Page 75 of Infinity Chronicles 1
“Yeah, come on.” He pushes away from the table and comes around to meet me. I’m still seated when his hand circles my arm and pulls me to stand. Ollie’s eyes roam over me from head to toe, before he grabs the loose fabric of the long sleeve shirt I’m wearing. “Can you take this off?” My eyes go wide, and my mouth drops open in surprise.
Ollie ducks when Ares reaches out and swats the back of his head. “Geez, you don’t have to get naked. I just want to see your skin, at school I could only see your hand. We need to know if it was only on your hand because that’s close to where I was touching, or if it was all over but I couldn’t see it because it was under your clothes.” He lowers his head, looking a little sheepish. “While I would love to remove your shirt, that is totally not what I meant.”
I push up the sleeves of my shirt, exposing my arms up to the elbows. “Let’s just see what happens first.” Ollie nods and biting his lip, he steps closer.
First, I feel the slight brush of his fingers as he traces them from my hand then up my arm. Nothing happens. I do feel the warmth of his touch, but I don’t have the same heated desire to grab on to the feeling. He steps even closer. “What were you thinking this morning? Was it different then?” Ollie asks in barely a whisper.
I nod, swallowing hard, what if something does happen? I’m afraid. “Okay good, try to think about what you were this morning, try to recreate that feeling.” It’s Dante’s soothing voice from behind me. I know he’s close, but he’s not touching me.
“But what if something bad happens, what if I explode or something?” I can’t help but express my fears, I’m scared all this is true. Not as afraid as I am that it’s not, but still nervous enough that my fingers are shaking.
“Nothing bad will happen, even if you did explode Ares would stop it.”
“Damn it Oliver, ignore himCara. You aren’t going to explode.” Looking over my shoulder I find Ares, he’s standing just a few feet away, near enough that should something go wrong he’s close. I don’t really want to think about all the powers he possesses that would make it possible for him to stop me from exploding if it were to happen. But I’m happy they are confident enough to think he could.
Ares nods his head to me, so I turn back to face Ollie. I close my eyes and think about the way his hand glides up and down my arm in a gentle caress, the heat trailing along with his touch and warming me from the inside. Just like in class this morning, I think about how much I like the heat, how I want to feel it all over me, how I want to feel that warmth inside me.
“Holy shit,” Milo mutters before he gets shushed.
Opening my eyes slowly I look down at Ollie’s hand, which is no longer moving on my arm, but his eyes are glued to my skin. Sparks of light are popping off my arm like tiny little sparklers under my skin. I can’t feel anything but the warmth. Reaching up with my other hand I hover my finger over my arm. That arm is covered in dancing light too, when they get close together they arc to each other like a visible static charge.
“Whoa…” Ollie jerks once, he eyes leaping up to mine. “Can you control the arc?” His voice is soft with wonder. I shake my head, I have no idea.
“Is it all over?” I run my eyes down my legs, but I don’t have any visible skin, so I reach for the hem of my shirt and lift. My skin is pale, but otherwise unremarkable. I let the shirt fall, a little disappointed.
Ares moves in closer, his dark eyes trained on my arms. “What are you feeling?”
“Nothing really, it’s like I can feel a shadow of the sparks but not any pain, do you know what I mean?”
Ares nods. “What changed? How did you make it happen?” His hand reaches out and one of the arcs jumps to him before he’s even touching me. He grunts, but the electricity snaps back to me.
“Does that hurt?” I whisper, afraid of his response.
Ares shakes his head quickly in denial. “Do you know how you made it happen?” His voice is firm, he wants me to concentrate on the question.
I stop to think of how I can explain it, “It’s like I said, I felt the heat of his touch and I wanted it, like I wanted to pull the feeling inside.” I shrug not knowing if I’m conveying it well enough.
“Okay, focus on that, can you pull it deeper, or pull more of it to you?” Ares is really close now, just out of range of the sparks.
I look up at Ollie. “What if I take too much? Is it his gift giving me this? Could I hurt him?”
Ollie grins down at me, his face smooth, showing no signs of concern. “Laura, you aren’t taking anything I wouldn’t give. Try it, see what happens. I promise you hurting me is the last thing that’s happening.” Ollie lets his head fall back and he closes his eyes.
Trusting him I grab the heat and tug it down deeper, pulling it into my core like I’m sucking in my stomach. Instinctually I lift my arm to shield my eyes, but it only brings the lights closer to my face. What I called sparklers before have now become bright flares, like you’d see in the sky for a fourth of July firework show.
“Uh oh…” I start to pull back from Ollie to break the connection and I push away the heat, hoping the sparks will go away. Instead of the heat leaving I feel it pooling in my hands, heavy pressure making my fingertips ache. One last shove has an arc of what looks like lightening shooting out my fingers and jumping right for the light switch. In the next moment a boom rocks the house, and all the lights die.
“Oh my God, oh my God, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry,” I chant in the darkness. Hands reach for me in the dark, but I shove them away. What did I just do? I can’t do that again, what if it would have hit one of them, what if it did hit one of them? I back away from where I think they are. “Ollie, Ares… Milo, Dante, are you guys okay?” I can’t keep the panic and fear from my voice.
“It’s fine Laura, just a little power surge. Relax, everyone is okay, are you okay?” Ares’s words are spoken calmly and I can feel him closing in on me. I know he has much better vision in the dark, so he’ll know exactly where I am.
“I’m okay. Are you sure you guys are okay? I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean…” I stop talking when I feel his cool palm land on my neck. Ares’s thumb traces up and down from my pulse point under my jaw to my collarbone.
“Shhh,” he whispers to me, his mouth at my temple. “CalmCara, we are fine.”
“Ares?” I hear a woman calling his name from further in the house. “Merda, it’s dark… Ares.”
“Mia, you okay?” It’s Dante who answers. Ares still has his hand on my throat and his mouth at my temple. He’s breathing, but just barely.
