Bladed Wings (32 page)

              “You did a good job on him,” Seth said. Smiling, he shook his head at the same time like this was a mean joke. “You should’ve seen him. Lots of blood. Even the paramedics were impressed.” When Kayla swallowed, her eyes wide, Seth glanced down, his grin even bigger like he had to keep himself from laughing. “Don’t worry. He’ll be fine.”

              “I hurt him.”

              “Really?” Seth asked, “You feel guilty about hurting the guy who dosed you and was about a minute from raping you?”

              “That happened.” She barely heard her own voice.

              Seth heard it as a question. “Yup. That definitely happened. He tried to hurt you. You fought him off.” He glanced away. “Very impressive. Most girls couldn’t do that. To be honest, I’m still surprised considering that he had about sixty pounds of muscle on you.”

              “I didn’t.”

              “You did. No other explanation. Right?”

              “Right.” Kayla couldn’t look at him. She couldn’t pull her chin from her chest.

              “Don’t worry about the cops. I’ve taken care of them.” Before Kayla could ask what that meant, Seth came another step closer. Eyes on her, a spark of indigo touched the whites of his eyes. It had to be a reflection from the lamps or something else. “He won’t bother you. He won’t bother anyone for a long time.”

              “How can you be sure?”

              “Let’s keep it simple and say that I can be very persuasive.” He stretched his arms behind his back. “But you need to something to now.”

              “What?”

              “No one knows. You can’t tell anyone.” The fractured flashes of darkened blue coruscated along his eyes. She couldn’t have seen it, just like she couldn’t feel anything else in that bedroom. “Nothing happened. You went out with your friend. A guy didn’t try to hurt you. You didn’t put him in the hospital. You don’t have to carry this around. Don’t say anything.” She felt something press against the edge of her mind. It was like a push of thought, an idea that nagged at her.

              “Do you understand?”

              “You took care of the cops?”

              Seth stopped, blinked. “Uh,” he said, “Yeah. He won’t bother you.”

              “You’re sure?”

              “I’m sure.” But he wasn’t the same boy because he couldn’t look at her now. Without saying anything else, Seth stuck his hands in his pockets and strode back down the walkway to the sidewalk. Kayla watched him go without knowing what happened.

              Kayla had about seven seconds before last night rushed back. Balled up, covered in blankets, a pillow between her legs and under her head, Kayla came back to awake. First Erin, the party, the sounds, the soda, Tristan, the bedroom, his hands on her, that paralysis, and the texture of energy. Images flashed back. She could feel the same heat and energy. She shaped it into fists and threw a guy across a bedroom.

              Then Seth.

              Perched on the edge of that same pit of fear in her stomach, Kayla went downstairs. No shouting or tensed arguments waited for her. Instead, Skyler and Everett were already at the table with her parents. Her mom had a laptop open as she scanned through the news. Her dad read the cereal box. They were both hiding from each other, making sure not to speak or look at each other. Sharp silence or angry shouts. That was their house now.

              “Good morning,” she said. The others mumbled back.

              No cops, no questions, and no mention of anything else. That didn’t make sense. Unless Tristan was hurt worse than she could’ve expected. Kayla tried to keep that thought locked away as she grabbed her backpack and headed back into the morning cold.

              On her way to school, she tried to think of homework. At the first stop light, she double checked that she had all of her books, the essay for Honors English, calculus equations, and study questions for AP US History. Everything was there, the way she set it up yesterday before going out with Erin.

              Kayla felt her lungs tighten as she squeezed the steering wheel. She wasn’t supposed to be violent, but the urge hit something scratched through her skin all the way to her bones. It was a pool of anger or heat or fear that just wanted out.

              Empty cars surrounded her when Kayla pulled into the student lot. She turned off the engine and touched fingers together. “Please help me get through this. I didn’t do anything wrong. I don’t think I did anything wrong.” That part stung the most because she didn’t know where her conscience was supposed to lead her. He tried to hurt her. She almost killed him. That couldn’t be right, but maybe it was, or it wasn’t. Nothing made sense.

              Two months ago, she would’ve gone to Alyssa. They would’ve talked about it, and Kayla’s friend would’ve been there for her. Now it was silence, a few angry glances, maybe something snide and whispered just on the edge of what everyone else could hear, “bitch,” “slut,” maybe “liar.” Erin was still a friend, but Kayla didn’t want to bring her into something like this. They weren’t close enough for something like this.

              Thinking about people in her life brought Kayla back to Seth. He said this would be over. He said Tristan wouldn’t press charges. Maybe not, but he’d talk. He’d tell everyone what happened, but Kayla couldn’t explain everything. Some fear induced frenzy might explain how she hit him.

              That solved everything, but it wasn’t true. She saw something. She saw the energy and air in the room and, with a wave of her hand, she shaped those forces and beat him against a wall. When he tried again, she smacked him back a second time.

              Kayla parked and tried to center herself. No matter what happened, she’d do what she could. That’s what He expected, and that’s what she’d do. This was the first time she couldn’t talk to anyone else. Kayla swallowed, pushed the door open, and went out to face whatever her school could roll at her.

              After skipping breakfast, Kayla had twenty minutes before her first class. There weren’t that many people clustered around their home room doors. She thought about hitting the library but decided against it. Instead, Kayla wandered until she saw someone.

              Erin waved, turned and ran across the hall. “Hey, did you hear?”

              “What?” Kayla felt her that hole in her stomach stretch and widen. “Hear what?”

              “That guy, Tristan. He had a seizure or something. They had to call an ambulance.”

              “Seizure?”

              “That’s what the paramedics said. Rumors are going crazy now.” She flashed her phone, “About twenty texts. Everyone wants to know what happened to him. It’s like his brain melted down.” She pulled her phone back and thumbed through another message.

              “Has he said anything?”

              “That’s the weird part.”

              “What’d he say?” This would be it, the moment that ruined her life because word would burst through every phone and laptop. Kayla wanted to keep her voice strong and even, but she felt it shrink in her throat.

              “That’s the weird thing. He was crying when the medics found him.”

              “Crying?”

              “Yeah, going off about all this stuff he did. Like he was saying he date raped a bunch of girls or something. It was weird. Crazy-zombies-overrun-the-world-weird.”

              “He confessed?”

              “I don’t know if anyone’s going to believe him, but yeah, he was going on and on about how much he did and how he was sorry.”

              “You’re kidding.”

              “No. The guy totally cracked. If anyone comes forward and it turns out he really did it, yeah, he’s going to be in so much trouble. Seriously, you’d look at him and think he was a good guy, but now?”

              “Yeah.”

              “I guess you didn’t talk to him for very long.”

              “No. We just had some pizza and I had to go.”

              “Family stuff?”

              “Yeah,” Kayla said, “Family stuff.” Erin gave her a quick look of sympathy that promised she felt bad before bouncing away, her phone between both hands. Kayla resisted the urge to pull out her own phone and see if there were any news reports. Some kid losing it and confessing to a bunch of crimes might’ve ended up on online.

              It would be good, but it didn’t make sense. He wouldn’t confess like that. Part of her wanted to say that it was conscience. After all of those girls he hurt, someone fought back, and that made him realize what he did was wrong. He finally understood that he was hurting people. But she doubted his mind would work that way.

              A shiver pressed through her spine. Shoving it aside, Kayla headed for her homeroom. She was safe. He wouldn’t tell the cops, and even if he did, it was self defense. No one could deny that now. She should’ve felt better, but nausea and this tight sickness clamped around her stomach. It wouldn’t go away.

              Half way to her first period class, Kayla noticed Seth again. Both juniors, they probably saw each other every day, but she stopped. They passed in the halls, the cafeteria, and had occasional classes together. A couple heartbeats ticked by as she watched him. He was talking to his two friends. For Kayla, Seth was pretty tall with five or six inches on her. The two guys laughing with him were even taller. Both had short black hair and thick muscles. They looked like wrestlers, football players, or some other kind of athlete, but she never saw them on any team or in any uniform. If they worked out, it was just for fun. They definitely didn’t look like the kinds of guys who’d end up at a gamer party. Then again, Kayla didn’t think she would’ve been there either.

              Kayla tugged at the straps of her backpack, balled her fingers, flexed them, and decided she’d do this. She walked up to Seth and his friends. “Can I talk to you?” He looked up. His friends smiled at her, neutral. They wouldn’t be nice. They wouldn’t be mean. “Alone?”

              Seth nodded at his friends, a signal for them to leave. She expected them to tease him about her or give him a hard time. Guys didn’t usually walk away. They always had to prove who was strongest or in charge. On cue, they walked away like soldiers obeying orders. “What?” Seth asked like he always expected his friends to do exactly what he said.

              This question made it real again. She swallowed and asked anyway. “What happened last night?” She kept her eyes on him. This time she wouldn’t look away.

              “Nothing happened.”

              “That’s not true, and you know it. Why were you at my house? What do you know about Tristan?” His name tasted like something squishy and gross.

              Seth watched her for a few more seconds. But it wasn’t like last night. This was something different. He examined her. She could feel him trying to figure out what she knew and what he should say. But it seemed that it wasn’t much, “Kayla, nothing happened.” He smiled a little, but there wasn’t any joy in it. He looked like a hunter, some predator who decided that this prey was too small.

              “You’re lying.”

              “No. I’m not. And you know how you can tell? You don’t have any proof. Sure, people saw you at that party, but no one noticed you with Tristan. And even if you went and talked to him, he wouldn’t have anything to say.”

              “What does that mean?”

              “It was a really bad seizure. Wiped some of his memory and opened his eyes.”

              “That couldn’t have happened. It doesn’t work that way.”

              “This time it does.”

              Seth shook his head and headed back to see his friends who were waiting a hundred feet down the hall. They didn’t look at him. Instead, they scanned the rest of campus like they were waiting for someone else.

              Before he got far though, Kayla let it slip. “He tried to hurt me.”

              Seth stopped. His shoulders tightened together. “I know.”

              “You did something.”

              “You didn’t deserve that.” He still didn’t look back.

              “Tell me what happened,” Kayla caught up with him. Closer, she reached out, and put her hand on his shoulder like he’d try to run away.

              He shrugged her free and turned back. All of his sympathy and feeling disappeared. “Again, nothing happened. He’s done. You don’t have to worry about him. Don’t think about anything else, Kayla. Go back to your happy life with your friends and your religion, your faith and your hope. Enjoy. Be happy knowing that the good guys win, evil loses, forgiveness is possible, and life doesn’t suck.” Before she could say something else, he was back down the hall.

              If he wouldn’t say anything, Kayla couldn’t force him. She watched him go, wishing she could get the truth.

Through the next two hours, Kayla tried to pretend nothing changed. Part of her wanted to run and find Erin and see what else filtered through the rumor lines. Despite that urge, Kayla stayed quiet. She didn’t want to do anything unnatural. Besides, she knew she’d see Erin again anyway.

              When the bell rang for third period, Kayla pushed her way to class and sat down. Right before lunch, their teacher was usually too tired to care much about people texting or passing notes. They didn’t have to do as much work, and he usually let them go early. It was even better because it was the class she had with Erin. For sixty five minutes each day, anyway, she could sit next to someone who didn’t want to freeze her out.

              When she sat down, Kayla dropped her stuff by her desk and leaned forward before the tardy bell rang. “Do you know Seth Daniels?”

              “Loner kid?”

              “Yeah, I guess.”

              “Not really. I think we had math together, but we didn’t talk or anything. He mostly kept to himself I guess.” That tracked with most of what Kayla remembered of him as well. Even seeing him at a party had been surprising.

              “What about his friends?”

              “The two big guys?”

              “Yeah.”

              “Definitely don’t know them. They’re buff though. I’ll give them that.”

              “Yeah.” Kayla didn’t know if she wanted to ask something else, but her teacher cut off the chance when he came out from behind his desk. It was the usual activities, questions, and getting ready for Friday’s test. Kayla listened, but like most of that morning, she thought about last night.

              With a thought, a wave of her hand, she threw a guy across the room. She knew that happened. That wasn’t a dream. It felt real. She knew that’s what happened and that was how it happened, yet it didn’t make sense. People couldn’t do that. But she did. It happened when she was scared, angry, hurt. Maybe that caused it.

              Her teacher had a PowerPoint presentation. It was dark, and she already knew the material. That’s why she put her mechanical pencil on her desk. If this worked, there was something different about her. She could do something. If it didn’t, she promised herself that she wouldn’t try again, it would be over, and she’d let last night pass as a really bad nightmare.

              The pencil sat there. Kayla stared at it. Nothing happened. She tried to see those same currents of air and energy as last night. Nothing happened. She pushed her mind against those thoughts, but it wouldn’t move. One more try before she’d give up.

              Kayla thought about the tingle in her skin, everything half-numb. She thought about the fear that snaked through her when she couldn’t get up or scream or run. Tristan over her, he leered down, savoring the moment as he held her down and watched her try to scream. The fear of paralysis ached through her, made her lungs tighten and her throat tense. Her heart rate sped and it was harder to breathe, like there wasn’t enough air. Her lips locked together and Kayla started to see silver threads through the air.