At First Sight (10 page)

              He slapped the Velcro together and smiled at Lola. “We’re going to practice on your hitting and kicking.”

              “No spells or magic?” asked Lola.

              He shook his head and walked over to the punching bag suspended in the middle of the room. He stood behind it and held it. “Nope.”

              “What’s the point of practicing hitting and kicking when we have powers?” asked Lola, awkwardly hitting at the punching bag.

              “You never know what might happen when you’re up against somebody. You could lose your powers—maybe Leo can take yours away. Anything is possible.” He stopped her movements and stood behind her, trying to hold back a smile. “Keep your posture like this.”

              Lola smirked as his hands gripped her waist, slowly positioning her body straight and in the correct form. She watched him go back behind the bag and memorized the quirky smile on his face. “Like this?”

              Dean watched her punch and gripped the bag tighter, nodding. “Good job. Try kicking.”

              She nodded and awkwardly kicked it, but soon understood the correct position. “So, what do you think Leo can do to us?”

              “I’ve heard about some type of charm that touches you. Once it makes contact with your body, your energy and connection with your soul mate slowly fades until you can’t function properly,” he explained. “It can slowly kill you.”

              Lola kicked and then punched the bag again. Sweat was beginning to form on her skin. “Even with my imprint? That power will fade, too?”

              Dean nodded. “Unfortunately.” He paused. “I’ve overheard my dad talking about everything that has been happening with the family. He’s told them and some are worried that it’s only going to get worse. We have the first sight with humans because humans can be our soul mate. Once we have that gift with the human, their blood changes them into a Manifester. There’s no going back.”

              “Unless Leo actually removes the first sight,” grunted Lola, hitting the bag hard.

              Dean shrugged. “I don’t know if he knows how to do it. I know I mentioned the charm, but it’s not common knowledge. I only know of it from my parents. However, I’m not going to let that happen to you.”

              Lola looked at him and stopped hitting the bag. “Are you going to tell me what happened last night?”

              Dean sighed and rubbed his face. “My parents have been keeping a secret from me.”

              “About what?” asked Lola, furrowing her brows.

              Dean proceeded to tell her everything from when he overheard Frankie and Matthew talking to when his dad revealed his mother’s past. When he told Lola that he was being forced to lead their race in a war, the angry tears returned. He continuously rubbed his eyes so she wouldn’t see them.

              Lola held his hands and put them on her waist. She wrapped her arms around him as he shook, releasing his tears. She knew what he was feeling. He was scared to death. He was being forced to do something that could potentially kill him and he wasn’t scared for himself. He was scared for the both of them.

              “I’m sorry,” he murmured in her shoulder.

              “Shhh…” Lola rubbed his back. “It is not your fault. You said you can’t control any of this.”

              “I wish I could control this, but I can’t.” Dean looked at her and sniffled. “I don’t want to leave you by yourself.”

              She knew what he meant by that.

              He didn’t want to die and leave her alone.

              “You aren’t going to die in this war.” She put her hands on his cheeks. “You are strong, okay? We’re training and we are going to get strong because of this war. The Readers won’t win. We have the power.”

              Dean nodded and stared at her, looking into her brown eyes. “I want to kiss you.”

              She chewed on her lip and sighed a shaky breath. She wanted to kiss him, too. What if this kiss was unlike a human kiss? “Okay.”

              Lola and Dean leaned toward each other, their lips just inches apart. She could feel his hot breath against her skin and knew this was going to be the best kiss of her life. Suddenly, she immediately felt her hand burning. She collapsed in pain and ripped off her glove and screamed out as her right palm burned with such intensity she literally collapsed on the mat. The pain was unbearable and she screamed in agony. Dean attempted to soothe her to no avail. It was like the pain had a mind of its own as it scorched her skin.

              It ended as abruptly as it began. Lola breathed heavily as she stared at the ceiling. Sweat soaked through her clothes and ran freely down her back and chest. She blinked through the tears and stared at her palm, immediately stifling another scream. She stared at the edges that were all too clear.

              Dean watched as she hid her hand. He brushed a few strands of hair from her face. “What happened, Lola?” He held her closed hand. “Show me your palm. Please.”

              “No.” She cried, clenching her fist so hard her knuckles turned white. She tried to scurry away, but Dean held on to her.

              “Show me.”

              Lola finally opened her hand and shut her eyes, listening as Dean’s breath caught in his throat. He could see it and she knew good and well what she was destined to have. This was what the first sight had intended for her. This was her fate.

              The lightning bolt was her imprint.

“I don’t want you to worry about the imprint…” started Frankie.

              “How am I supposed to
not
worry about having the same imprint as Leo? You didn’t see the things that he could do with the imprint. He can kill someone. Not only that, but I can be put to death!” exclaimed Lola, still tearful about the experience she had just had.

              Dean sat next to Lola and rubbed her shoulder, trying to soothe her. “Don’t get hysterical, okay? We’re going to help you.”

              “How?” she asked softly.

“We’re going to train you. We’re going to teach you how to control it so it doesn’t control you,” said Frankie. “We need to have Matthew help you control it.”

Lola furrowed her brows. “Why him?”

“He knows everything there is to know about control. The lightning bolt isn’t the only imprint that can be controlled. It’s all about the mindset,” he explained.

“Mindset?”

He nodded. “Yes. It requires focus. You have to focus on the task at hand that
you
want to happen. Not what the imprint wants to happen.”

“Sounds difficult,” she murmured, sighing heavily.

Dean looked at Lola for a moment. “No more stress. Let me take you somewhere.”

“No way.”

Dean placed his surfboard in the sand and began taking off his shirt, revealing his hard abs. Lola tried her hardest not to stare, but it was damn hard to resist.

              He smirked at her thoughts. “Come on. It’s just surfing. I promise not to let you drown.”

              “That’s not funny,” said Lola, crossing her arms over her chest.

              “Why won’t you just try?” he asked.

              “I nearly drowned when I was five years old. Since then, I have had a big fear of the ocean,” she explained. “I don’t even have a swimsuit on.”

              Dean reached inside the bag he had brought and took out a simple red swimsuit. “I always come prepared.”

              Lola raised her brow curiously. “You always carry a girl’s bathing suit in your bag?”

              “That’s not the point. You should try it. Please?” Dean put his hands together and pouted his lip.

              Lola rolled her eyes and laughed lightly. “I don’t know.”

              “Trust me.” He smiled. “I’ve been surfing since I was six. I won’t let you drown.”

              She hesitated for a moment. “Promise?”

              “I promise.”

              He grabbed his surfboard and held her hand after she changed into her bathing suit, wearing it over her underwear to contain her modesty. He set his surfboard down in the water and carefully let her take her time as she sat down behind him. She winced at the contact as the water reached her legs.

              “Oh my gosh,” she murmured, hugging his waist.

              Dean smiled and slowly began to push out into the water. “It’s okay.”

              Lola shut her eyes as the water sloshed against her legs as they went out more. As she held on to Dean, she began to feel more comfortable. She didn’t know if it was because of their gift or it was because she believed in his protection.

              She felt good.

              “Here comes a wave. You ready?” asked Dean.

              Lola’s grip tightened. “What do you want me to do?”

              “Just hold on to me!” he shouted over the sound of the wave building.

              Dean turned the surfboard around and began to stand up. Lola stood up with him, squealing as she struggled to keep her balance. She kept her arms around his waist as he began to ride the wave expertly, laughing along with her as water sprayed against their bodies.

              Lola was having too much fun that she nearly missed the glow next to her. She stared at it and was in a trance as it kept glowing brighter and brighter. She blinked and was suddenly thrust into another world.

              She was standing in the sand, the sunlight shining down on her skin. There were people laughing and playing on the beach as if nothing was out of the ordinary. She looked around and stopped when she spotted two familiar people that she never thought she would see again.

              Her parents.

              They were lounging against their beach chairs, completely ignoring each other as they flipped through magazines. She had a memory of this moment for some reason, but she couldn’t quite recall the missing pieces.

              Where was she?

              Suddenly, she heard shouting and turned around to face the ocean. There was a lifeguard swimming out into the middle of the ocean, attempting to rescue someone. He hauled a small girl out of the water and raced toward shore, setting her down on the sand and performing CPR. People were crowding around him as he continued the life saving procedure.

              As Lola got closer, she realized that nobody was paying attention to her. It was as if she didn’t exist. When she got close enough to the lifeguard, she caught a glimpse of the little girl.

              It was her.

              She was reliving her memory of drowning.

              She turned around, breathing heavily. Her parents were watching, clearly having a view of the little girl from their position. Surely they could tell it was the daughter. But, they weren’t doing a damn thing about it.

              Lola raced toward them and stood in front of them. “That’s your own daughter! Do something!”

              They didn’t say anything as they returned to their magazines. It made Lola furious that they cared so little about their own daughter.

About her.

She blinked again and was suddenly out of breath. Her eyes began to sting as she stared at the salt water around her. She was staring into the ocean and she suddenly realized she was underwater! She attempted to call out to Dean, but her mouth remained completely immobile. In fact, her whole body was immobile. Chains wrapped her from head to toe. Her hair was surrounding her as she went farther and farther underwater. She was having a hard time holding her breath, but she couldn’t get free. She wondered where Dean was.

              She was going to die. Leo had won.

              Everything warped around her as she shut her eyes, prepared to be enveloped in the darkness that would take her away from her soul mate forever. She could hear a loud roaring in her ears as she began to feel lighter and lighter.

Instead, she started coughing erratically as a pair of arms held her and a deep voice spoke to her. She breathed heavily as she looked around. She was on the sand, water spilling around her cheeks as she continued to cough.

Dean looked at her fearfully as he frantically smoothed her hair back. “Lola, what happened? You were holding on to me and then you were gone!”

              Lola tried to catch her breath, refusing to meet his eyes. “I was underwater. I couldn’t breathe or move. It felt so real. I thought I was going to die.”

              “Lola, it was real!” He paused, staring at her. “Wait a minute. It was another illusion?” He groaned in frustration. “Damn it.”

              “I saw my parents,” she murmured, sitting up on her elbows.

              Dean looked at her in surprise. “You did? What was going on?”

              “I was there. The day I had nearly drowned? I was there. I shouted at them to save their child, but they completely ignored me. They ignored their own child,” explained Lola, shaking her head.