outwards. He thought suddenly that it had never been this
clear or easy for him to access this side of himself before.
In Kal's mind all time seemed to have slowed down. The
power came easily from his hands, glowing white and
traveling through the air horizontally into the sheriff first.
He was an easy kill and dissolved quickly into nothing but
ash on the floor. Dot would be able to quickly clean up the
mess. He must not have been possessed by the evil for very
long because he didn't fight his death and it took almost no
time to finish him.
With that thought in mind, Kal turned to the man
who had killed Isabelle's parents. Only death mattered now,
and not an easy one at that. Kal stepped forward and
zapped Michael a little bit. Not enough to kill him, just
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enough to maim. Michael Monroe was going to feel his
death, every second of it. He had shown no mercy to the
Listoras, he would have no mercy now.
Kal released another jolt of electric energy from his
hands into the man again and he screamed at the top of his
lungs. A loud bellowing scream and Kal wondered if the
Darkness stayed with his possessions through their deaths
or if he abandoned them to pain at the last minute. He
raised his hand to take another shot.
Not like this, baby.
Isabelle's voice infiltrated his consciousness.
He killed your parents.
Yes, and I would like you to kill him for it, not
torture him.
I want to cause him pain.
I know but that's not you. That's whatever is
happening in this room. I can feel it too. We can all feel it.
The Darkness is here with us, watching, infiltrating.
Leonardo and Marina can actually see traces of it. Please
don't let it influence your actions. You're too good a man to
get off on torture. Finish the son of a bitch and then come
back to my arms.
That sounded like the best idea he'd heard in a very
long time. He wanted to be back in Isabelle's arms.
Kal could almost count the particles that made the
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flow come from his hands. It was so vivid and distinct that
they were almost living creatures unto themselves. His
current was alive. In a flash, Kal raised his hand and ended
Michael's life very quickly. It was so fast the man never
even had a chance to scream. He became nothing more than
dust on the floor. He would never breathe again, Kal
thought silently, and the world would be better off because
of it.
"Ashes to ashes." Marina blew into her hand,
stirring a breeze in the room. Isabelle was amazed to see
that the wind picked up and moved the dust out of the door
until there was no trace of it left in the room. Kal turned
around and walked quickly to Isabelle's side.
"Thank you for bringing me back from the brink. I
was going somewhere I've never been before."
"I love you. Thank you for eliminating that man
from this world. I didn't know I was an eye for an eye kind
of a girl but I guess I am."
Kal's arms wrapped around her tightly and he
placed his head down on hers so that his chin was resting
on top. He was trying not to shake, it seemed foolish but he
still didn't want the others to see him shake, even if it
wasn't a sign of weakness. Obviously reading his thoughts,
Isabelle rolled her eyes and squeezed him more tightly to
her.
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"No one in here is likely to ever think of you as
weak again," she whispered, just loud enough that she was
sure that Veli could hear it.
Appearing at the door was the black wolf. He came
into the room slowly and Marina started to walk forward
towards it and then suddenly stopped, unsure of where she
belonged. Charma's powers of mind reading were not
needed to know what was going on.
As fast as he had become a wolf, he changed back
from one. He was even fully clothed, in the same outfit he
had been in before. He stared at Marina for a long, quiet
moment and opened his mouth as if he would speak but
couldn't.
"Hey, dude, how did you do that?" Leonardo
questioned.
"He could do it too." Drew pointed at Kal. "I could
feel that he could do it and I kept waiting for him to
change. Why did you hold back from it?"
"There was enough new stuff going on, the moon
was literally speaking to me in my mind. It didn't feel like
the time to take on fur."
"Son." Veli stepped forward to address Drew.
"We've been looking for you for some time."
"You're going to have to keep looking. I'm not here
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to stay. I don't want to be involved in any of this shit."
"You don't want to be involved?" Marina stepped
closer to him. She was starting to sound sort of hostile.
"You're already pretty involved here. You just watched Kal
disintegrate two grown men who were possessed of the
greatest evil in this dimension or any other."
"This isn't my fight and it isn't my problem. I don't
entangle myself in these kind of messes. I have enough
trouble just looking out for myself."
"Is that so? That's why you decided to go into law
enforcement just a boat ride away from where we, the
people like you, call home?" Marina spat back. "Seems
pretty damn close to trouble for a person who doesn't want
to be involved in other people's problems."
"It was temporary insanity about two years ago.
After this charming interlude, I am reminded why I stopped
stepping in messes like this. I mean, shit," Drew spoke,
running a hand through his hair. "How the hell am I
supposed to explain this to anyone? I'm going to have to
report back something. There's not even a body left for us
to manipulate an autopsy for. Did you have to literally send
them off into the wind? They're human beings with families
who are going to ask questions when they don't come home
tonight."
"Isabelle had a family that she didn't get to come
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home to. Hers is the only family disappearance that I'm
currently concerned with," Kal spat back.
"How do you know that either of them had anything
to do with that?"
"We travelled back and watched it happen." Isabelle
hated saying it out loud. This whole day was bringing back
the horror of her parent's death at full speed. She needed to
hold off her falling apart for a little while longer. She still
had a task to fulfill.
"You can do that?" Drew looked shocked.
"I can and they," Isabelle indicated the rest of the
peop
le in the room, "can do amazing things. Each one of
them is different."
"That doesn't change anything. We've still got two
missing people and a whole police station that knows that
they were coming here."
"I can take care of that." Charma smiled. "If you
take me to the people who knew, I can implant other
memories."
"Too many people," Veli said simply. "It will
overtax you and you'll be out of it for days."
"It's my special gift, Veli, let me use it." Charma
said 'special' as if she didn't feel that there was anything
special about her particular abilities at all. Either that or she
would gladly rid herself of her talents.
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'"Fine," Drew said simply. "That is something I'd
like to actually see and then I'm taking off. I'm getting the
hell away from here."
"Maybe we could persuade you to give us a
chance." Veli began speaking but Kal tuned out the rest of
what he was going to say.
At that moment he didn't care if Veli convinced
Drew to stay or go. He had some questions he'd like to ask
him, like how he came to be with the two men who had
come here today and how he had turned into a wolf at will
instead of feeling like he was going to be consumed by it.
But at that moment all he could think about was getting
Isabelle alone and in his bed. If the sexual energy that was
flowing through his body was going to be the result of
every encounter that ended in violence then Kal was going
to start seeking out danger every day.
"Thank you." Isabelle held him tightly. He knew
she would be able to feel his need for her and did nothing
to try to hide it. Kal felt Isabelle exhale deeply, pressing her
face into his chest. She seemed to be inhaling the scent of
him. It was a huge turn on. In a gesture he hoped was
nonchalant, he reached down to goose her behind.
But his hand never made contact with her rear
because as he felt a strong pull on the back of his head. It
felt something akin to someone tugging really hard on his
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hair to drag him somewhere. He felt himself being lifted off
of the ground and he had time to see his feet leaving the
floor. Somehow, despite his exhaustion, he had the
presence of mind to let go of Isabelle so she wasn't dragged
wherever he was going. She stumbled backwards but he
didn't have time to worry about what was happening to her
as he blinked and his world went black.
"Kal?" He heard Isabelle scream before he heard
nothing at all.
I love you, he sent to her mind but he didn't know if
she could hear him. After a moment, he wasn't conscious of
anything at all.
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Chapter Sixteen
"Where is he?" Isabelle screamed to Veli who
simply turned his back and stormed to the back of the
living room, facing the window. He had been of no help
and Isabelle was getting more and more frustrated with
him.
"Where did he go?" Isabelle was pacing back and
forth around the room. She was frantic and she couldn't
think straight. Her ears were ringing and she was sure any
second her heart would literally stop. She was having
physical pains from Kal's absence. Who had taken him?
She wanted them dead. She would personally see to it if she
could or she would help Kal do it.
"Isabelle." Charma grabbed her arm. "You have to
stop pacing."
"Sorry, no can do," Isabelle responded. "If I stop
moving I will literally lose it. I think you should all prefer
my pacing."
"There!" Marina screamed suddenly. She had been
scanning the room back and forth since Kal had been pulled
into the air and vanished. She seemed to be seeing things
with another set of eyes. Leonardo had been staring at her
intently, sort of shocked at how well she was doing it. "I
can still see the magic. It's strong and it's moving away
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quickly but I can still see it. It's like someone cast a spell
and literally pulled him through space. Leonardo, can you
see it?" Marina's voice had gone higher as she gestured
wildly at the ceiling. She was excited and her face was
flushed. Isabelle wished she could share her enthusiasm but
she was too panicked to care.
Isabelle looked above her but she couldn't make out
anything other than the ceiling. Charma and Veli looked
equally confused but Leonardo and Drew, who had still not
left, were looking where she was pointing and nodding as if
they too could now see something.
"I can barely see it. My eyes don't do that weird
thing that yours just did," Leonardo remarked.
"I finally have a sight power and since you can't do
it, it's weird?" Marina laughed. Leonardo seemed not to
hear her, still focused on the ceiling.
"It's not time he's moving through but space and
he's being tugged. This isn't my area. Marina, you can see
that?" Leonardo sounded stunned.
Isabelle was suddenly reminded that her first
impression of Marina had been that the Marina kept secrets
and kept things to herself. Leonardo had been yelling at her
just earlier that day about not using her powers to her best
ability. Obviously Leonardo had been right; Marina was
capable to doing a ton with her powers. She could see
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things that no one else could see. She was obviously the
key to getting Kal back.
"You need a map," Drew added to the conversation,
reminding everyone that he was still there. "It's moving
away and you need to be able to follow it." He blew across
his hand, similar to the way Marina had done when she had
made the wind move the dusty remains of Kal's would-be
assailants. Above them, a map of the world appeared on the
ceiling. It was suspended in the air and even Isabelle could
see it. It was detailed, longitude and latitude included.
Raising her hand, Isabelle realized it was transparent even
though it seemed solid. The oceans were a clear crystal
blue and it almost looked like they were moving with
waves. Europe was a deep red, Asia was green, and the
United States was orange. Each continent looked unique
and inviting. It stood above them suspended through the air
like a piece of artwork that was alive. Isabelle couldn't help
but feel that it was magic. Marina gasped out loud.
"How did you do that?" Marina stared deeply in
Drew's eyes. Isabelle would swear that the air seemed to
electrify just from their eye contact alone.
"The same way you all do what you do. I'm a
freak."
"You're not a freak, you're an Outsider." Marina had
a slight choke in her voice.
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"I'm a what?"
"An Outsider," Veli interjected. "And your father
could do that too. I never thought to see that talent again."
"My father couldn't do anything like that. All my
father could do was suck at his job, drink cheap whisky,
and yell at my mother all night."
"Not your human father. Your real father, your
Outsider father."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"I can see it. I can see exactly where he is." Marina
practically screamed, pointing at the sky.
Isabelle couldn't see anything moving around that
looked like Kal but as long as Marina could make out what
she looked at, that was good enough.
Marina wasn't through with Drew. "Who are you?"
She whirled around to face Drew, her eyes blazing. "Who
are you that you can draw a map on the ceiling to show us
where our friend is and you can change into a wolf at will
but you can't accept that there are people like you who can
do what you do and it doesn't make them freaks, it makes
them special?"
"I'm no one," he replied easily. "Just the jerk that
has to try to explain what the hell happened here to the
entire county in a few minutes."
"I'm going to help you with that," Charma reminded
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him.
"And I'm the guy who never wants to hear any more
of this Outsider crap ever again, okay? I'm a freak, some
kind of genetic freak and you people all are too. You can
call yourselves whatever you want to but it doesn't change
the fact that we are just weird, strange freaks of nature. I'm
sorry I ever came here today."
"Why did you?" Leonardo asked.
"Because I just felt like I had to." Drew looked
down at the floor and Isabelle suddenly felt like he looked