• The Power

    Seth

    Noah and I got back to our building well after midnight, we were trying to find that girl we had rescued tonight but had no luck. I wasn’t about to give up now, I needed to make sure everything was kept quiet and that she wouldn’t go to the police about it. Or the newspaper.
    But it didn’t seem like she would because she did it, not Noah. She had known how to handle it, like she’d had experience with one before. She even shot at the NightDust person the right way.
    That’s not right, something is wrong here, I thought. Time to investigate this girl.
    Walking into my office, I looked around at the small space as I made my way to my desk; it had a desk at the back and a near empty bookshelf. It didn’t have many personal items in it, I tended to move around a lot but I carried one photo everywhere I went. That photo was of Jamie, me and Tory when they were about ten; we were looking at each other with stupid grins on our faces and covered head to toe in mud.
    I stared at the picture that was sitting on my desk for a few minutes then I turned away from it and sat in my chair. As soon as I sat, a transparent keyboard came to life over the top of the desk; a huge wide screen also came up a metre in front of me.
    “Good morning, Mr. Bryce,” a computer voice said.
    “Good morning, Richelle,” I said back with a yawn.
    “You look tired, Mr. Bryce, should I turn the lights off for you?”
    “No, no, Richelle, I'm fine. I need to do search though,” I said as I leant back in my chair.
    “Certainly, Mr. Bryce, what can I get for you?”
    “Search all employee records south of the United Park.”
    A few seconds went by. “Complete, 1539 records listed.”
    I looked over them, scrolled down a few then stopped. The list was too big; I’d have to narrow it down.
    “Rule out all men,” I said.
    A few more second went by. “Complete, 1012 records listed.”
    “Damn, that’s still too many,” I said out loud to myself. “Rule out people that work at night, anyone older than thirty and anyone younger than seventeen,” I said, we’d get rid of them in one hit.
    The seconds were longer this time. “Complete, 3 records listed.”
    Looking at their photos I found which one she was, at the bottom of the three was the girl we had rescued tonight.
    “Richelle, bring up the last file please.”
    The file was brought up; her name was Tee Kane, twenty-four, graduated high school with flying colours, no criminal records and lived in the Upper East Side.
    I sat back with my head flying in a million directions. If she had graduated high school with that good of a score why was she working in this area? No criminal records, why’d she have and know how to use a gun? She lived in the Upper East Side, the rich people suburb, why was she working at all?
    This just kept getting weirder; I really need to talk to her fast. But one thing was bothering me, the last name: Kane. I knew that name but where was it from, I just couldn’t remember.
    “Will that be all that is required, Mr. Bryce?”
    “No, Richelle, print out everything you have on ‘Tee Kane’ and search the data base for ‘Kane’,” I said, trying to figure out where it came from.
    “Yes, Sir,” a few seconds after, the files came out of the little printer box that sat on my desk.
    “Thank you, Richelle,” I said as I took the files and looked them over. “Continue with the search.”
    “Access denied.”
    I looked up at the screen, my access was denied for looking at any ‘Kane’ files? What was going on here?
    “Try again, Richelle.”
    A few more seconds. “Access denied.”
    What? Access denied still? I couldn’t believe it, an officer of my rank having denied access to a file.
    “Request the file to be sent to me, Richelle. State my name and rank,” I said, maybe that will help.
    “Incoming call, Mr. Bryce. Do you wish to answer?”
    “Yes, Richelle,” I said. Someone was calling me now.
    The video link screen popped up, Landen Drake was on the other end. I hid my surprise behind my usual cool, hard face.
    “Sir,” I said in my deadpan voice.
    “Seth, what is this about you requesting files on ‘Kane’?” he asked bluntly.
    “Sir, I’m just doing some investigating on a person and it happens that the last name is Kane,” I said in a cool voice.
    His face was drawn and his jaw tight, he was hiding something that even I didn’t know about.
    “Sir, I need those files. I would appreciate it if you took the security off them,” I said, trying to get him to give them to me.
    “That will take a while, the best security was put on them,” he said with a dead voice.
    “That’s okay, Sir, I have other things to investigate but as long as I get them…” I said.
    “You’re treading on a thin line, Bryce,” he said as he looked to his left and said something, he looked back and said, “You’ll have them in a day, that’s the best I can do.”
    “Yes, Sir, thank you,” I had to bite back saying ‘get Jamie on it’.
    Ending the call, I looked down to the file on the desk. Kane, a name I’d heard before but couldn’t recall, a name that was guarded to extreme lengths. This girl had the name. It was bugging me. I noticed that she had an unusual middle name, AJ. I frowned. Her full name, Tee AJ Kane, was weird. AJ, was that short for something? Staring at her name, my mind arranged it; TAJK. My frown deepened, that sounded familiar.
    Leaning back in my chair, my eyes stopped at the one photo sitting on the desk. I stared at it, Tory… Tory Avalon Jordan, TAJ.
    My mouth dropped, I looked back at the file. It couldn’t be, no…

    Tory

    I was starting to fall asleep when a knock at my door made me become wide-awake. I frowned, who could be knocking at my door this late? I got up and crossed the floor to open the door, Noah stood on the other side. My eyes widened at the sight of him.
    “Noah, wh–What are you doing here?” I asked shakily.
    His face looked serious and drawn. “Let me in please, Tory.”
    “I –” I didn’t finish what I was saying. Noah pushed the door open and walked in, shutting the door with the heel of his shoe. I glared at him, how could he know if I didn’t have anyone with me? Arrogant b*****d.
    He turned to look at me. “Is there anyone here?”
    I threw up my arms. Oh, now he asks. “I should say yes and make you leave,” I said as I made my way back to my bedroom, he followed me.
    “I’d just kick him out anyway,” he said back. I turned to glare at him as we stepped inside my room.
    Noah’s lips suddenly went to mine, they were soft and warm. He wrapped his arms around my waist and I didn’t deny him, my arms went to his neck, pulling him closer so there wasn’t any space between us. I couldn’t help it, I had wanted him for so long, had kept that side of me locked away and now it was all coming loose with one touch.
    I felt the coldness of the brick wall against my back, more pressure from Noah pushing me against it. I lifted my legs and circled his hips, the wall made it easy to stay like this. He broke away from my mouth and kissed a trail down my neck, my breaths were coming in heavy pants.
    I could feel every inch of him, his body pressed against mine made me feel hot and weak in the knees; which made my legs slip from his hips but he caught me before I could fall.
    His lips met mine again, it was hard and hot, and I crushed my face to his to kiss him back. He spun around with me in his arms, walked to the bed and laid me down gently with himself on top; he did it all without breaking the kiss.
    I was hot; I wanted skin-to-skin contact. I ran my hands down his back and to the bottom of his shirt; I tugged at it, pulling it up his back. He helped me by breaking the kiss and shrugging out on his shirt; which he had to kneel up to down, so I sat up as well.
    His chest was perfectly sculpted with a washboard stomach, an eight pack, and dusted lightly with hair. I reached out and ran my hands down his chest, his eyes returned to me with desire and lust. I swallowed, suddenly nervous.
    “Tory…” he said with a husky voice. He took my hand and dragged me closer.
    His arms circled my waist and his lips fluttered kisses up my neck to my jaw then my ear, he took my ear in his teeth. I shivered and bit down on my lip.
    His hands went to the bottom of my shirt; he pulled it up and over my head. I blushed heavily when I realized I wasn’t wearing a bra, due to me thinking I was going to sleep, and that he was staring at my chest.
    “You have beautiful breasts,” he said, running his hand down the side of one.
    I arched my back so I was pushed into his embrace and went to gasp; Noah caught it with a kiss as he pushed us back onto the bed. My chest would brush against his.
    I dug my nails into his back while I wrapped my legs around his waist; he kissed a path from my mouth down my jaw and neck to my shoulder. He nipped at it slightly as he got his body more comfortable on mine.
    “Tory…” he said so quietly I almost didn’t hear him.
    “Noah…” I said back in a half moan, half gasp.
    “I love you,” he said against my shoulder.
    I stilled at his words. What did he just say? That he loved me? No. No, that wasn’t right. That wasn’t Noah. I could feel this impostors hands run down my side to the top of my pants, I had to stop this and now. I pushed at his shoulder, trying to get him off but he just pressed into me more.
    “Get off!” I just about yelled while pulling at his hair.
    Doing that pulled his head up and I got to see his eyes, they were tinged with red like the eyes of a NightDust person. My eyes widened and my jaw went slack.
    No, no, no, no! This couldn’t be happening, it just couldn’t.
    “Noah, your – Your eyes,” I said still staring into them.
    He smiled. “Yes, I’m NightDust now.”
    •

    I shot up right from my bed; my heart pounding a million miles an hour, sweat was pouring off my forehead and my breathing was uneven.
    Holy s**t, it was a dream. A weird dream at that, most probably because I saw Noah today but why was he a NightDust person? I was too tired to figure it out right now; I lay back down on the bed looking up at the ceiling trying to forget my dream. My eyes slowly drifted to close and I was falling in the darkness of sleep.

    Noah

    My eyes shot open. I was in my bed lying in my room looking at the ceiling, I could feel Maddie lying next to me. What the hell was with that dream? Tory and me? But it wasn’t Tory; it was that woman from tonight, the one I rescued. I had called her Tory, why?
    I frowned at the ceiling, why had I called her Tory? She was nothing like her and she didn’t look anything like Tory. Also the end… Why did I have red eyes? I would never join NightDust; I’d rather die than join them.
    I sat up, a little confused about the dream. Maddie made a sound of protest but I quickly slid out of the bed before she could grab me. I walked to the bathroom to splash water on my face that felt suddenly hot. I looked in the mirror at my reflection and stared.
    What was that dream about? Why was I NightDust? And why was that woman in it and why was I calling her Tory?
    I was too tired and confused to answer any of these questions tonight; I’d worry about it tomorrow when Maddie was in London. I walked back into the bedroom and dreaded getting back into that bed. I never wanted to marry Maddie, she was a nice girl but I didn’t like her that way. I sighed; the sacrifices I did for my family.
    I slipped into the bed and gave Maddie my back when she tried to snuggle closer. I fell asleep shortly after, thinking about that dream.

    Tory

    I knew I shouldn’t have worked today, my grandparents had told me not to go after I told them what happened last night. But I didn’t want to be a pain to them; they had already done so much for me.
    Nothing had happened yet, no one had sought me out this afternoon, and that was a good thing, that had to mean that they didn’t know much about me. No one had followed me to work today and there was no one here that looked like NightDust.
    Wiping the bench down in front of me, I started to think to hard about last night. Seth was there, that meant that they were close; now that wasn’t a good thing for me. I’d have to keep a lower profile than normal.
    And NightDust, why were they hunting me…again? Were they just hunting any random girl with powers or was I just a special woman? God, I hope I wasn’t. That would be the worst thing in the world to happen.
    I grimaced into thin air just thinking about it, it made me feel disgusted and unclean.
    “Kane!” Someone called my name out.
    My head snapped up, my mind was taken out of its day–dreaming as my manager stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at me.
    Penny White was the manager of the diner; she had white blonde hair with stunning green eyes. She was short at five foot, three inches and a little podgy.
    “What, White?” I asked in a moody voice.
    “Want to do some work today?” she asked in the same way as me.
    “I am doing work,” I said back as I looked at the bench I had been cleaning for ten minutes.
    Staring at it, I realized what I had looked like, staring off into space and making weird facial expression every now and then. I looked around at the tables in front of me; some people were giving me weird and concerned looks. I felt a blush creeping up my neck to my face; I turned back to Penny, who was still standing there glaring at me,
    “Yes, I plan to do some work, I have always intended to,” I said in a small voice, losing my bravo mood.
    “Good, now go help that gentleman that just walked in,” she said as she came to take the cloth from my hand then pointed in the direction of the man and walked away.
    I sighed at her usual moody self; she was always like that, telling everyone that they weren’t any good at their jobs. Maybe if she did some work around here she would know how hard it was and why we worked so slow.
    Turning in the direction Penny had pointed in, the man was sitting by himself with his back to me and everyone else around him. He looked tall, even sitting he looked tall. He had short black hair that had little grey bits here and there. For someone that looked a little old he had a pretty good body, I could see that his back and arms had a lot of muscle in them.
    He must work out a lot, I thought to myself while staring at his back, or had a good physical job.
    Walking towards him, I took the pencil out from my ponytail and started rolling the notepad in my hands.
    Maybe he was waiting for a girlfriend or wife, I thought, maybe he was single and…
    My mouth dropped when I saw his face, it caused me to stop in my tracks. My mouth snapped shut before I could throw up what I had eaten on my last break.
    It was one of the faces that had been haunting me all day, just not the one I wanted to burn to death. My anger rose, I could feel my eyes flash like twin flames; I felt the fire up and spread to my hands. Just thinking about him made my fire boil and start.
    I turned away from Seth quicker than I had when I walked up to him; all I could think about was to let the fire out. To get rid of this pressing burn or just let it burn me from the inside out.
    “Kane, where are you….” Penny’s voice faded as I ran into the kitchen, tugging off my apron.
    This would do, I didn’t need this thing, I thought as I went out onto a back alley via the back door of the diner. Throwing the apron on the ground a few feet in front of me, I leant back against the steel door and closed my eyes.
    I could feel my hands starting to heat up, my eyes felt like they were changing and heating behind my eyelids. My heart started to beat faster, pumping the fire through me and to my hands, making them smoke with the unleashed heat.
    Lifting my hand so it lay palm up, I opened my now fiery red eyes; I could see things differently now.
    It’s like having x-ray vision, like only being able to see certain colours around you; reds, blues, greens. I could see the body heat coming off the people in the building in front of me.
    Calling upon the fire was easy now, it got easier with time and even without the training I could do it. Fire and heat raced through me faster. Looking at my palm, fire flickered and sparked on it. Pushing my power to my hand a flame lit up in the middle, the size of a cigarette lighter flame. It flickered because I wasn’t giving it enough power.
    ‘Let it go… Now,’ the voice of the fire said to me. It wrapped around me, pushing me to lose control; to give in to the fire’s control.
    “I can’t, I will never lose control again,” I whispered in tortured pain to thin air.
    ‘Let it go…’ the voice faded away as I blocked it out.
    Looking at the apron, the flame on my hand grew as I sent more power to it, the flame flickered and burst into a frenzy of heat and fire; turning and melding into a ball. I stared the ball in my hand and could feel the flame flicker in my eyes.
    Lifting the ball closer to my face, I could feel the heat radiating off of it and onto my face. It grew bigger when I pumped more into it; the more I put into it the hotter it became.
    Flinging my hand out suddenly, the ball was aimed at the apron and it went up in flames like no tomorrow. The sizzling and burning sounds of the cloth was music to my ears, embers flew this way and that; a smirk spread across my face into a wide grin. My eyes hadn’t changed back to its original colour yet; my mind was still set on burning more items.
    ‘Why not just let it go, Tory?’ the fire whispered in my ears.


    - This urge, an urge to kill everything in sight was tugging at my mind. Constantly. I was so tired from containing it. Maybe I should have let it take over.