(no subject)
Chapter 4
We all looked pretty much the same for our second day of training. I was wearing a pair of plain sneakers that I hardly ever wore instead of my Chucks and Alex was wearing jeans. It was Lucy who had a dilemma.
See, she, like most people, didn’t buy her clothes thinking “Hey, I might have to learn how to fight in these some day,” so everything she owned was cute and impractical. She had managed to scrounge up a pair of jeans, but had to borrow one of my smaller shirts. I was wearing, like always, jeans and a t shirt, and so was Will.
Ty arrived in our kitchen again at twelve sharp and took us to the clouds again. Matthew wasn’t there yet, but three other people were.
One of them was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. She was tall and willowy with fiery red hair that waved its way down her slender frame and apple green eyes framing a cute little nose set right above full, red lips. She curved everywhere that any girl would have loved to. Even her hands were perfect. When she turned, I noticed white wings.
There was another girl who was cute, like Lucy. She had short, blue(!) hair tied into a spiky ponytail on top of her head and pale, blue eyes. She was dressed casually in blue camouflage pants tucked into combat boots and a white tank top. Her wings, unsurprisingly, were blue. She looked like something out of a manga.
The third was a man. He had a thick tuft of pure, white hair even though he was obviously young. His eyes were ice blue, framed in beautifully long lashes and his mouth was set in an I’m-looking-for-danger sort of a grin. He was tall and thick with muscles. The white wings sprouting from his back looked so very out of place.
As I finished my assessment of the three people, Matthew walked over and Ty disappeared.
“Lighten up, Matthew,” the man said, his grin growing.
“I haven’t said anything,” Matthew retorted, standing in front of them.
“I mean, they’re not that stupid looking,” White Hair said. I sensed all of us tensing with anger. He told people we were stupid?
“Yeah. In fact, I’d say they’re pretty smart,” the girl in all blue mentioned. I felt a rush of gratitude.
Matthew snorted and turned to face us. “Well, novices, these are the masters, your personal teachers, Melissa, Leo, and Crystal. You’ll notice that you often have the same powers as your trainers. For some reason unknown, they seem to group the same powers together.”
We all looked at each other. The girl in blue waved cheerily.
“I’m Melissa, emotional empath and hydrokinetic Extraoardinaire! Whose my charge?”
Alex lifted a finger. “I’m Alex. I sob when she’s sad.” She jabbed a thumb in my direction and Melissa grinned. Matthew rolled his eyes.
The man spoke next.
“I’m Leo. I’m an electrokinetic and-” Melissa stuffed her fist in his mouth. He was still speaking around it, but I couldn’t understand him. She gave us a charming smile.
“What he means to say is that he has electrokinesis and can levitate. But it doesn’t feel as if any of you can levitate,” she said. We all shook our heads.
“My name’s Lucy, I’m the one with electrokinesis,” Lucy said. Melissa took her fist out of Leo’s mouth and Leo grinned at her.
“Good. You’ve got spunk!”
Lucy beamed. Will, realizing that only the beautiful woman was left, clenched his fist in triumph.
The beautiful woman gave a graciously amused smile and spoke. “I’m Crystal, the songstress.” She looked at Will first and then me, inviting her pupil to step forward. Will did with such a blissful look, I almost laughed.
“I’m Will. I almost got her”-he jabbed a finger at me-“and her”-this finger was at Lucy-“to sleep with me.” Crystal smiled while Melissa and Leo laughed. Matthew just scowled. Why do I get stuck with the pessimist?
Matthew stepped forward. “I’m the physical empath and pyrokinetic.” Our eyes met and his hardened. I looked away.
“Well, we’ll be alternating fighting and special abilities training. And we’ll be helping you fight, too. Matthew isn’t the only one who knows how to use weapons.” Melissa grinned cheekily at him and he curled his upper lip to keep from smiling, it seemed. His eyes twinkled slightly with amusement.
“So, come with us,” Leo said, beckoning to Lucy. I followed Matthew while the others followed their respective tutors.
“Wait!” I said suddenly.
“What, Macallis?” Matthew asked.
“Whose the geokinetic?”
The other three masters all looked at Matthew.
“Dead,” he grunted. “I’ll be helping you with those abilities.”
“Oh.” So that really meant I was stuck with Matthew? I blamed this entirely on Mrs. Ingrid Jones.
I’m sure that Matthew walked me as far as he did because he knew I was completely not athletic. I was panting by the time he stopped. Wherever we were looked exactly like the place we had left. I sat down, already too tired to do anything.
To my astonishment, Matthew sat down, cross-legged, in front of me. In answer to my questioning look, he said, “There’s no need to stand for this.”
No need to stand for what?
“What parts of your body can you shoot fire out of?” he asked.
I blinked. Wasn’t this an obvious question? “My finger.”
He smirked. “That’s it?”
I was surprised again. “Well, yeah, where else would I shoot it from?”
“Well, you should be able to shoot it out of anywhere by the time we’re done. But most of the novices can at least shoot it out of their palms when they get to me.”
I frowned. Why was I that much worse? Was I-Oh! The solution was so simple, I’m surprised it took me so long to think of it. “It’s because all your other novices had their powers for three years. I’ve only had mine for one.”
HA! For once, I had disconcerted Matthew.
“You’re only nineteen?” I nodded. “Then why are you here?” He didn’t look happy.
Ha. This answer can only place blame on Ty, who was much more equipped to deal with Matthew than I was. “Well, since we all live together, Ty gave us the choice of waiting to train alone or training with Will.”
“Will is the only one who is actually of age?” I nodded again. “Well then, Macallis. You had better not make me look bad.”
“I won’t,” I promised, more to myself than him. I didn’t want to look bad any more than he did. Although, I could just blame it on him. And it would serve him right if I did.
“Well, first thing’s first. Hit me with some flames.”
“Pardon?”
“Fire at me, Macallis. With your finger. Go on, I’m fireproof, just like you.”
Actually, come to think of it, it would give me great satisfaction to shoot anything at Matthew. Hesitantly, I pointed my index finger in his direction and thought with all my might about making a flame shoot out of it. A feeble string finally did, hitting him on the shoulder.
He laughed. “That was weak, Macallis. You definitely need to work on that.” I glared at him. Isn’t it his job to help me with that?
All of a sudden, a thick jet of fire was streaming out of his kneecap, hitting me squarely in the chest.
“When you can do that, or this-” He hit me from his toenail. “-then you’ve mastered it.”
I stared at his knee. Not that I thought shooting substances out of my kneecap was particularly stylish or exciting, but for some reason, I found I really wanted to do that.
“How would I go about mastering it?” I asked, examining my finger to see if there was something on it that would give me a clue.
“You need to develop your concentration and willpower,” Matthew replied. I looked up and he was watching me closely.
“What?” I tried to meet his gaze, but I just couldn’t do it. I looked back down.
“What can you do with geokinesis?”
I was surprised. I hadn’t realized that we would be switching topics so quickly.
“Well. I can move plants around.” I frowned. “Sort of.”
“Sort of?”
I nodded and a garden suddenly appeared to our left, startling a gasp out of me.
“Where...?”
“All masters have some level of materialization,” he said dismissively.
“Oh.” Was it just me, or was Matthew being nicer? I think it was just me.
“Now,” he began, “move that rose over there.”
I looked at where he was pointing. A single, red rose was growing out of the ground. Funny, I thought roses grew on bushes.
“Ok.” Moving a single flower wasn’t hard. I pointed my index finger at it and concentrated on that rose. When I jerked my finger, it slid neatly across the patch of grass, resting about a foot from the edge. I flicked my finger slightly and it moved to where I wanted it. I looked at Matthew to see what he thought. He was chuckling, at my clumsiness, I suppose.
“Eventually, you won’t need to use your finger. Now, move that tree to where the rose was.” A tree appeared behind the rose and I stared at him. I’d never moved anything so large. He seemed to know this and gave me a challenging smirk.
Very well, Matthew. I shall make a fool out of myself for your sadistic enjoyment. I pointed at the tree and yanked it to the left. The tree wiggled, but stayed firmly rooted in the grass. I tried again. It slid left about a centimeter, possibly less. I turned around, expecting Matthew to be laughing. Instead, he looked surprised.
“The last time I told someone to move a tree on their first lesson, the tree wouldn’t even wiggle the second time. And they were 21.” He looked at me quite seriously, even for someone whose laughter meant someone was suffering. “You have a lot of power.”
Power, not talent. I noticed the distinction.
“I’ve never moved a tree before,” I said instead of snapping about that.
“I didn’t really expect you to move it this time. I just wanted you to try so you had something to work toward.”
My eyebrows all but disappeared into my bangs. Matthew might actually be a good teacher, whether or not he’s a nice one. The thought was comforting.
“I bet I could set that tree on fire,” I mused, studying it.
“I bet you could,” he agreed and, when I looked at him, he was studying me as closely as I was the tree. Suddenly, he appeared to come to a conclusion. A stop watch appeared in his hand. “Set fire to that tree. I’ll time how long it takes for it to be entirely consumed in flame.”
I blinked. “How many times am I allowed to shoot it?”
“As many as you want. You see, for someone like me, it would take no time to consume the tree.” He set it ablaze in less than three seconds just to prove it to me, then recalled the fire. The tree was unscathed.
“Oh. Ok.”
“Ready?”
“Yes.”
“Go.”
I thought that maybe, if I tried, I could shoot flames out of every finger. I tried first with my right hand and got a good response, so I added in my left hand. There was a pretty steady stream of fire. This was fun!
I waved my hands up and down until the tree was blazing merrily.
Then I collapsed.
When I woke up, Matthew was leaning over me, his nose inches from mine and a gold chain that I’d never noticed him wearing before almost in my mouth.
“What was my time?” I demanded, trying to sit up. He shoved me back down.
“You fool! You could have killed yourself!”
“What was my time?” I repeated stubbornly.
“Twenty-four seconds, which is fantastic for a beginner, but you only did so well because you exhausted yourself, idiot!”
“Stop calling me an idiot. I just discovered something new I can do.” It was much easier standing up to Matthew when I had just fainted.
“No! Until you stop being an idiot, Macallis, I won’t stop calling you one. And obviously you can’t do that yet, or else you wouldn’t have blacked out.”
Something else occurred to me as he ranted. “How long was I out?”
“A G-d damn half hour!” he yelled, stepping away from me to cool off.
I sat up and hugged my knees to me. “I’m sorry for making you angry,” I whispered to my shoes.
I felt him look at me. “I was worried, stupid. I don’t know how long it’s been since a student fainted on me.”
I looked up at him. He was worried about me?
“You were worried about me?”
“OF COURSE I WAS, IDIOT! PEOPLE GENERALLY WORRY WHEN OTHER PEOPLE LOSE CONSCIOUSNESS.”
“Please stop yelling,” I whimpered, realizing that I must have hit the ground hard. His voice reverberated around my brain, hurting wherever it hit.
He seemed to calm down, though I could tell he had gone from worried to angry almost instantly. I think he likes being angry.
“I guess we’re done for today, Macallis. I don’t want to risk another injury. I’ll have Ty take you home and I’ll tell the others.” He looked disgusted. I wanted to just fall through the clouds and die.
“I can still-”
“No, Macallis. I want you to go home and I want you to rest. Got it?”
I think this may have been a peace offering.
“Got it,” I said weakly, standing up. By the time I was standing, he was talking to what seemed like nothing. Then Ty appeared.
“Come on, Miss Rose,” he said kindly.
“Bye Matthew,” I said.
He grunted something and Ty laughed. A minute later, Ty and I were both standing in my kitchen.
“Get some rest, Rose,” Ty said. And then he was gone.
I really didn’t want to rest yet. I thought I might take a walk along the peer. I changed out of my sneakers and into a pair of flip flops before grabbing a set of house keys and letting myself out the back door and onto the warm sand of the beach.
I really don’t like sand or water, but the beach was always soothing. The ocean was always calm, even when it was mad. It never got louder than it should and it always seemed to know what to say.
Besides, the ocean provided perfect spot for a boardwalk, which was where I was headed. It was much better going to the boardwalk than going into town because, on the boardwalk, I could get fair food. Fair food is often the cure to depression, especially if you don’t like things like ice cream.
I was almost to the wooden pathway when it hit me. I mean, hit me in a literal sense. It was a pipe and it hit me square in the gut, knocking the wind out of me and forcing me to my knees, gasping and spluttering.
It was immediately followed by a man dressed totally conspicuously in all black. He had a second lead pipe and immediately thwacked me over the head with it. Sometimes, it was a blessing to be short. Because then, taller people tended not to realize how low they need to aim and, if they are trying to hit you with a metal pipe, it misses just enough that, though your eyes swim with tears, you remain conscious enough to fall forward so that his next blows miss you completely. That is, until he kneels down.
“What do you want?” I gasped.
He knelt down and invaded my personal space with his unshaven face. “You live in that mansion.”
“Yeah?” I panted.
“You must be loaded.” He started feeling around my pants. I managed to slam my heel into his fingers and he yelped, beating my legs with the pipe until I could barely feel them. I started crying.
“You got any money on you?” he demanded, going back to my pants. Oh. He was checking for a wallet.
“There’s a twenty in my back pocket.” I didn’t have the energy to lie and, if giving him a twenty got him to go away, then he could have it with my blessing.
My head, of course, was pounding as he pocketed the bill and studied me once more. Did he think I was going to move? I was pretty sure my legs were useless.
“Roll over.”
“‘Scuse me?”
“What’s in your front pockets?” he roared.
“I CAN’T ROLL OVER!” I managed to sob. He slammed the pipe into my back. I’d be lucky to have a working spine after all this. Why was I still conscious? This was painful.
He started feeling painfully around the front of my pants and came up with my keys. Oh shit.
Thinking fast, I pointed a finger and managed to get them to light up. He dropped them with a yelp.
“Where did that come from?” he squeaked.
“Must have been a spark,” I gasped as the keys blazed away. They wouldn’t melt. He hit me on the head just hard enough to give my sobbing more intensity. There had to be some way out of this.
I vaguely wondered if I was going to die, right here, right now, without ever reaching legal drinking age. Then I thought, if I die, would the fire on the keys go out? And I realized that, if I died, right now, the fire probably would go out and then this ass would gain access to my seaside mansion and probably treat Alex, Will, and Lucy to the same fate, all at different times. And I did not want that to happen.
But how could I stop it?
While my exhausted brain had thought all of this, Ass seemed to have gotten an idea of some satanic sort and had begun raining blow after agonizing blow on my back and legs.
I had a moment to think that hey, at least I’m only feeling my pain for once, before the most brilliantly risky idea popped into my bruised head.
I wasn’t sure if it would work. I could only hope it would.
The plan was to try and actually send my pain. Of course, this had to be to another pain empath. Which only left me one option.
Matthew.
I hoped that Alex could feel my agony, but somehow knew that, since she was up in the sky, she was cut off. So I focused all my energy on thinking about Matthew feeling my pain.
As my legs went numb from all the beating they were taking, I thought about how stupid the idea was. Of course Matthew wouldn’t get it. He was a Master, after all, and could block out other people’s pain.
I thought that, if anyone had a chance to escape this man, it was Will and his singing, so I hoped that he got to him first. Why am I still conscious?
“Stop.”
I thought it must have been because Ass had just gone for my head that I had hallucinated Matthew’s voice.
“Who the hell are you?”
Maybe I had finally lost consciousness without realizing it and I was dreaming.
“Get off of her or I will kill you.”
I managed to flop my head to one side and saw the tip of Matthew’s red scarf and his foot.
Ass stood up, both pipes in hand. “Oh yeah? Try,” he challenged, crossing them in front of him. I couldn’t see Matthew, but I had the feeling he was rolling his eyes.
I think Ass expected him to acknowledge him in some way, but anyone could have looked at Matthew and known he wasn’t someone to screw with. I saw his fist come out of nowhere and almost cause Ass’s face to implode, then his foot followed it and knocked him sideways. Why was Ass lucky enough to get knocked out so quickly? I ached so much, I just wanted to die.
Matthew pried a pipe out of his hands and looked as though judging where to hit. Oh G-d, he was actually going to kill an unconscious man!
“Don’t!” I managed. He looked at me for what I think was the first time.
“Why? He would have killed you.”
“Legal...stuff,” I managed. I think my keys went out a long time ago. Matthew sighed. Before I could stop him, he brought the pipe mightily across the man’s knees, audibly shattering them. I winced. I was very lucky that Ass wasn’t even half as strong as Matthew. I’d definitely be dead now.
He walked over to me, picking up my keys on the way, and knelt by my face.
“You’re such an idiot.”
I think he may have been smiling, but a second later, we were in my kitchen and he had stood up. The sand was much more comfortable than the cold tile.
I realized that I was still crying when splashes of liquid made puddles on the floor. I thought Matthew would yell at me, tell me not to be so weak, but he didn’t even seem to notice.
“Where’s your bedroom?” he asked, looking around.
“Stairs.”
He walked out of the kitchen and I could hear his thumping footsteps.
“Which room?” he called down. “Never mind.” Apparently, he had found the door with a dried rose stuck to it. He thumped his way back downstairs and then we were both in my room, me lying on my bed and him standing next to me.
I cried even harder once my face was buried in my pillow. Again, Matthew either didn’t notice or pretended not to, for either of which I was grateful.
I was not, however, grateful, when he sat down on the bed and told me he needed to inspect my wounds.
“No.”
He looked surprised.
“Macallis, they’ll need to be cleaned.”
“Can’t you call 911?”
“Who?”
“An ambulance.”
“What for?”
“I don’t really want to lie here and die!” I shouted.
“You won’t die. But I need to see how bad your wounds are. Your shirt’s ruined anyway, I’m gonna cut it off.” He produced a knife from somewhere.
“DON’T CUT MY SHIRT!”
“Macallis, calm down. I promise you, all I’m doing is looking at your wounds. I really don’t care about seeing you shirtless. I’m not even going to flip you over.”
Before I could even respond, I heard my shirt ripping as he cut it. Its two halves flopped onto the mattress, staining it with even more blood.
A bowl of hot water and a towel appeared in his hand and, after wetting the towel, he began dabbing first at my head, and then at my back with it.
It was actually kind of soothing to have something gentle on my injuries. I closed my eyes and was almost asleep when he stopped.
“Is it really bad?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he admitted. “It is.”
I gave a little cry and convulsively clutched whatever was near my fists. I could tell one fist had closed around the knee of Matthew’s cutoffs, but he didn’t say anything, just dipped the towel back into the bowl and went back to cleaning.
He finished awhile later. I was still awake because, now that he had gotten most of the blood off, the wounds were exposed, and the rough terrycloth was painful.
“Now your legs,” he said. “Your jeans are still wearable as long as you can get the stains out, so I’m gonna try and work those off gently, ok?”
“‘Kay.” I was in too much pain to argue. I screamed, though, when he started. My legs were in worse shape than I though.
“Sh,” he whispered. “I’ll be more gentle.” I could tell he was trying, I really could, but it still felt just as bad as being smacked with metal and I screamed until they were off five minutes later. I heard Matthew take a deep breath and wondered if he was steeling himself for something.
“Are they that bad?” I asked, trying to stem the flow of tears.
“Yeah. They’re worse than your back.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. He looked at me, startled.
“For what? I forgive you for being stupid just this once, since it was such a good idea to think of me.” He wasn’t even kidding. Talk about insensitive.
“Not for that,” I sobbed.
“Then for what, Macallis?”
“I-I’ve already failed training and I’ve only gone twice.”
He took a step back. “What do you mean? You think I’m going to stop training you because you’re a nineteen year old midget and someone with a lead pipe caught you off guard? I don’t stop training unless Ty tells me to.”
I was offended enough to stop crying. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to walk again. And don’t call me a midget.”
Matthew laughed. He actually laughed. Oh, how I wished I could hit him. Hard.
“Macallis, you’ll walk again, I promise. You’re not gonna die from blood loss, so you’ll be ok. I’ll give you two days off, then lessons start again.”
I stared at him. “You think I’ll be fine in two days?”
“I think you’ll be fine in one, but I’ll give you a day to rest and recuperate.”
I stared some more and then started crying again. He ignored it and started cleaning off my legs. Amidst my weeping, I vaguely realized that I was in my underwear, on a bed, with Matthew sitting next to me. I also may have been clutching his knee again.
It took him twice as long to get the blood off my legs, possibly because there were two of them, but most probably because there was more blood.
When he finished, he vanished the bowl and towel and stretched out on the bed next to me. Had I been perfectly healthy, this would have been very awkward.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Resting. I haven’t felt so much pain in a long time.”
I blinked in surprise at him. “Can you still feel my pain?”
He shook his head. “But when you broke through my barrier, it gave me a splitting headache.”
“What happened?” I asked. He propped himself up on his elbow.
“Well, I was setting up for the fighting lesson tomorrow and, suddenly, I couldn’t walk. I had no idea whose pain it was until I noticed a hint of fire to it.”
“What do you mean, ‘a hint of fire’?”
He chuckled. “I mean that, as a pyrokinetic, your pain feels different than other people’s.”
“Oh.”
He continued his story. “I wasn’t sure what could possibly be happening, but I managed to pinpoint your location. Once I found you, it was safe to rebuild my barriers. And you know the rest.” I suddenly didn’t think that Matthew was such bad company.
“I didn’t think it would work,” I confessed.
“I could tell.”
“I was also surprised you came.”
“I can’t let a pupil die. That would reflect badly on me.” Again, he wasn’t kidding. He was just being tactless. I sighed.
“How long do I have to lie like this before you call an ambulance?” I knew my legs were broken in at least six different places. The bones needed to be set and soon. They might even have to amputate and give me prosthetic limbs. This thought, as may be obvious, was not comforting.
“I told you. We’re not calling anything.”
“Why not?” Did Matthew secretly want me to die?
“Your wounds are still bleeding, be careful,” he said instead of answering.
All of a sudden, Ty was in the room. I tried to cover myself. Matthew and Ty both ignored me.
“Miss Rose, I know you hurt, but can you bear it a little longer?” Ty asked.
“Please take me to a hospital,” I whispered.
“That won’t be necessary.”
I suddenly heard a commotion in my kitchen.
“Intruders,” I said meekly. Then Alex was storming into my room followed closely by Lucy and Will. Once glance at me and she shoved Will out, closing the door in his face.
“WHAT THE HELL?” she bellowed. That’s my best friend.
“She was attacked,” Matthew said.
“GET THE HELL OUT OF HER BED.” When he raised an eyebrow at her, she shouted, “I DON’T CARE IF I’M DISRESPECTING MY ELDERS.”
Matthew didn’t move.
Lucy came over. I don’t think Alex trusted herself not to accidentally try and kill Matthew to follow. As she took my hand, I realized that I had been holding Matthew’s for quite some time.
“Oh good, they’re ready,” Ty said, completely out of nowhere.
“Whose ready?” I asked, tightening my grip on Lucy’s hand.
As if to answer me, a man and a girl appeared in my too-crowded bedroom. The man was a Master, I could tell by his softly beating wings, but the girl was completely out of place. She was carrying a suitcase.
“Everyone, this is Sophie Black,” Ty said. Sophie waved. No one waved back.
“Sophie’s a healer, stupid,” Matthew grunted in my ear.
“Sophie is going to be living here from now on. We were going to move her in next week, but when this happened, we decided to do it sooner,” Ty explained. I might have cared if I had been healthy. Alex, it seemed, was also too preoccupied to notice.
“If she’s a healer, than why isn’t she over here healing Rose?”
“Yeah, Sophie, she’s been waiting awhile,” Matthew said, still lying there, next to me.
Sophie came over and placed her hands on my back. I winced, but didn’t make a noise. Suddenly, I felt my skin and bones knitting themselves back together. It hurt almost as bad as having the wounds made, but it was a good hurt. Ty handed her a glass of water (that came out of nowhere) and, after drinking it, she started on my legs.
I screamed and wailed during this part. My knee must have shattered like Ass’s because I could feel every piece clinking painfully into place.
When she was done, I was left with a dull ache. It felt wonderful.
I sat up and rolled my way under the quilt. Now that I wasn’t bleeding, I was feeling modest.
Ty waved his hand and the blood stains came off my quilt and jeans. Matthew had already ruined my shirt, but it was no big deal. It wasn’t a favorite of mine.
“Well, gentlemen, our work here is done,” Ty said and disappeared. The other man followed and Matthew stood up.
“Two days, Macallis.” And then he was gone as well.
Everyone suddenly looked at Sophie. Alex let Will in and he looked as well. She gave a nervous laugh.
“I’m Sophie,” she reminded us. “Sophie Black.”