Evanescent (14 page)

“Get back up there! You are too important…”

“Stop that!” I cut him off. One life over another made no sense to me, especially if an innocent life could be spared. Focusing my frustration, adverse energy and my fury toward them, I closed my eyes and let emotions flood and overwhelm me. This is how I knew to trigger the instinct of the mind-shift. It was all a play of emotions. I pulled on all the overpowering feelings from every corner of my mind and body, once more acting like an instrument – automatically, powerfully and somewhat accurately acknowledging their weakness. As my hand hit the ground, a wave of electricity violently tore through my body and into the earth beneath my feet. As a result of the overflow, a shockwave exploded into the ground as lightning tore through the sky above me, mirroring the pulse I had released.

“Jump!” I managed to force the words out through the insane pain erupting inside me. My organs felt incinerated, but still my skin remained frozen. Troy jumped as the ground seemed to light up with a purple bolt of lightning, striking the androids down with a loud crackle, followed by a giant pop. I collapsed the instant the current left me. When Troy grabbed me, the pain was blinding. I wanted to tell him to get off, to release me, so that I could just feel numb until the pain was no more. But feeling him, feeling pain, was better than not feeling anything at all.

“Are you…”

“On fire, my skin is on fire,” I said, swallowing hard at the scalded taste in my mouth.

“There was no need to do that,” he replied, pulling me into him.

At his touch, the threatening shift left and the emotions drained from me. Grateful I was finally able to do something right, I turned to see a few of the droids go up in iridescent, green- sparked flames. The star blades exploding from within their metal bodies.

“You forgot they were enchanted blades, you just needed some patience. Sometimes, all it takes is a little time.” He kissed me on my forehead.

I closed my eyes, trying to regain a sense of myself, to feel him beside me without the pain, every moment with him felt like the very last. Tears soaked my face from the agony inside, as much as the outside.

At that precise moment, a handful of droids seemed to come alive, jerking and staggering.

“Just as I suspected.” I tensed, then swore.

“Let’s get out of here,” Troy said, moving my hair from my face with his left hand and with his right hand holding mine, he turned.

“Wait, Troy, no.”

“What do you mean, no?”

“I won’t run.”

He stared at me for a moment, his dark eyes holding mine, waiting for me to change my mind.

“Fine,” he ground out, not at all amused.

I hugged him, knowing very well what this could mean for us. This is when he figured out what I was, and I was okay with it for the first time.

“No lightning, okay?” he whispered into my hair, his lips brushing over my temple.

Goosebumps raked over my entire body. My skin was still sensitive and humming after the last release of energy. I understood that my abilities were somewhat broken, unfocused and wild at most but I had to chance it, there was no turning back, we were being hunted – and it would not stop, they would find us anywhere – this I knew with a great distasteful certainty.

Wrecked droids circled us, their weapons honed in, waiting for our surrender, or die trying to get away.

“What now?” I whispered, biting down on my charcoaled lip, the coppery taste of blood dripping down my throat.

He shrugged. “This was your idea.”

The androids advanced on us, jittery, crawling spiders with their bionic weapons flaring to life. I dug my fingers into Troy’s big shoulders, hard muscle flexed beneath my touch. But he remained unmoved, challenging them with his glare. He stood before me, hands coiled at his sides, calculating each and every move they would make and how he would counter-attack. With us standing as one, I had a moment, his skin singing to mine. His savage, protective stance dividing me from those things while they watched through unseeing eyes, had me on a sudden high. I knew for certain he was the one thing I would give everything for. I didn’t have to think, it came naturally. This revelation lifted me and I moved from behind him to lace my fingers in his, challenging the droids to dare make a move. My skin burned with anticipation; together we could be like a pair of supernovas – powerful, beautifully miraculous and very lethal. It felt familiar, this sense of foreboding strength, unyielding beneath my skin, sweltering through my veins. I grinned, because I knew I was more when I was with him, I could
do
more with him by my side. And now, they knew it, too. In seconds, flames came for us, dark, twirling, intense and threatening.

“They will not take this from me,” I whispered, so that whoever was behind these droids, controlling them was without a doubt listening in and he would hear me challenging him, too. I let go of Troy, and moved to stand some distance away as my words seared within and turned my mind, hacking into my blood-shifting abilities. I could taste it, feel its frantic limbs grab at me before it pushed the determination of it out until it became palpable, burning fervently beneath the surface. It exploded into one massive shield – a giant wall of crackling violet, meeting the storm overhead. Wind thrust their bodies back, lightning struck everywhere. The air was charged, and I was ready to take them out with the forces of nature on my side. The droids readjusted, turning violent and desperate, urgently releasing rounds of charged fireballs one after the other. Deafening bolts reached from the sky and decimated each ball. But the droids remained. I stood, my eyes squinting as the shield escaped from my palms, felt the current rip through muscle and bone. I felt overwhelmed, sweltering waves of cold and then hot racking through me. My head pounded in protest.

“Ava!” Troy screamed at me, but I ignored him and held on to the menacing power, their lives in my hands. Our lives in my hands. And once more, my high from the power had me succumbing to its will. I grimaced at the droids – they knew that this would be their end. I screamed as the shield vibrated through my chest and out through my arms threatening to tear skin from bone, but I held it, blocked all the fireballs from turning us into lifeless ashes.

“Ava, you’re bleeding.” I heard, but his words sailed away into the chaos brewing around us.

Beyond the shield debris, leaves, branches and sand whirled around and into the droids. The more power that came, the more I wanted it, willed it,
needed
it. The shield grew until we were fully engulfed within the glowing, crackling, purple orb drawing in more of the energy from the storm. And, like a silver umbilical cord from a mother’s womb, it fed my appetite for destruction.

“
Focus, Ava
.” I heard a voice inside my head. “
This is not you.”

The storm grew wild, wind bending trees, but the droids’ heavy bodies anchored themselves to the ground, pushing one fireball after the next, fighting back relentlessly. For a moment, I wondered if my power was feeding theirs. A deep breath filled my lungs as I looked to Troy, focused on his gorgeous face and let his vision clear my mind, still my storm within; but I pulled back, able to hold the shield. Troy looked from me to the sky, his face a tad more relaxed.

“
Perfect
.” It was Anaya’s voice, steady, smooth and brilliant, pushing herself into my mind. Her violation was a threat!

My skin seared at the thought, my breathing stopped, and wind threatened to break the area around us.

“Ava!” Troy shouted.

When I looked to him, my world crumbled at the sight of his hazel eyes piercing me. I looked around at the unnatural reality. Disaster bloomed from my mind as he neared, inches away from my skin.

“You don’t have to do this.” His words swam toward me.

Moments later, Kronan stood beside us, spreading his hands like he was extending the shield. He held two amethyst crystals, capturing the force of the beautiful, electrified barrier before us. He nodded for me to let go. When I finally did, it hurt much more than when I had first released it. I noticed Troy standing too close.

“You are too close,” I whispered, feeling, wanting him to retreat so the pain on my skin would subside. My shield receded, leaving my bones feeling like scorched, hot metal inside me, threatening to melt all of me from the inside out. I wanted to claw my eyes out at the unbearable pain. I had been so brave earlier when I could not feel, now I regretted all the power that had ripped through my body and mind, leaving its evidence coiled inside me. I collapsed in Troy’s arms, his skin against mine caused me to feel each and every ruinous feeling rake through my body, one limb and organ at a time. I yelled out from the pain. If only I could have focused on my healing and kept the shield up at the same time. I tasted blood, salt, dirt and tears, followed by smoke, sweat and more tears. The androids became annoyed after they lost half their unit. I was still connected to the shield that now both Anaya and Kronan were holding in position. The increase in strength and force of the fire balls slammed petulantly against the shield, pounding into my head. Troy pulled me closer, and I buried my face in his heated body for what felt like only a moment, his heart a thumping frenzy in his chest. I opened my eyes. Anaya and Kronan stood staring at me. In the back of my mind, I felt the shield, the sting, the buzz. I pushed myself from Troy, moved away until his proximity didn’t affect me anymore. But I felt the agony in Troy’s darkened eyes as he held his gaze on me. Yet, for my sake he said, “You did good.” Hazel eyes studying the fear and misery of what I had become.

I shook my head, tight lipped. I felt the dark and light collide within me, my mind caught in the clash. I was barely holding it together. How could they not tell?

We stood behind the shield, while the remaining droids tried to figure out how to destroy it. This was the beginning of the Shadow army. I was sure that Enoch had sent out the first batch to test their capabilities, and mine.

Kronan looked down at the fierce glow of the amethyst crystals. “If these crystals break…”

“So does the shield,” I concluded, not sure if I could pull up that amount of energy again anytime soon.

“Luckily, they are within the perimeters of the shield.” Anaya smiled.

“So, what, now we wait?” Troy asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

I glanced at him quizzically.

“They will figure out soon enough that their efforts are of no use.”

I bit down on my lip, I couldn’t tell them. I wouldn’t tell them my shield was linked to me, and that when standing anywhere near Troy, I could feel each blow swell through me like large rocks dumped into a placid, cold lake, the ripples bending the smooth, peaceful surface. Troy moved closer to me and tore a piece from my white shirt. I looked down at my body, now visible for everyone to see. Taking the cloth, he wiped at my jaw and under my ears.

“What is it?”

“It’s nothing.” Although he smiled, it didn’t reach his eyes.

My hand jerked to the white rag as it came away from my face. The glow of my blood – I snatched it from his hands, trying to hide it, to keep my disease a secret for just a little while longer.

“It’s okay,” he said, staring into my eyes.

The lump in my chest wanted to explode in bloody tears. The thickness in my throat hurt so bad, I couldn’t speak. Kronan paced before us upon noticing the weak spot in the shield. It wasn’t visible at first, but it was slowly wearing thin.

“Dad?”

“I see it, Son,” he groaned, somewhat perplexed. There was only so much his magic could do at a given time.

“They should be here any moment…” Anaya began, and almost as if someone had read her mind and just as the shield crackled and fazed to a purple, dusty smoke, the distinctive whistle of soaring arrows echoed throughout the forest. We all looked up as a blizzard of arrows streaked across the sky, the tips flaming-blue asteroids, disappearing into the low, looming clouds of doom overhead, then crashing in a wide arc right into the droids’ chests. I turned to see Tatos, Willard and Rion. Behind us, a glow from yellow torches highlighted their shadows against a foggy, smoky sky. A dozen Zulu warriors slowly made their way out from the edge of the forest and into the clearing. The slow, deep vibrating beat of their war drums had never been so comforting. Only then did I see the 200 meter radius I had cleared into our surroundings with the forced storm earlier; uprooted trees and debris scattered in a wide circle around us. I had no idea of the power I was capable of when combining the dark and the light. The devastated landscape didn’t sit well, and I suddenly felt the acid making its way up to my mouth. Troy was at my side, but I held a hand up to ward him off. I didn’t want him near me when I felt sick to my stomach. What if I killed… I looked into the distance before me, droid limbs and plates of metal edged the forest, slow fires were dying out from a steady but soft downpour as a result of the heavy, hovering clouds above. I stood and turned to see more droids fall with not as much as a protest, or life-pleading quiver as enchanted arrows struck them. I did feel the sting of shame for them, a pinch of regret, and the tightness in my chest as dread clawed its way into me; they too, were victims in this entire war. But, it didn’t take long before they got up and stumbled toward us. Zulu warriors’ cries echoed in the distance as they ran past, colliding with metal soldiers.

“They can’t be stopped,” said Thandiwe, suddenly beside me.