Fractured Light (33 page)

Use Light as a weapon? I’d gone over the possibilities in my mind so many times, but I still couldn’t see how it could be done. I took my pencil and began to write down all the things I knew Light could do. So far all I’d been able to do with it was turn the lights on and off, make others feel cozy inside, melt snow, and make a flashlight turn on without batteries. And Sophie could light up hidden life in the forest and walk on top of deep snow.

As for my mother, I remember she used to create these smooth light balls and would circle them above my bed at night like a baby mobile while she sang me to sleep. That was probably the most impressive thing I’d ever seen Light do.

I glanced over my list. So far it looked like the only weapon I could use against a Vyken was to either make him feel special or light up an area around him. Terrifying, I know. I crumbled up the paper and shoved in into my backpack. This was going to be tough.

It was late, later than I wanted it to be, but I had to wait until Christian came in and fell asleep before I could experiment. Every night I waited for the inevitable sounds of sleep to fill the house before I tried manipulating light. For some reason I felt self-conscious doing it in front of him. Even the thought of showing him my Light made me feel like I was undressing. I knew he wouldn’t care, but using it just felt too personal.

I opened my bedroom door quietly and listened for any sounds coming from the living room. All the lights were off and everything was quiet. Jake had gone to sleep hours ago. There was a chance Christian wasn’t quite asleep, but by how silent everything was, he’d be close. Christian had a tendency to toss and turn if he wasn’t asleep, and I heard none of those movements now.

Like Christian had promised, he’d recovered from his wounds more quickly than a normal person—a perk to having great genetics. Within a couple of days, he began sleeping on our couch. He’d come over around 11:00 p.m. and leave at sunrise. Most of the time I pretended to be asleep when he showed up. I thought it would be easier on everyone, especially Jake. I could tell he still questioned his decision, but I never did. The improvement in Christian was worth it.

I quietly closed the door and drew the curtains. Lying down in bed, I stretched out my hands. In a matter of seconds a light burst from my palm. It had taken me days to get to this point, and longer to shape it into a tight ball I could maneuver around the room.

For several minutes I used my hands to compact the light into a usable form. I found if I didn’t do this, the moment the ball crashed into anything it would dissipate like fog. However, if I compacted it enough, the ball would actually bounce off hard objects. The night before, I’d gotten it to ricochet off the walls in my room like a pinball machine. It was sort of fun, but still nothing that would frighten, let alone hurt, an attacker.

With the ball finally tight enough to manipulate, I raised it up and let it hover in the air. What could I do to make it fearsome? But after ten minutes of me doing nothing, the ball began to dissipate. Frustrated, I started over.

I concentrated hard and lifted a newly formed light-ball into the air. Instead of focusing on how to use it as a weapon, I let my thoughts wander to the dark shadows of my mind. It was a place I normally wouldn’t dwell in, but tonight I lingered within the anger I’d kept hidden for so long. I let my desire to hurt and mangle the Vyken fill my whole being until every nerve hummed with violence. It was the cruelest I’d ever felt in my life.

Before I realized what I was doing, the light-ball flew from my hands and crashed into the wall opposite me. I gasped and moved to examine it, but before I could, Christian flung open my door and snapped on the light.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” he said. He looked surprisingly alert, like a hunting tiger.

“Congratulations. You win the lightest sleeper award,” I blurted.

“Huh?”

“I just tripped, very quietly I might add.” Christian stared at me with a blank look so I continued. “I was on my way to the bathroom, but I tripped on that shoe.” I pointed to a turned over shoe by my bed. I was suddenly glad I’d decided not to clean my room earlier.

Christian picked it up and examined it.

“It’s not going to tell you anything, Christian. Shoes are funny like that. Can I get by you?” I actually did need to use the bathroom now.

“Yeah, sure.”

I did my business and then returned to the room. “Can I go back to bed now?” I purposely turned off the light when I saw Christian getting closer to the hole in the wall.

“You sure everything’s okay?” he asked.

“Daisies and bunnies.” I climbed into bed.

He waited a second before he said, “If you need anything, you know where I am.”

I faked a yawn and mumbled, “Uh-huh.”

I waited ten minutes before I dared slide out of bed again. I re-created a light-ball, but this time it was purely for vision sake. I held it up to the hole in the wall. The dry wall was caved in where the ball had struck. I stuck my finger in the depression. It didn’t go in as far as I would’ve liked, but at least it did damage. I was finally on to something.

*     *     *     *     *

It was a cold, wet morning. An unexpected spring storm had rolled in overnight, drenching everything. With it came warmer temperatures. I stared outside and watched the rain slowly disintegrate a pile of plowed snow in the school parking lot.

“Llona? Earth to Llona.”

I glanced over, blank-faced. The English teacher was staring at me. Several of the students snickered.

The teacher’s thin lips twisted open. “When you are done daydreaming, could you please go to the office?” She waved a yellow slip in her hand.

“Right. Sure.” I quickly stuffed my book into my backpack and stood up. I kept my head down as I made my way out of the classroom.

As soon as I was free from my teacher’s stare, I picked up my pace. I’d never been called to the office before and it made me nervous. But my nervousness quickly changed to anxiety when the secretary behind the desk told me my uncle was waiting for me outside.

Jake should be at work. Why would he be here? I wrapped my arms around my light jacket and stepped into the rain. I was glad I’d decided to wear a beanie to school today. The rain was coming down harder, and I would’ve been twice as cold if my hair was wet.

I looked around for Jake’s car. Nothing. I was about to walk through the parking lot to see if I could find him when Christian’s black SUV pulled up. He rolled down his window. “Hop in.”

“What are you doing?”

“Skipping school and taking you with me.”

“So there is no Jake?”

“Nope.”

I smiled. “What did you have in mind?”

“Get in and I’ll tell you.”

“I think you’re ready for our next training exercise,” he told me once I was in the car.

“Can’t it wait till school is over?”

He shook his head. “Nope.”

“How come?”

“You’ll see. Be patient.”

“Yes, Master Yoda.”

Christian turned toward his house and drove up the hill.

“There are clothes for you in the back.”

“Can’t I change at your house?”

“We’re not going to my house.”

I frowned. “Then where are we going?”

“We’re training outside today.”

I glanced out the rain-streaked window. “In this weather?”

Christian motioned his head toward the back of the car. “Hurry and get changed. I don’t want to waste any time. And you can’t wear your beanie.” He turned up the radio before I could protest.

I sighed and climbed in the backseat, deliberately bumping the rearview mirror toward the ceiling.

“I wasn’t going to peek,” he said over the loud music.

“Yeah right, pervert,” I joked. I couldn’t see his expression to tell if he knew I was kidding or not. Sometimes he took me way too seriously.

Just when I finished changing, Christian turned onto a dirt road and into a canyon. It was not one I recognized. “I’ve never been here before,” I said.

“It’s not that popular.” He shut the car off in the middle of the road. “Now as soon as we get out, I’m going to move fast, and I want you to keep up. It’s going to be cold and because of the rain you won’t have much footing.”

I peered out the window and up to the dark, cloudy sky. “Not to be a party pooper or anything, but the moon just barely came out last night. I don’t think I have the energy for this.” Fighting was one thing but even thinking about a hard run made me tired.

“It doesn’t matter what cycle the moon is in. You still have Light in you regardless of what time of the month it is. You just have to learn to access it.”

“Easier said then done, my friend.”

He turned to me. “Llona, you are the most competitive person I’ve met. Do you really want me to waste you?”

He knew me too well. “I didn’t say you would waste me,” I backpeddled. “I just said it would be harder than usual.” That was the understatement of the year, but I wasn’t about to tell him that.

“Just follow me and concentrate. Ignore all outside stimuli. Sometimes it helps me if I play a song in my head.” He placed his hand on the door handle. “You think you can keep up?”

I wanted to adamantly say no, but instead I said, “Bring it on!” I couldn’t turn down a challenge like that.

Christian bolted out the door. I moved to join him but fell as my foot slipped on wet mud. I looked up just in time to see Christian disappear into the woods. I groaned and stood up. Here goes nothing.

I took off after him, slowly at first. I could barely see him in front of me, sprinting up a steep trail. The cold wasn’t as distracting as I thought it’d be, but the rain was horrible. It drenched my hair in a matter of seconds, and I kept getting distracted from having to wipe it out of my face. Only when I started humming the same song that had been playing in the car earlier, did I start to focus.

Once I eliminated the cold and the rain as a distraction, I concentrated on finding the dormant Light inside me, which proved to be very difficult while running. I was running fast but not nearly fast enough to keep up with Christian. Already I couldn’t see him anymore.

“Not on my watch,” I whispered to no one.

I forced my legs to push faster with longer strides until I thought they’d collapse from exertion. It wasn’t until I reached complete exhaustion that I felt a burst of light explode throughout my body. My muscles immediately filled with its energy—the same energy I felt on a full moon, if not more. Air moved more freely into my lungs and my vision became clear. Even my hearing became more focused. I could hear Christian’s footsteps not far off. I was not as behind as I thought.

I raced after him, fully sprinting now. In less than a minute I was right on his tail. He turned around, grinned, and then started running faster. He’d been holding back.

I adjusted my speed to keep up with him, making me a little winded, but not much. Without warning, he moved off the trail and straight into thick underbrush, still traveling at the same speed. I followed, but quickly found I had to adjust the way I’d been running. Not only did I have to concentrate on blocking out the cold and rain, but now I had to concentrate on where I stepped and moved. The uneven ground was never the same and at every turn, branches reached out as if to grab me.

At first I was really nervous as I ran through the forest, trying to avoid disaster with every step, but without being aware of it, my mind begun to take visual snap shots of the surroundings. This gave me the ability to know exactly where I was going to step next. Several steps ahead, in fact. It was as if I was able to see into the future just enough to know my next move. The moment I realized this, I started having fun. I felt like a freerunner again, but this time I didn’t have to worry about who may be watching.

I caught up to Christian quickly and couldn’t help but beam when I saw the surprise in his face. This time it was my turn to grin. I kept pace with him even though I felt I could pass him if I really wanted to.

I continued to follow him up the mountain. The closer we came to the top, rocky terrain and huge boulders replaced the once dense forest. I was completely soaked by this time and every time I turned sharply, my wet hair slapped me in the face, stinging my cold skin.

“Just up ahead,” Christian called.

I couldn’t imagine where he was taking me. All I could see was more rocks and what looked like a steep drop-off up ahead. Off to my left, my eyes locked with a mountain goat. It quickly bounded off in the other direction. Smart goat. I would leave too if I saw two crazy people running this high in the mountains in the middle of a storm.

Christian stopped on a flat slate-like rock formation just before the drop off. “We’re here,” he said.

I stopped next to him. “Where exactly is here?”

“The place where we’re training today.” Lightening cracked overhead. I looked up into the rain. “I’m glad my shoes have rubber on them.”

“I’ve been waiting for a day like this for a long time,” he said while stretching his legs.

“One that can kill you?” I walked over to the edge of the cliff and looked down. It must’ve been at least a hundred feet to the bottom.