Ravens (13 page)

Chapter Twelve

Kendra wandered toward the sacks to
stake a claim when a jolt of pain stabbed her body. She buckled, fell on the
bags, and cried through clenched lips. The energy pulsed through her veins,
making her convulse like she was having an epileptic fit.

Liam immediately went to her. It wasn’t
a safe idea to touch someone during his or her final transformation, but he
tried to help her by taking some of the pain away at a volatile moment in her
transformation.

He landed on his knees and held her to
his chest. Her head fell back as she shook in his arms. She gasped as Liam
absorbed some of the heat, but it wasn’t enough. She tried to push him away,
but he was adamant about relieving her pain, and drew out more of the heat.

Kendra went limp. She wanted to scream,
but the energy soaked up her voice. The white from her eyes sizzled into the
surrounding flesh, covered her body in sparks, and churned deep in the pit of
her belly. The heat exploded, bursting from the core of her chest outward,
escaping by ripping through her eyes and mouth. The white energy scorched
upward and out of her body in an explosion.

Liam grunted, buried his head in her
chest to preserve some of his flesh from her energy.

When Kendra glanced down, she watched in
horror as her energy peeled away his skin, exposed muscle and bone, but he
regenerated before her.

He squeezed his eyes shut, clenched his
teeth, and muffled a yell. He absorbed more and more of her power, dragging it
out of her body in one of the most surreal feelings ever. The entire boxcar
shook with random sparks from all four corners. The car burst into a brilliant
white glow, which Kendra’s body sucked back in, leaving only the night and
flickering light bulbs.

The energy that swept through Kendra’s
body didn’t harm her beyond this initial pain. She survived. She didn’t burn or
suffocate.

When the final stage of the
transformation passed, Kendra collapsed onto the burlap sacks. She heaved in
exhaustion. Her chest moved up and down in shallow, rapid breaths, and Liam
moved with her. He relaxed without his own strength on top of her, his face
still buried in her chest. His knees bent beside hers, their legs fanned out,
as if their bodies fused at the torsos.

After a moment, Kendra pushed herself
onto her elbows, but lacked the power for anything else. She couldn’t move
beneath Liam’s full weight.

“You can move now,” she grunted.

Looking down at the auburn mess of hair
that tickled her chin, she realized Liam snuggled much too close to her
breasts, and the very thought tightened her belly. She couldn’t decide which
was worse: him being that close or her actually liking it.

A sly smile spread across his lips and
grazed the skin beneath her clavicle. “I’m afraid I’m just too exhausted from
your powers to move.”

She attempted to nudge him, but his
heavy body didn’t budge. He chuckled at the weak attempt.

“Move, you idiot,” she grunted again.

He nestled against her chest. The
cleavage from her tight tank top cushioned his cheek and the corner of his
lips. He tilted his chin up, dragging it against her skin. She sharply inhaled
and clenched her teeth when she felt the friction of his stubble against her
collarbone.

His lips brushed against her throat when
he spoke. “I think I like where I am, darling, don’t you?”

The movement of his lips against her
flesh sent a wave of tremors through her, and she couldn’t tell if her emotions
or his manipulative energy caused the mad butterflies in her belly.

“I thought so.”

Liam was too weak from buffering her
transformation to use his skills on her and she knew it, so it meant she
was
attracted to him, despite his obvious feelings for Julie.

“Whatever.”

“Say what you will, but I heard the
flutter in her heart and how it raced when I asked. Your words may brush it
off, but your body doesn’t lie.”

Heat rose to her cheeks.

“Admit it, darling, you like me.”

Infuriating little boy!
Kendra
collapsed back onto the bags. It would take a while before either had the
strength to move again.

She knew Liam would love to take
advantage of the situation. He wouldn’t ever get this close to her again.

The final stage of Kendra’s
transformation didn’t go unnoticed by others on the train.

Liam and Kendra turned their attention
toward the sound of opening doors. Liam looked up from his peaceful position,
and grunted. The universe gave little mercy. Two workers slid the door open
between boxcars.

When Kendra saw them, she panicked. She
struggled to find energy and to get to her feet before they advanced.

The strangers slammed the car door shut
behind them and studied the duo on the floor. One man rhythmically smacked a
two-by-four in his left palm. The other man wrapped the metal link chain around
his right fist, slid his left hand along the remainder of the chain, and held
it taut. Both men stood with feet apart and back straight.

They briefly exchanged quizzical looks
and a shallow shrug when the Ravens didn’t budge. This moment provided enough
time for Liam to compel his body to move. He pushed down on the bags by
Kendra’s waist and stood lethargically, wobbling to a drunken stance. Absorbing
her energy really did take his strength.

The men grinned. Ravens were known for
their powers and combat skills, due to their brute strength and agility. What
were average humans thinking trying to take on two? Well, when one was a girl
who did nothing but lay there, and the other who seemed to be a boy not totally
with it, it leveled the field.

The man with the two-by-four attacked
Liam first, crushing him with a solid blow against his ribs. Liam yelled out,
grabbed his side, and stumbled backward. The second man punched Liam, and then
swung the loose end of the chain around to cut across his face. The chain
ripped a layer of flesh from Liam’s muscle and drew blood.

“No!” Kendra cried from her position on
the bags. She struggled to get to her feet, but found herself unable to make it
past a few inches off the floor.

Unlike the dangerously weak Liam, Kendra
was o
was 
nly fatigued by the changes in her own body. Her
weariness faded as she found her strength and called down on her anger to rouse
it up. It liked to fight, so the energy had better hurry up.

The man with the two-by-four pulled back
to hit Kendra. “Shut up, Raven!”

Kendra kicked the man in the crotch. She
fell back on her palms and kicked up, slamming her shoe against the under part
of his chin. He cried and fell against his friend, knocking him over.

The man with the chain pushed his
co-worker aside and whipped Kendra, lashing her across the face and striking
her temples. She yelped at the throbbing pain, and clutched her wounds. Liam
saw the strike and willed himself to stand. His breathing escalated, evident by
a heaving chest. He snarled. White sparks snapped at the air. He grabbed the
chain and yanked the man toward him, catching him off guard.

“Don’t you know that you should never
hit a girl?” he roared.

Liam drew his right fist back and
pummeled the stranger. His knuckles were like hot iron rods burning through
human flesh. His energy bled into his fists.

The assailant tried to move away after
the first few blows, but Liam kept his reins tight. The other end, of course,
remained wrapped around the stranger’s knuckles, and he couldn’t get away nor
did he have the time or balance to unravel it. Liam didn’t have to step forward
in order to knock him out. Like a game of paddleball, he yanked the man toward
him and punched him out.

Meanwhile, the second man attacked Liam
from the side and broke the two by four against his back. Liam yelled, and
swung the first man around while still attached to the chain. He crashed into
his co-worker.

Liam fell to his knees.

The men stumbled to their feet, bleeding
and bruised, and more spiteful than before. They curled over to nurse broken
ribs and a broken nose. They hovered over Liam. What a trophy story this would
be: two ordinary Joe’s winning against a real Raven, possibly two Ravens, and
living to tell the tale.

Kendra pushed aside her pain and crawled
to her feet. She silently moved behind the men as the anger welled up inside.
White heat flashed down her arms and into her open palms. She now fully
understood Liam’s logic about life and death: kill or die.

Liam refused to cower, and attempted to
muster up another source of power. The men drew back their weapons for one last
hit when Kendra raised her arms, palms facing the men. The energy felt as if
fibers of her body stretched from her shoulders, pulsated through her arms, and
escaped from her hands. It whipped the humans’ backs, pried through their skin,
and invaded.

They cried in agony as they arched their
backs to get away from the lashing. The energy picked them up, threw them over
Liam’s head, and hurtled the bodies out of the boxcar.

Liam jerked his head at Kendra who stood
like a Raven goddess, her dark beauty illuminated by the bright, white energy.
He managed a short smirk, of course.

“Liam?”

Kendra’s power vanished, dissipated in
the air, as she dropped to his side. Liam closed his eyes and didn’t respond.
She laid his limp body back onto the rice bags, making sure he continued to
breathe. She would have to wait until the train stopped before getting help.
Hopefully, the others waited for them and could help before they encountered
another human.

Kendra pulled the cell phone from Liam’s
pocket and called Nathan.

****

Nathan drove his car away from the
harbor, accompanied by Lou in the front seat. Mark sat in the back with Julie
on his lap and three other girls beside him. It was a stuffy and tight ride
back, but no one complained. The other three Raven females caught a freight
train back to the city’s edge where they disbanded and went to their respective
Raven families.

No wonder the guys hardly met female
Ravens. Apparently, they were all locked up.

Before calling the night a sweet ending,
Lou exchanged contact information with one of the young ladies who caught his
attention.

The three girls in the car lived in the
city. The eldest gave Lou a lingering touch and encouraged him to call. Julie
headed back to the apartment to clear the way of any lurking dangers, such as
hunters who waited in an ambush. With Lou still strapped in the passenger seat
and Mark in the backseat, Nathan swerved the car around.

“Already time for another mission,” Lou
grunted. “He had to get into more trouble, huh? I wouldn’t have minded hanging
out with that girl the rest of the night.”

“You can see her again,” Mark muttered.

Mark had to go back for Liam’s
motorcycle and drive it back to the apartment.

Nathan parked the car half a mile from
the train station. He and Lou ran to the point where the train would
decelerate. They hid in the dark brush, concealed by darkness, when the train
came.

Kendra leaned out of the boxcar so the
guys knew exactly which car to target.

They lunged from their perches after the
workers at the head of the train ducked inside to prepare for the stop. They
sprinted to the car, leapt off dusty ground. They grabbed onto the edge of the
open frame and swung inside like human panthers. They landed in the middle of
the car and jogged to Liam, who lay sprawled out on the bags.

Nathan took Liam’s left arm and placed
it around his shoulders. Lou did the same with the other arm. Liam was limp and
barely conscious.

They jumped. With Liam secure between
the two men, they seemed to know how to handle an extra body. Kendra jumped
after them and hit the ground running like before.

Nathan and Lou ran to the car and
secured Liam in the back seat, while Kendra crawled in next to him. They took
off immediately.

“Liam?” Kendra asked as she placed her
hand to her brow, to the plump and red spot on her temple. Chains really hurt.

Liam grumbled incoherently.

Kendra moved closer to him. She lifted
his drooping head, and wiped the grime and blood from his temples with her
palm. He groaned and rested his head against hers when she lowered her hand.

Nathan glanced at them from the rearview
mirror. “How’s our boy doing back there?”

 “He’s making it,” she answered, then
went on to explain what happened.

“What on earth possessed him to buffer
your transformation?” Lou asked, as if disgusted.

“Obviously, he cares about you, Kendra.
No man in their right mind would take that kind of energy into their system.”
Nathan concentrated on the road ahead.

Liam did care about her, so much so that
he risked his life to relieve some of her pain. He protected her when he could
barely defend himself. Sure, his life was on the line, too, but he could have
easily jumped the train when the men focused on Kendra.