They glanced at each other as if assessing who might be willing. Then the energy in the air intensified as I felt Harvey preparing to use his telekinesis and Chico ready to exhale more thorns and Salem ready to aim his psychic boom at me. Simultaneously, Reuben, Butch, Damien and Stuart made moves to charge at me.
The massive dosage of absorbed energy within me was now begging to be released. I obliged. Drawing on every ounce of it, I expelled a concentrated air blast from my palms that was powerful enough to sweep every single recruit off their feet and send them crashing hard into the railings of the basketball court. God that felt good.
Impressive, said a voice in my head.
A fleeting glance to my left confirmed that Jared was nearby. He was lounging against the railings at the far end of the court. I wondered how long he’d been there watching.
“Keep denying you need help if you want,” I told the recruits as they scooped themselves up off the floor. “Or drop the ignorance long enough to realise that I can actually help you, that there is more to learn. I’m not trying to be a twat by bringing up your past. The point of all this was to show you that you need to snap out of this little zone you’re in. Yes, you got picked for the legion and, yes, that’s a big thing but it doesn’t mean you’re faultless or that you have the right to have rods stuck up your backsides. And it doesn’t mean you get to be arrogant or forget all the experiences that made you what you are, that gave you your strengths in the first place.”
Having seen how much everyone seemed to look to Chico for clues of what to do next, I concluded that if I was going to get through to the others then I had to drive the situation home to him primarily. I looked mostly at him as I continued to speak, “Like it or not, every one of you has excess energy swirling around you which means that you’re not using your gift to its full potential and you’re not controlling it either.”
Chico sighed. “Even if we said we’d listen and come to training, it’d do no good. You’re expectations of us are too high. You’re asking us to do things with our gifts that we can’t do. There are limitations, there’s no way I can shoot thorns from my palms.”
“Wrong. Let me show you.” I walked over to Chico and circled him.
He was looking at me curiously as he spoke, “What’re you doing?”
“Absorbing the energy that’s leaking from you so I can have your power for a little while.” With that I shot a dozen poisonous thorns from one palm in Jared’s direction. He dodged them, unfortunately.
Hey! His scowl was cute.
Chico gazed in astonishment at me. “You can teach me how to do that?”
I nodded slowly. “And if the energy hadn’t been leaking from you like that, I would have had to touch you or get shot by the thorns to get the power. In other words, you’re vulnerable like this.” Then I turned to Butch. “You don’t think you can make your counteracting force into a shield? Watch.” Like with Chico, I let my pores drink in the energy that seeped from Butch. “Chico, thorns.”
Nodding once, Chico puffed out a spray of thorns. I drew a circle in the air in front of me with my hand. The recruits all gasped as the thorns hit an invisible wall and fell to the floor.
Butch’s eyes darted from me to the thorns repeatedly. “But...I didn’t see any shield. The thorns didn’t bounce...”
“It’s different from the shield that I can generate with my own gift. Mine’s visible and vibrant because I feed off all the energy surrounding me; kinetic energy, solar energy – it all combines and mingles together crazily. The energy that generated your shield was your own energy, not a clash of varying energies. Want one?”
Butch laughed out of his nose. Not attractive, don’t try it. “Maybe.”
Next I looked at David. “The excess energy around you is absolutely wild. Your power is strong but right now it seems almost completely out of your control.” His expression was glum. “Ever hurt anyone by accident?”
He nodded, the picture of remorse. “You can help me keep a lid on it?”
It wasn’t difficult to sense that he resented having it. “Yes.” So suddenly that I gasped, a draft spread through my entire body. My extremities went cold. My head ached. My stomach lurched. Only one thing had ever had this effect on me. Subconsciously I turned my head toward the mansion.
What is it? Jared tensed.
Without a word to anyone I moved with vampire speed as I darted out of the court, past the training arena, across the gardens and into the mansion, almost colliding into Sebastian in the hallway.
His expression was grim and filled with annoyance as he confirmed what I already knew. “He’s here.”
Chapter Five
(Sam)
“Who’s here?” asked Jared. I didn’t realise he’d followed me.
“Sam’s Sire.” Sebastian sighed as he looked at me. “He appealed against your leave of his hold on the grounds that your request to be free of him was not made in person. Antonio had him brought here some twenty minutes or so ago, hoping to have this over with once and for all. We suspected that he would not let you go easily. He has requested an audience with you, and that Antonio be present as he seems to be confident that you will return with him and wants Antonio to witness your decision to leave here.”
“Where is he?” My voice dripped with agitation.
“With Antonio in one of his parlour rooms.”
“Why would he think you’d go with him?” asked Jared.
I puffed. “Victor’s a master at manipulation.”
“He will not be allowed to threaten you,” Sebastian assured me. “You can refuse to see him if you wish, but I suspect that he will only press the matter until you agree to see him.”
I nodded in agreement and inhaled deeply. “Alright, take me to the bugger.”
“I’m coming.” Jared’s tone left no room for negotiation.
As much as moral support was nice, I didn’t want Jared there. I didn’t want him to see the weak person that Victor had the power to reduce me to. “No.”
“Why?”
“If a bloke walks in there with me it’ll piss him right off. He never liked other blokes round me, it got him paranoid. He’ll think me and you are together and he’ll be even more difficult.”
Jared shrugged. “That’s a good thing. If he loses it, Antonio’s got an excuse to throw him out, no conversations necessary.”
“He has a point,” said Sebastian.
Before I could speak, Jared added, “I’m Antonio’s Heir and you’re my co-worker -”
“Co-worker?” I asked with a smile.
“Yeah, co-worker. I’ve a right to be there, and I’m going with you – end of discussion.”
“If I can’t even get you off my back how in the hell am I going to stand up against Victor?” I grumbled.
Jared grabbed my lower arm gently. “Look, all you have to do is go in there and tell him you don’t want to go back to him.”
Sounded easy enough. But it wasn’t. “Victor’s power...He can gauge and alter your emotions.”
“Alter your emotions?”
“In other words, if he wants you to feel something or want something it can be very hard to resist it. I’ve had plenty of practice, and I reckon I can block him better than most. But not for long. It has this crushing effect on you until you feel like your head will explode.”
“He’ll try to make you want him.”
I nodded. “Won’t this be fun.”
“So then we need to get you in and out the room as quick as possible.”
Jared had made it sound so simple. Maybe it could be. Maybe I was fretting for nothing. It hadn’t been long since I’d left Victor and already I felt like a different person. For the first time since becoming a vampire I’d experienced freedom, friendship, passion, and the feel of having a life of my own with my own job, my own home, my own money, my own belongings. Just the very idea of Victor wanting to make me lose all that was enough to make me inflate with resentment.