Chapter Ten

Brae

I watched Marlena’s movements with pinpoint precision. Timed them, too.

It took her a full four minutes and thirty-two seconds to finally pull away from her older brother. It took three minutes and forty-six seconds behind the screen to change out of the hospital gown into her normal clothes. Another seven minutes and eighteen seconds to finally look me in the eye.

So far, as I’d hoped, she hadn’t said a word about what she’d seen or what she’d felt. And why would she? Because who would believe her? They’d think something really was wrong with her head—like a tumor or something. Humans blamed a lot of weird things on their bodies and their minds. Even so, she could’ve screamed when she’d seen my eyes spark. In a way, I was pretty lucky, all things considered.

At that very moment, she was probably questioning everything she’d experienced in the last twenty-four hours. Questioning it, and denying it.

It was why I’d taken the now-useless crystal out of my pocket and held it up for her to see. I needed her fearful, but not terrified. I needed her intrigued, but not desperate.

I needed her to believe.

Because I’d decided I had to tell her. I had to tell her…something. That annoying machine triggering the oculus inside her messed up any plans I’d had of keeping this discreet.

While Travis went to bring the car around, and Patrick and his boyfriend-the-doctor discussed her discharge and the broken MRI machine, Marlena sat in a waiting room chair. Staring into space. When she finally looked up at me, her gaze was fierce for someone who had seemed so uneasy a few seconds ago.

“So that stone is yours?” she asked.

Of all the things I’d expected her to say, that hadn’t even been close. Honestly, I’d expected her to be freaking out a little more. Trying to run. Accusing me of being a supernatural creature, or actually getting it right: an alien.

I nodded.

“And that stone…did something to me?” She looked down at her hands. Staring at them as if she expected light to shoot out of her fingernails.

I nodded again.

Then she looked up at me again, a small irritated scowl across her pink lips. “You’re just going to nod? What are you?”

“I’m not pre-med,” I joked.

It fell flat and her scowl deepened.

“Right. Um. Yeah, we can’t talk about that here.”

She seemed to consider this and glanced over at her brother and Carter, then she pulled out her cell phone and swiped her thumb across its screen. “Give me your number.”

If I hadn’t been too busy trying to follow her line of thinking, I would’ve said, Now who’s trying to pick up who. Instead, I questioned, “What? Why?”

“Because I’m going to hand it over to a secret government agency that specializes in hunting down the supernatural,” she said flatly, then she waved her phone above her head as if to grab the attention of a toddler. “Why do you think? I have questions, and we can’t talk about them here. I’ll call you later and we can meet up somewhere else.”

I pushed off the hospital wall I’d been leaning against. “No, I’m sorry, but I can’t leave you. Do you realize how hard it was to track down that power signature? I cannot lose it again.”

She squeezed the bridge of her nose. “And do you realize I have no idea what you’re saying? Are you scared I’m going to run away or something?”

“Frankly, yes. But it’s not just that. You’re in danger. And you’re probably a danger to anyone you’re with.”

Her eyes widened and she sat straighter. “What do you mean by that? It has to do with those shocks, doesn’t it?”

“Now that a human has it,” I continued, perfectly aware everything sounded, well, alien to her, “I don’t know what it’s capable of.”

At that, her eyes widened. “A human? Shit. You’re really not one, are you?”

I couldn’t believe we were having this conversation right here, right now. But when that MRI machine had triggered the electrical charges coursing through her body and then she released them like that…I’d had to do something then. If I hadn’t absorbed that electricity it would’ve struck the lights, the walls, or hurt anyone else in that room.

“Like I said…not here.”

She suddenly leaned over and I quickly stepped back, sure she was about to vomit all over the hallway—and my shoes. Thankfully, she just started breathing heavily.

“Oh my God. Oh my God.”

I glanced up and down the hallway, wondering if I should get a nurse. With how pale she was, maybe they could give her…like a shot. I knew nothing about human medicine.

“This is not happening. This is not happening.”

As she continued muttering to herself, I tried to think positively. It wasn’t something that I was very good at, but Nova had been coaching me on it. Even though I was technically the leader, I was constantly seeking Nova’s advice. In some ways, she was like a den mother to all our clan, since she was the oldest and the most nurturing. She’d tell me, Just think about how much worse things could be right now.

Marlena could’ve fainted. Or screamed. Or done any number of things when she saw my eyes and felt the lightning surge between us. Rather than sitting there questioning her sanity and rocking back and forth in her chair, she could be trying to convince her brother and the doctors and anyone who would listen that I should be sedated and locked up in a lab.

Things could be worse.

Somehow it didn’t make me feel much better.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the boyfriend-doctor circle behind a counter, and her brother, Patrick, start down the hall toward us.

We were running out of time. I needed her to agree to come with me willingly. Without a fuss. And now.

I knelt down in front of her chair and she jerked back, grabbing the chair’s arms in a viselike grip. “Easy,” I said, “Calm down, would you?”

She looked at the distance between the two of us and pulled her knees up to maximize the space. “Stay away from me.”

I’d already saved her ass twice and here she was acting like I had rabies. She’s scared, cut her a break.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” I whispered, shooting a glance at her brother who was getting closer. “I’m trying to help you.”

“How am I supposed to believe that?”

It was getting exceedingly hard to keep my cool. “If I wanted you hurt, I could’ve let you fall to your death instead of stopping it.”

Marlena gasped, squeezing the fabric of her Kansas Mountains shirt. “Oh my God, you really did something when I fell. I felt it in the air. Oh my God.”

“I’m begging you to keep your voice down.”

“But you freaking shocked the shit out of me.”

“That wasn’t me. That was you.”

“What?”

“I didn’t shock you. You did it to yourself. And you’re going to keep doing it unless you let me help you. I’m not saying this to scare you. What you have inside you…it doesn’t belong in a human. It’s dangerous.”

She stared down at me. Her sky-blue eyes were wide and clear and rimmed with the thickest eyelashes I’d ever seen on a human. I’d been too preoccupied with everything to really notice it before, but now I was staring into her face dead-on. There was no avoiding her beauty this close.

My primal instincts—the ones that had been cultivated to protect my people at all costs—urged me to take action. I didn’t want to knock her out and take her by force, but I would. I couldn’t worry so much about one human girl when my entire clan relied on me, and on this power that she now possessed.

Except I did worry. I steered clear of humans because I was afraid even one of my sneezes could blow their house over. They were fragile. Every storm I manifested, every fight I had with Cassen, I caused damage. I marked their delicate planet. And Cassen—damn him—exploited that weakness all the time.

And I couldn’t let one more person get hurt because of me. It wouldn’t just break me, it would destroy me. Me, and all who relied on me.

“Marlena,” I said, forcing strength behind my voice. I held her gaze, willing her gaze to meet mine. “Give me a chance to explain everything. Please. I need you to give back what you stole from me.”