is an ability?” She never even considered her new looks had a purpose other than triggering her transformation like a caterpillar into a butterfly. “So what does my appearance do to people?”

  He shrugged. “All I know is that Zeuorian’s appearance changes after you go through your awakening and so do half-breeds to an extent when they’re seventeen. My father believes your skin, muscles and internal organs change as well as a way to prepare your body to handle using your powerful abilities.”

  “Is that why you’re more attractive compared to everyone else in school?”

  “I suppose, but—” The corner of Everett’s lips lifted and his mouth widened into a grin. “You think I am attractive?”

  She diverted her eyes from his and fiddled with the sleeves of her hoodie, dangling at her waist. He was extremely attractive, but she couldn’t tell him that. It would only lead to them spending the afternoon kissing instead of practicing and she needed to practice. “So, are there any other abilities I need to work on controlling?”

  “You’re not getting out of answering my question that quickly.” He mussed her hair. “We’ll talk about it after you practice.” He hinted they would discuss it when he could properly thank her. “As for your abilities, I’m not sure about stopping time, but you’re fine with your telekinesis and premonitions.”

  “Wow, you really have been studying me.”

  She hadn’t been sure he noticed her stopping time when they had kissed. She barely had noticed everything stopping since she had been caught up in the moment. But apparently he had noticed.

  “I have to track everything you do.” He kissed her forehead. “It’s the only way we can convince the majority of The Community to accept you’re not a threat to them, which is more promising than I had hoped,” he said, with a hint of excitement to his voice. “I spoke to my father last night and several half-breeds are open to accepting you as long as we provide them details about what you’re capable of doing.”

  “After what my kind did to your people, I still have a hard time believing any of them would want to keep me alive once they realize the queen is dead.”

  “Don’t sell yourself short. There are several half-breeds including my father that want you alive.”

  “But not enough to persuade the majority vote in favor of saving me,” she said, not expecting Everett to answer her since she was right. “It sounds like all you’ll accomplish by continuing with your father’s plan is providing them with enough information so they’ll know how to kill me.”

  Everett took her hand and pressed it to his chest right above his heart. “I promise you that’s not the case. Just think of it as sharing your military weaponry as a show of good faith and a way to ease their minds so they won’t consider you hostile and go on the defensive.”

  “So what else did you discuss with your father?” she asked, pulling her hair back into a ponytail. She had a feeling he discussed more than her powers with his father. A lot more.

  The corners of Everett’s mouth twitched. “I swear, how’s a guy supposed to keep a secret if you peek with your premonitions?” The brief smile faded and his expression grew troubled. “You’re right, that wasn’t all I talked to him about. The elders aren’t so sure about my father’s plan to win over the half-breeds. They want to review over the abilities you’ve developed so far as well as your personality. They want to make sure my father’s plan will work before they implement it.”

  Her mouth dropped open. She expected the elders to discuss what abilities she had and how well she controlled them, but not her personality. She couldn’t help wondering what qualities they were hoping she had or didn’t have. “So.” She swallowed hard. “How did you describe me to the elders?”

  “You’re concerned about how I described you?” He shook his head. “I figured you’d be more concerned about which abilities I told the elders you had since your life depends on whether or not The Community considers you a threat.”

  “Yes.” She turned his face toward hers. “I could have the most terrifying powers anyone in this world has ever seen, but it doesn’t make me a monster. It’s who someone is, how they deal with their powers and how they use them that separate superheroes from villains. It’s also what they fear the most about me and why I’m concerned about how you described my personality to them.”

  “I see what you mean.” He scratched his chin and thought for a moment. “You don’t have anything to worry about. The way I described you, they could only consider you a perfect angel.”

  A perfect angel, huh? She narrowed her eyes. “So, what exactly did you tell them?”

  “I’d rather not say.” He took a step away from her. “Anyway, you have a long afternoon of practicing ahead of you.”

  She grabbed his wrist and pulled him toward her. “I’m not letting you off the hook that easily. Now tell me exactly what you said to the elders, in particular your father.”

  “You’re not going to let this go?”

  “Nope, so you’d better just tell me what you said about my personality or I’ll find out another way and you know I can,” she said, cocking an eyebrow at him.

  “I guess I have no choice, but don’t read too much into what I said. Most of what I told the elders was for their benefit.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “I told my father you were kind, considerate, would sacrifice yourself to save a stranger from getting hurt and if anyone in The Community took the time to know you like I have, they’d fall in love with you instantly.”

  Love. She felt her cheeks warm and diverted her eyes from Everett’s. “Don’t you think ‘love’ was too strong of a word to use? Maybe you should’ve said ‘like' instead.”

  Everett tilted her head up and stared into her eyes. “No, love is a perfect term to use. It’s a powerful word that emphasizes there’s no wavering how someone feels about you.” He pressed his lips to hers as the sky darkened. Before she could make anything else happen he stepped away from her. “That’s better. Now you can start practicing.”

  Her mouth gaped open. She didn’t know if he was trying to say he loved her and she was scared to ask if he did. Instead, she decided to focus on the task at hand. “Okay. What do you want me to do?”

  “Well, let’s see.” He sat on a large rock surrounded by tall blade grass. “Try something easy like pushing the clouds away.”

  Easy? She stared at the white puffy clouds, slowly floating in harmony over the cascading mountains. She wondered if she could push the clouds away when she hadn’t been able to in the past.

  “Go on and give it a try.”

  She lifted her hands like a magician and concentrat
ed on forcing the clouds to move away from the mountains. Perspiration covered her forehead as a deep radiating pain emitted from her temples.

  Nothing happened.

  She tried again, moving her hands and attempting to force the clouds to move with them. Sweat dripped down the side of her face and the pain grew stronger.

  Still nothing happened.

  After the fifth try, she shook her head. “This isn’t working. Do you have any words of wisdom?”

  “I wish.” He straightened his legs and leaned back on his elbows. “Controlling the weather isn’t my specialty. Just try to focus on pushing the clouds and not so much on your hands.”

  That sounded easy enough. She focused all her attention on the clouds, wishing them and willing them to obey her. Static electricity surrounded her, growing thick and lifting her hair. The white puffy clouds turned greenish-black, looming and threatening to wreak havoc on the valley below. Sparks of light danced between the clouds, backlighting the dark sky. Then a lightning bolt shot out of a cloud, racing toward her.

  She lifted her hand, attempting to control the lightning and failing miserably. It struck the dirt a few feet from her and propelled her body into the air. She landed on the grass with a thud, sucking in big gulps of air while struggling to catch her breath.

  “Are you all right?” Everett shouted as he ran to her.

  Was she all right? She blinked several times while staring up at the blurry black masses in the sky unable to see distinct shapes. Slowly she sat up and examined her body covered in dirt and grass. Not a single cut or bruise could be seen.

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” she said.

  “Thank God.” He helped her to stand. “But don’t let this stop you from practicing. You’re going to make mistakes. Just remember not to focus so hard.”

  Her eyebrows knitted together. She had no clue how to regulate focusing. Should she think about it for less time or just think the word slowly? Which should she try first? She thought for a minute and ended up resorting to choosing by “eeny, meeny, miney, moe.”

  Everett sat on the rock and laughed. “Focus on the word slowly.”

  She took a deep breath and let it out before doing as he said. After a minute, the clouds disappeared and the gray sky turned to blue. Yes! She did it. She wanted to run over to Everett and give him a high five.

  Everett stretched out his legs and said in a casual tone, “Don’t get too excited. You still have a lot to learn. Now make the clouds roll back over us again to the point it’ll rain. Then stop and push them back.”

  She just figured out how to move the clouds—how was she going to stop it from raining, too? She sighed. Maybe if she focused on the words don’t rain.

  She closed her eyes, imagining the clouds rolling in and willing them to obey her as she thought the words, please don’t rain. After a moment, a loud rumbling came from above. She opened her eyes and wiped the sweat off her face. The sky had turned a dark gray again. A wave of relief swept over her.

  “I did it.”

  “See, I told you could.” Everett smiled at her. “Now for the hard stuff.”

  “Hard stuff,” she choked out.

  Her head ached and her body ached. She could barely stand and keep her eyes open just from moving the clouds. If that was the result of her doing something easy with her atomkinesis, what would it feel like after she tried something hard? Well, she was about to find out. She waved her hand, motioning for him to bring it on.

  “What I consider hard may not be hard for you.” Everett emphasized the words may not. “Anyway, I want you to stop the lightning before it strikes the ground and make it hit a tree.”

  Why would she need to learn how to redirect lightning to hit another target unless he wanted her to use it as a weapon? “How did learning control turn into learning to fight?”

  “It’ll help with your control, but,” a serious expression spread over his face, “you should never use your abilities against a half-breed. If word got out what you did, that’d be enough to prove you’re a threat to The Community. They’ll send everyone after you and never stop until they cut your heart out.”

  Cut out her heart? She swallowed the lump stuck in the back of her throat.

  She knew they planned to kill her, but she never imagined they would do it by cutting out her heart. It made her sick thinking about being trapped by a group of half-breeds ready to cut out her heart and Everett’s warning not to fight them. What else could she do in that situation?

  “That’s why you’re practicing, so you don’t end up in a situation where you’re forced to fight one of them.”

  But a nagging voice in the back of her mind said, no matter what you do, a time will come when you would have to fight one of the half-breeds. If that was her destiny, she should learn to defend herself against them.

  She took a deep breath and imagined the clouds rolling in. After a moment, a loud rumbling echoed from above. The sky turned to a darker gray and a lightning bolt hurtled toward the ground. She held up her hand and focused on the lightning bolt, willing it to hit a tree in the valley. It changed direction and struck the tree. She turned toward Everett and grinned.

  He threw on a Nylon hoodie he had wrapped around his waist. “Now I want you to work on redirecting two lightning bolts and repeat it several times, building up the number that you redirect at one time.”

  Lexi nodded and threw on her hoodie too, preparing for the extreme weather. She focused on the clouds and the sky turned a grayish-black. Two bolts of lightning traveled down toward her. She redirected them to where she wanted them to go.

  “Keep going,” Everett shouted above the thunder.

  She lifted her hand and the sky turned pitch black. Thunder rumbled above her and shook the ground. She felt the static electricity in the air grow thicker as three lightning bolts approached her. One by one lightning struck at her repeatedly like a rattlesnake pissed by an intruder in its territory. Each time the lightning came close to her, she redirected it to hit a tree as her body grew more tired and she eventually collapsed to the ground.

  24 NARROW ESCAPE

  Something soft brushed Lexi’s face and tickled her skin. She swatted at it and heard someone chuckle. She opened her eyes and saw Everett smiling at her. He was lying on the grass next to her.

  “Finally, you’re awake,” he said. “You’ve been out for almost a half-hour.”

  “What happened?” she asked, rubbing her eyes and yawning.

  “You passed out. It happens when you use powerful abilities like controlling lightning. It’ll go away once you build up your endurance.” He unzipped her hoodie and slid his arm under the wet fabric. “Now it’s time to check your progress.”

  He kissed her. She closed her eyes and ran her fingers through his hair. The birds sang in the distance and the sun beat down on the wet grass. The training seemed to be paying off, but she still had a long way to go. She pulled away when a loud explosion shook the ground. “We need to stop.”

  “Okay.” He rolled onto his back and did his best to mask his disappointment.

  “Everett, I’m—“

  He placed his finger on her lips. “I’m fine. Stop worrying about me. I don’t want you doing anything reckless just to make me happy.”

  “I’m not just thinking about making you happy. It’s also bothering me. I like to be able to kiss you without worrying if I’ll set you on fire or do something worse.”

  “I know you do and you will in time.”

  Before Lexi could continue their conversation, her cell phone buzzed and she pulled it out of her back pocket. She had a text message from Tyler. “Guess who,” she said before reading the message aloud. “Where are you? You weren’t in classes all day. Are you with Everett?”

  “He doesn’t know when to give up, does he?” Everett took her cell phone and pounded out a message with a wicked grin on his face. “That should take care of him.”

  Now she had to read what he texted to Tyler. She skimmed over the text an
d her mouth gapped open. “I can’t believe you called him a Stalker, but he’s going to know I didn’t write the text. I wouldn’t call him a jerk.”

  “Exactly what I was going for,” Everett said, winking at her.

  Her cell phone buzzed again and Lexi read over the message written in all caps with several exclamation points, pound signs and asterisks. “It’s safe to say he figured out you wrote the message and he’s going to rip your head off when you come back to school.”

  “He can try,” Everett pressed his back to the grass and placed his hands behind his neck. “But he won’t get far before I have him hauled away.”

  She rested on her side next to Everett. “I bet you didn’t expect it would be so dangerous going to high school in Brookings.”

  “I’m not surprised.” Everett smiled, rolling on his side to face her. “I knew the first time you strolled into my father’s store wearing those cutoff denim shorts and bikini top that you were going to be trouble. I didn’t care then if every guy in The Community wanted to take me out to be with you and I don’t care now if my life‘s in danger since you’re the full-breed. All that matters, I’m with you.”

  He leaned in to kiss her and she pressed her hand on his shoulder to stop him. “I don’t understand. How could every guy in The Community have wanted me?” She scoffed. “I thought you said my parents kept me away from everyone while I was there?”

  “Nothing ever gets past you does it.” Everett chuckled. “When I first met you, I assumed I would have to fight off every guy in town to be with you since there’s a shortage of female half-breeds, especially pretty ones.”

  “That’s right,” she said. “’Cause the queen went after the women first since they’re more powerful than the men. So how many women are there in The Community?”

  “My father did a survey once. For every woman there’re three men. The difference continues to grow each generation since it’s more common to have males than female babies.”

  “So none of your kind date humans?”