Chapter Twelve #2
“When we talked in your apartment, right after you were discharged from the hospital, we discussed what we were to each other . . . and how it was complicated. Do you remember?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“I don’t think it’s that complicated anymore.”
“Really?” I asked. “It seems complicated when you keep trying to avoid me.”
“Nick and Annie didn’t think I should pursue you yet. Nick, especially. He said it would be better if we waited until we jumped, but what if it goes wrong? What if we never get a chance to actually define us? What if I never get to kiss you?”
“I just had a ton of coffee. Please don’t do it right now.”
“I don’t think I’d care.” He smiled. “Anyway, I figured Nick’s advice is always logical, so I thought I should listen.”
“It’s irritating how right he tends to be.” I clasped my hands in front of me. He’d been looking at them as if he wanted to grab one, and I was feeling too unsettled for that to happen yet.
“But me making that decision for us on my own would be dumb. I want to know what you think.”
A few moments ago, I’d been ready to zap him real good out of anger, and here he was talking about feelings. I guess I don’t have to worry about Gabby after all. “You want to know what I think? About what exactly?”
He laughed. “Okay. I want you to know that I don’t want to waste any more time pretending that we’re just friends. I want you to know that I am dying to kiss you. Because, well, I just want you. And I want to know if you feel the same for me. Still.”
“Still?” I chewed on my bottom lip, unable to move and unprepared for this conversation. “What do you think I feel?”
“Oh, you’re gonna make this hard for me?”
“I . . . I want nothing more than . . . look, it doesn’t matter. Let’s get back to this after we . . . I don’t know, just after.” I stood, feeling flustered. “I’m wanted out there,” I said, pointing out the window.
“They seem fine.”
“Oh, and also—just so you know . . . you can’t just jump with me. You have to know that I can’t let you do that. Nick and Annie are hardheaded. They’ll go if you go, so you need to stay back.”
“Let’s run away, then.”
“What about Jack?”
“He’ll be with his parents. What better place?”
“Can you live with yourself if they were caught because you weren’t there to teleport them away?” I placed my hand over my chest and whispered, “I know I couldn’t.”
“So you don’t want to start something with me because you plan on running away and leaving, is that it?”
“It’s the only way.”
“I talked to Jay. He’ll keep the teleportation powers and will watch my family for me.”
“You trust him now?”
He nodded. “I see the way he looks at Annie. I don’t know if I’m comfortable with it, but I know he cares for her and the baby. He seems scared of Nick, but if I liked someone’s wife, I’d be scared of the husband, too.”
“I thought he might have some kind of connection to Anali?”
“Okay, yeah, I see that too. But there’s something about the way he looks at Annie and even the baby.”
“I asked him about it. You know the rebels were heartless with children, and how they used the moms as baby machines. I think he’d do anything to make sure Jack always has his parents, especially his mom.”
“Whatever it is, I have to trust he’ll help them.” He closed his eyes. “I hope to heaven he does, because I can’t let you go alone. I won’t do it.”
“What do you think about the time jump? Will it work?”
“It has to.”
I stood. “On that note, I’ll go train with the others.”
“Good plan. Go tame those powers, Miss Chaotic!”
Before I reached the door, I turned and looked at Kevin. “To answer your question, yes, I still feel the same.”
Luckily, all our hard work was paying off.
We’d gotten a lot better at controlling our powers.
Anali and Antonio were able to twin-fuse their space-time continuum manipulation—as Dr. Ryder called it—as easily as one-two-three.
They’d also become great at combat. How they’d do in a real-life situation was a whole other story, but as far as keeping up with us at fifty percent effort?
They held their own. And that was good enough.
I had been practicing listening, or really, sensing when electronic gadgets were about to run out of juice.
Having known how to charge them before my memory loss, I was developing an intuitive ability to detect when they needed power.
I could feel a subtle change prickling at me, like the familiar hum of energy fading to an eerie silence. Almost like I could sense the void.
A fact Kevin thoroughly enjoyed. He’d been having a blast with this, swiping their power at random, just to see how quickly I would catch their depletion and fix it.
We were opposites in a way; he took energy while I added it.
Although I was really just channeling it from my surroundings and redirecting it to other people or things.
I could always amplify, but never realized I wasn’t creating it myself.
Now that I knew, it was fun helping all my friends train with it. Well, everyone except Annie.
She had actually become a problem for me.
Once I learned how to listen to energy, I couldn’t tune her out.
She was basically nothing but energy, and it was distracting.
I could feel the low hum buzzing off her skin and was lured to it.
I had the wildest sense that if I wanted to, I could absorb all of it .
. . or even dissipate her kinetic energy.
I had no idea what that would mean for Annie.
Not that I’d ever do it. Thanks to that awareness, whenever she was close, I’d become more attuned to everything around me, from dying trees to the river’s stream to animals in the distance.
All because I was trying to listen to anything other than her.
It worked out in my favor, so I guess I couldn’t be too mad at her kineticism screaming my name.
I continued playing with the intensity of my powers, even though they remained extremely unpredictable.
It was only when I was caught off guard that I truly served as a conduit.
Sometimes, I could tap into what I absorbed and release purple lights, splicing them into individual strands for separate things or people.
Other times, when I had less control, I sent out massive airwaves.
I couldn’t command it, but I saw the dome-shaped waves expand toward the horizon.
It was as beautiful as it was frightening.