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What good was anticipating what was going to happen if
you couldn't do one damn thing to stop it? He shrieked his
command to halt, even tried to physically stop Nathan by
throwing himself at him, but ultimately it became a matter
of timing.
He couldn't protect Isabelle and prevent his friends
from being hurt at the same time. Amazingly, it wasn't even
a choice he had to consciously make. His body reacted for
him, and Kal threw himself with all of his will on top of the
woman next to him just as the bullets started flying.
The chanting singsong music that Kal knew as well
as he knew the sound of his own heartbeat began pounding
in his ears. The chanters let him know that this was a
justified moment and that he was acting as he ought to
behave.
In a move, that given all of the things he had seen in
his life shouldn't have surprised him and yet still did, the
police officer arriving on his motorcycle pulled out his
second revolver and continued shooting at the small crowd.
Nathan, the most exposed, was hit first. His body stalled
mid-run, blood exploding from his chest. Kal knew he was
instantly dead. He could almost smell Nathan's soul leaving
his body.
In their shock, Doug and James did not hit the
ground quickly enough and each took several rounds into
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their fragile flesh as well. He could smell the stench of
death on them too. Death had always had an odor to Kal—
as a person who had been designed to kill and destroy his
enemies, he could tell the second something was dead,
whether it was animal or human, and he knew his friends
had left for their next plane of existence, whatever that was.
Kal could feel the blood rushing through his body
and pounding in his head. He had told Veli he would
protect Isabelle but that had nothing to do with why he felt
so compelled with every part of his body screaming at him
to do so. He knew that even beyond Veli's command he
would somehow protect this woman until he had no breath
left in his body.
The shield he had instinctually placed around their
bodies ebbed and pounded as he moved, not wanting to
release his charge to danger. It had kept any bullets from
coming anywhere near them. He was keenly aware that it
hadn't saved his friends. Guilt, like a hard, cold blanket,
formed around his body and made way for anger to push its
way out of his veins. Wasn't he supposed to be a protector
of humans? He knew he'd have to face those demons later
but at that moment he could no longer deny his very nature.
He was born to be a warrior and the only way he
knew how to protect Isabelle and end this disturbance was
to simply put an end to it. It wasn't going to be pretty and
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Kal hoped she wouldn't hate him for being a monster.
He stood up, removing the barrier from himself but
not from Isabelle. Behind him he heard her smack her hand
on it and he was impressed that she even knew it was there.
Plenty of Outsiders wouldn't have been able to feel it so
acutely.
Silently, he called the elements to him as he raised
his hand to the sky. Electrical current tumbled down,
piercing through his body but it didn't cause him pain.
Instead the rush was familiar and exhilarating. Every hair
on his body stood at attention and a grin came to his mouth.
The familiar chanting of voices unseen plowed into his
head. His body began to slowly shake as he channeled the
power from him into the man who had ceased to be a being
of any worth to Kal.
In that moment, the creature on the motorcycle was
evil personified. Maybe he was just a pawn to the Darkness
but he wasn't going to be gentle with him. Kal would treat
him like he was the Darkness itself.
That man, possessed or not, had just killed three of
his friends and was now threatening the life of the petite
woman whom Fate had placed into his keeping. Or if the
strange voice was to be believed, belonged to him. Besides,
Veli had always told them that in order to be possessed by
the Darkness, you had to be willing to accept it inside of
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you. This man might be wearing the costume of one of the
most honorable professions on the planet, but he had made
a decision and that decision was going to cost him his life,
not that of Isabelle.
Bullets flew everywhere but they felt like gnats to
Kal, as they did not hit him or break his personal shields.
He snickered. In the ecstasy of the energy surge he hadn't
even realized he'd raised a barrier around himself. His
body, of its own volition, had taken on a protective armor
encasing both him and Isabelle in its safety. As time
seemed to change into slow motion, it occurred to Kal that
he was more powerful than he had ever been before and he
felt fantastic.
Kal had his own rules when it came to morality and
now it was time for a little eye for an eye action.
The police officer fell from his bike, fire pouring
out around him as he slowly began to turn to dust. The
current that flew out of Kal should have easily roasted a
normal human being in a matter of seconds, and it was an
indication of the supernatural powers in the other man that
he had lasted as long as he had against Kal's fury.
Silence descended on the street. Kal had been in this
position before. The best way he could describe it was that
the universe paused to account for what had just happened.
His breathing was shallow and his hands shook violently.
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He knew what he needed to do. It would be all about the
struggle now. The tension to win against the rising rage
inside of himself. The need to calm down and face the
woman beside him, who must have been out of her mind
with fear. Kal fell to his knees, his hands over his ears. He
could hardly hear anything over the deafening chanting that
was taking place in his head. Breathe, he tried to tell
himself, breathe. Why couldn't he get it? Where was the
control?
Sweat dripped down his forehead, across his cheek
and fell to the ground. He was lost; he wasn't sure he would
ever come back. Rocking back and forth, he wondered who
would protect Isabelle when he was gone. All coherent
thought left his mind. In that moment, he felt the energy of
the earth taking his soul.
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Chapter Five
Pushed back on her rump on the hard concrete of
the strangely deserted highway, Isabelle knew she should
be te
rrified. She supposed she actually was terrified, maybe
even in shock. After all, she had just seen three men
gunned down in front of her and the fourth man, who she
had been secretly fantasizing about, had suddenly become
something out of a teenage cult movie, with strange
abilities and voltage flowing out of his body.
But the truth was, she felt pretty okay.
When Kal had stood up she had heard the strangest
melody in her head, a chanting almost, of voices she
thought she recognized from somewhere. It had seemed
natural; as if she had known all along that Kal could do
these things and her own body had called out from inside of
her to participate somehow, to help him and to make him
stronger. She hadn't known how to fulfill its demands as
every pore on her skin stood at attention and her eyes got
moist, not in terror or sadness, both appropriate emotions,
but in awe and approval. Remotely, she wondered if she
was a sadist.
A shiver travelled up her spine. She knew the
danger wasn't gone and they needed to keep moving. She
wasn't going to question her instincts; they had kept her
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alive this long and at least she wasn't hearing voices.
Kal stood up off his knees directly in front of her.
Silent and unmoving, she could only guess at the battle
raging inside of him. Did this type of thing happen to him
all the time? Did he have a shut off button that let him go
back to behaving normally so he could help her get away
from whatever had just happened? She should be shaking-
in-her-boots frightened of him, but all she wanted to do was
soothe him and help him cool down.
Walking quietly behind him, she placed her hand on
his arm gently, moving like she might do with a hurt child,
or a wounded animal. Something inside of her was calling
to him, begging him to return from wherever he had gone
and come back to where she was. She would deal with
these strange instincts that possessed her later, she thought.
For now she had to go along with whatever was happening
and hope that it was the right thing to do.
"Kal," she exhaled. "Are you alright?"
He whirled around suddenly, a strange magnetic
glow coming from his eyes as he gripped her arms and
pulled her to him. The strength in his hands pressed down
on her flesh and she tried not to flinch, understanding that
he didn't know what he was doing and would control
himself if he could. She knew deep down that whatever
was happening, this would not end in his hurting her.
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"Did you get hurt, Isabelle? Did a bullet hit you?"
He shouted at her, his voice filled with a strange timbre that
made him sound hoarse and powerful, like the sound of a
broken television speaker. He seemed to be speaking to her
on two different octave levels.
"No, Kal, no bullets hit me. I'm not hurt. You saved
us. Come back now, I think we need to keep moving. I
don't think we can be caught here. No one will believe us
and your friends are dead."
She hoped that her words were reaching him,
although his eyes remained the same and there was no
evidence he had heard her. He pulled her even closer,
forcing her body against his. She could feel his heart
beating in his chest and the perspiration on his body. He
seemed to have become electrical energy itself as his mouth
came suddenly down on hers, claiming it as his own.
Something inside of her that she had only hoped existed
came alive in triumph. Yes, this was what she'd always
waited for.
Isabelle could no longer be rational at all. Coherent
thought had left her body, possibly for all time. All she
could do was react to the feel of Kal's mouth on hers. He
had surprisingly tender lips, although the rest of him didn't
feel tender at all; he was all hard muscle and strength.
Sparks flew between them but they didn't hurt her and only
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added to the arousal that was hitting her everywhere.
The chanting began again in her ears. She knew she
would never be able to kiss anyone else again and feel
anything at all. The truth was she wasn't sure she had ever
felt anything kissing anyone else in the first place.
His mouth pulled back and then met hers again. It
was more erotic than anything else had ever been. Her
blood pulsed through her body, matching the rhythm of his
kisses and the singsong chanting began getting louder as he
deepened the kiss. All lack of sexual experience aside, she
felt like she knew exactly what she was doing. She was
sure she knew how he liked to be touched, how he liked to
be handled. At that very moment he had become the man
she dreamed about for her entire life. She dug her
fingernails into him and pressed, if it was possible, even
closer to his core, wanting to taste every ounce of him even
Desperate to not be forgotten, Isabelle's good sense
was struggling to be heard.
This had to be some sort of reaction to what had just
happened to them. She was in shock; she thought suddenly,
and had lost all sense of reality. She didn't even know what
had just happened. How was it that she was accepting this
as if it was normal? What was going on?
Kal's body stiffened as if he had felt the slight
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resistance happening inside of her. Part of her wanted to
beg him not to stop, not to release her from what she had
been waiting for her whole life, but the other part was
relieved, hoping if she could get some distance, she could
get some clarity about what was going on. She slowly
pulled her mouth off his, feeling her lips tingle as the fresh
air hit them. They were both breathing heavily and her
hands trembled on Kal's arm.
"I'm sorry, Isabelle." Kal exhaled, starting to sound
like himself again, if a little guttural. "You must be so
confused, so terrified, and I'm afraid you are right, we do
need to get going."
Isabelle felt her feet hit the ground beneath her and
she realized that she had been off the ground. She hadn't
been aware of that rather large fact. He had literally been
holding her entire body up.
Isabelle watched as Kal scanned the scene around
them, emotion starting to show in his eyes as he looked at
his now deceased friends.
"We don't have time now." Isabelle poked him in
the chest and then widened her eyes as she looked down at
her outstretched finger. "But when we are safe you are
going to explain to me what is going on, what just
happened, and why I am not shaking in my boots with
fear." Or why I'm shaking with lust when I should be
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running away screaming, she thought but didn't say out
loud.
* * * *
Kal looked up, shocked at the woman in front of
him. She had shown more courage than he could have
imagined possible and now she was ordering him to move
on. Generally speaking, no one ordered Kal around so he
was slightly surprised by how easily he responded to her.
"You're right," he answered, feeling amused and
quite certain it showed on his face. "Let's go. Get in the car.
I'll change your tire and we'll get moving. We need to get to
my family. They'll know what to do."
He bent over the tire, finishing the job she'd
obviously started earlier. Veli, he called in his mind, tell
Leonardo, Marina, and Charma that we need to meet on
the island. It's serious.
We're all there already, Veli answered simply.
Marina says that she feels a strange pulsating in the air
that she thinks is coming from your power. What
happened?
I've had to put down an enemy, Kal answered
gravely. When had they started using that disgusting phrase
to describe what just happened? He would have to speak to
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Veli about finding a different way to describe the killing of
one's enemy in battle. Putting someone down sounded like
they were talking about euthanizing an animal. Veli had
always preferred that they dehumanize their enemies but
that particular phraseology was maybe going too far.
Isabelle is remarkably fine but I've lost three of my friends
in the occurrence.
Get her home and worry about the collateral later.
They aren't collateral, Veli, they were human beings
and friends of mine, who had dreams and families and who