Spark: One of Us Series Read online

  His heavy jacket slipped against my arm, dragging the sleeve of my thin nightie with it. Black numbers were revealed on the inside of my wrist…ugly black numbers…

  Four one zero four…

  He stared at those numbers…stared and stared… and then whispered. “Who are you?”

  The sound of an engine filled the air. Headlights washed through the kitchen window. He jerked his head toward the sound, and turned. His shoulders tightened, fist clenched at his side.

  “It’s Braer, Seth. I called him, remember?” The woman gathered the spilled packaged and vials from the floor and shoved them back into the kit before stumbling to the bench. “He was at home, said he’d come right over.”

  Still I could see him changing, morphing into someone else…someone who clenched his fists…someone who protected.

  The car engine died with the headlights and the thud of a door followed. He turned to me while she left the kitchen, striding toward the front door.

  “It’s okay,” the man murmured. “Look at me.”

  He drew my gaze. Kind eyes seized mine. There was a tiny nod of his head, a secret as she opened the door and their voices drifted in.

  His fingers didn’t shake anymore as he pressed the cold paper towel to the sole of my foot and then reached for the mess of the kit.

  “Seth,” a man called and stepped into the kitchen.

  I held my breath and turned toward the stranger. He never looked at the man at my feet once, only me…moving closer, peering at my face as though he could unravel my secrets. “Who do we have here?”

  “She hasn’t spoken.” Seth glanced up at me and then grabbed a small brown bottle, working the cap before he tipped, staining the paper towel in his hand brown.

  “Like I said on the phone, she was just walking down the road about three miles from the turn off to our place. You recognize her? Is she one of the kids from in town?”

  The sheriff stepped closer.

  My heart boomed, my body pulsed with the deafening sound…mingling with memories…sounds roaring in my ears. Flashes of lights…blinding, and in between the piercing white light were the images…a man screaming…blood…so much blood.

  “You hear me sweetheart?” The sheriff reached for me.

  A whimper slipped free. I jerked my foot high, knocking the brown bottle flying from the man’s hand. Glass clattered on the floor as I dragged my knees higher, curling my spine.

  “Fuck!” The man at my feet barked and threw the towel against the floor.

  “Hey there…whoa, it’s okay…” The sheriff jerked his hand away.

  “I think you should step back,” the man growled and then flinched. “You’re scaring her.”

  “Braer,” the woman called. “It’s okay.”

  I clenched my knees tight, and squeezed my eyes closed. Waves crashed inside me, smashing against the inside of my mind…and outside…far above came the faint rumble of thunder.

  Please don’t…don’t hurt them…

  “I’ve never seen her before,” the sheriff’s words broke though. “I know just about every damn kid at that school and she ain’t one of them.”

  My palms stung, still I clenched tighter, driving my nails deeper until my hands shook.

  “She seems…not right…kinda special,” the sheriff muttered.

  I breathed…breathed through the pain…breathed through the panic. Something brushed my hand, warm…soft…circling…circling…circling…

  “You’re safe here,” the man whispered…Seth. His name took flight in my mind and I opened my eyes.

  The thunder slipped away…just a little.

  “I’ll just make a few calls,” the sheriff muttered. “Back in a second.”

  The scuff of his boots echoed, still I looked at Seth and then where he softly touched my hand. He bent low, trying to catch my gaze with his. “You okay now, Spark?”

  I sucked in a breath and nodded. Spark…

  “He’s calling Social Services. Get her someplace safe and warm.”

  I stiffened, watching her as she stepped closer. Her gaze went to the marks on my wrist…the ugly black numbers. I tugged my sleeve low.

  “Where did you get that?” She crossed her arms again.

  She didn’t want me here…didn’t want me sitting in her kitchen…didn’t want me talking to the man, Seth.

  The front door opened and then closed as the sheriff stepped back into the kitchen. He winced, held up his phone. “Friday night, it’s gonna be hard to get anyone until Monday.” He glanced at me, at my bare feet and my clothes and then took a step closer. “I can take her off your hands until they get back to me.”

  Seth stiffened and jerked his gaze toward them. “Take her with you…you mean back to the station?”

  “To the hospital first, of course,” the sheriff snapped. “Get those feet locked at and then we can have a chat, find someone that can help so we can figure out where she belongs.”

  Seth’s hand slipped from mine and he laid it flat against the counter in front of me. “I’m not going to have her sleeping in the damn cells next to the local drunk swearing and doing Christ knows what beside her. Leah, look at her. She’s cold, hurt…we can take care of her here.”

  “Seth,” she said and shook her head.

  But he wasn’t having it. “Tell him she can stay here.”

  She stared at me and pursed her lips, her voice softening as she murmured. “We have nothing here for her.”

  “We have four empty rooms in this damn house, and you can’t spare one for her? She can wear some of my old sweats until tomorrow and then we’ll get her something her size.”

  She said nothing…

  He shook his head. “She was walking toward our house, Leah. Don’t you think that means something?”

  The sheriff shifted from one foot to the other and then took a slow step. “I can take her, no problem at all councillor.”

  “No.” One word from her and it seemed the entire world stood still. She glanced from Seth to me, and then to my wrist. “She can stay here for the weekend. Seth’s right, the lock up is no place for a child, especially a girl.”

  The sheriff scratched his stubble. “Well, alright. If you think she’s no trouble. First thing Monday I’ll be getting Child Services out here to take her off your hands.”

  She nodded, but never took her gaze from Seth. The sheriff waited for a second and then gave a nod. “Well, you know how to reach me if you need.”

  “We won’t,” Seth answered and held Leah’s gaze as the sheriff turned and left.

  I waited for the thud of the front door, and then the growl of an engine before I sucked in a hard breath.

  “You really want her here?” Leah murmured.

  “I really do. She’s special, Leah…I can feel it.” He turned to me then, and held out his arms. “You’re safe here. You’re safe here, Spark.”

  But it was her I watched. Her with the unflinching eyes. Her who took a step closer. I lifted my hand as she neared.

  Something inside seemed to click into place. Something bloomed from the dark, like a whisper…like a call.

  And as my hand touched her, and my fingers slid along her skin…I heard a faint sound…

  A ticking…deep inside my mind.

  One that hadn’t been there before.

  Tick…tick…tick…

  Spark

  “There you are.” Seth folded the top of the newspaper down and peered over the top of his glasses as he smiled. “Good morning.”

  I stepped into the doorway and clenched my hands, fingers twisting, popping knuckles with the strain. The place was different in the light.

  Timber railings overhead glistened almost black on the stairs. Cream colored carpet under my feet as I stepped out of the doorway and into living room. My toes curled, dragging the thick pile between my toes, until something sharp bit underneath.

  I flinched and wrenched my foot away as he set aside the newspaper and rose from the couch. The paper hit the tab
le with a slap, then he was striding toward me, holding his hand out. “I hope you’re hungry, it's pancake Saturday.”

  His fingers hovered in the air, hoping...asking. I swallowed hard, took a small step forward and reached.

  He was soft and warm, clasping my palm in his and motioning toward the kitchen. “You sleep well? I got up a few times just to check, but you were so quiet it’s like you weren’t even there at all.”

  Look at me…over here…not at them…not at them…echoes of the past slipped through my grasp.

  I never answered, just let him lead me slowly into the kitchen. She was there…the woman…I searched for her name. Leah…She lowered her plain white cup and tilted her head. The man stopped, curled his spine, yielding. The moment so quick. A perfect kiss…warm, and gentle—like everything else about him.

  “What’s on the agenda for today, councillor?” he murmured, and then turned to me with a wink.

  “I’ve got to go into the office for a while. Finish the Hedmond brief, I’ll be back around five, hopefully. You know. I just can’t get over the audacity of those people. They think they can turn up late to a ruling and the judge is going to let them off with a slap on the wrist. Fifteen months wasn’t anywhere near long enough.”

  “I agree.” He dropped my hand, pulled out a stool, and motioned me forward. “Child endangerment is a very serious cause. The court’s rulings need to reflect that. What are we, if we can’t protect our damn future, and that’s what these children are…our future.”

  “I’m just so tired of it, Seth.” She shoved the newspaper away.

  I caught the headline. Couple who dangled baby from a nine story building sentenced to jail.

  “I’m tired of the system letting these children down. I’m tired of fighting to make a difference just for it to happen again tomorrow, and then the next day and the next day and the next.”

  “You can be tired, sweetheart. You can even be pissed off. You can be sad and happy, and everything in between. But what you can’t be is defeated…you can never be defeated…not you. If you end up like that, then they’ve won, and these children have lost.”

  He moved around the counter and into the kitchen. Copper sparkled as he grasped a pan from a shelf overhead. I could feel the weight of her gaze…feel her picking me apart with those dark eyes. “How did you sleep, sweetheart?”

  The coffee was abandoned, along with the paper. She slid off the stool, heels clacking on the stone floor as she came closer. Her blue skirt stretched taut as she sat next to me. “Still not talking huh?”

  I gripped the sleeves of the sweater and dropped my hands into my lap.

  She followed the motion, staring at my wrist before she lifted her gaze. “That mark on your wrist. Where did you get that? Did someone do that to you?”

  I lifted my gaze, finding hers. Burning on my wrist, slipped from the past and into the present…hands around my arms, holding me down. Needles in my veins…stabbing…filling me with…

  “Were there others? Other girls like you? You can talk to me, you know. I can help you, it’s what I do. I’m a lawyer, do you know what that is?”

  I shook my head. Metal scraped on metal. Seth hummed, dragging out a metal bowl from the shelf and then moving to a cupboard.

  “It’s a person who fights to keep others safe, and sometimes they bring people before a judge or a magistrate if they’ve done something wrong.”

  Still I watched him as he pulled out one tin and then another. He poured flour into a bowl and then sugar on top. Eggs were next, shells cracked before they spilled, and then he grabbed the whisk.

  There was metal all around me…on the stove…on the bench…metal…metal…metal…I curled my fingers, nails digging into skin.

  “What is it honey?” She reached out, falling short of touching me.

  Just like they all did.

  Seth turned, brows narrowed. He glanced at my hand and rounded the counter, metal prongs in his hand. “She touched my hair last night, do you remember?”

  “I was five glasses of Moët in last night, and you know I don’t drink like that anymore.”

  “You don’t drink like that any less, either.” He smiled when he spoke to her, but that smile faded as he turned to me. “I was sure there was something…something about her fingers.”

  I stared at that whisk as he neared. Don’t come closer…don’t come closer. Metal all around me…didn’t they know…didn’t they know what I was? A whimper slipped free, weak and pathetic.

  “What is it sweetheart?” She moved in close and so did he.

  “Stay back.” I kicked the cupboard and spilled from the seat. “Stay back from me.”

  “Jesus.” Leah held up her hand, and then jerked her gaze to Seth. “Honey, what is it?”

  Still all I could see was metal…metal in his hand. Metal at his back. I swallowed hard. The panic drawing my power to the surface. I shook my head…fingers twisting…twisting…metal…metal…metal…

  “You don’t have to be afraid of me,” Seth murmured and reached out with his hand…And above us in the clouds I heard the rumble of thunder.

  I shook my head and stepped backwards, feet slipping on the stony floor. He didn’t understand…neither of them did. “It’s not you…” the words ripped from my lips as I shook my head. “It’s me…it’s all me…me…me…”

  “Dear God.” Seth took a step closer, the metal glinting in his hand.

  Inside me a storm raged…brutal…deadly.

  The metal bowl on the kitchen bench rattled as I lifted my hand. Pots and pans clanged together, filling the air with the terrifying sound.

  Leah spun as the bowl bounced and rocked back and forth, and then rolled until it hit the edge of the counter and fell.

  The clang cut through the air. White flour spilled, casting unbeaten eggs against the stony floor.

  The call was undeniable…

  “Dangerous,” I whispered as energy arc. “I’m the one who’s dangerous, don’t you see that? Nothing but a beast…”

  A tiny white spark ripped from my fingers to hit the whisk in his hand. I tried to pull it back inside, pull it all the way down deep. But the panic inside slipped out.

  Just an animal…a filthy…dirty beast.

  Metal sparked, tiny electrodes carving through the air as the whisk flew from Seth’s hand and hit the ground.

  “Oww! Fucks sake!” he snatched his hand away from the whisk to smack his chest.

  His eyes widened, hand trembled as he wrenched his gaze to mine. There was a moment…a moment where he should’ve run. A moment where he should’ve lunged for a weapon…not a knife…nothing metal—for metal belonged to the beast…

  I waited for the screams. Waited for them to call. The sheriff would come for me now. He’d come and he’d take me back there to the deafening sounds in my ears, and the flashes of light…wherever there was…

  “I’ll call the sheriff!” Leah screamed. “Get away from her! I’m calling the sheriff now!”

  “No!” He roared, casting a panicked gaze to his wife, before he softened his voice. “No, Leah. No sheriff. It’s okay…” His voice was thick and hoarse, filled with pain and panic. “It’s okay…it’s okay. Not a beast.”

  Thunder in my head. Thunder in the sky. Booming. I closed my eyes and waited…

  “It's not okay, Seth. She's...” Leah pleaded lost for the words to describe me. It's okay...I'd heard them all before. Beast. Monster. Weapon. Filthy...filthy animal.

  “She won’t hurt me.”

  I swallowed the beast down…took it down…down…down…where the storm raged, where it always raged.

  “What…what are you?” he murmured.

  I jerked open my eyes as he took a step toward me. My feet slipped against the stony floor as I stepped backwards until I hit a wall. Don’t come closer, I tried to whisper the warning…tried to make him see. “A beast,” I whispered. “I’m a beast.”

  “God no.” He shook his head and glanced over his shoulder t
o his wife, as though he needed her to see. “You’re just a child…” he answered and turned back to me. “A phenomenal goddamn child. I don’t know what you are, but you’re not a beast. You’re beautiful.”

  I tried to hold onto that word…beautiful, tried to take in, tried to swallow it down. Beautiful. Tiny sparks danced from my fingers to his. He hissed with the connection and wrenched his hand away. The smell of ozone drifted on the air, snatched by a breeze.

  “I’ve never…” Leah whispered, hands hung by her side, eyes wide. ”I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

  And above the house thunder answered.

  She flinched with the sound and jerked her gaze to the ceiling. “Is she human?”

  Not Human…

  The words filled my head.

  A weapon.

  You kill…you kill for us.

  “A weapon.” The word slipped from my lips as I dropped my hand.

  She jerked her gaze back to my hand…my wrist. “Jesus…Jesus Christ, Seth. Is that what they did to her…they made her into this?”

  “They? Who the Hell is they?” he snarled. “Who can do something like this?”

  She never answered…not out loud. But I could see the answer flickering in her eyes. I knew what she saw when she looked at me. The truth.

  But all he saw was a lie. All he saw was someone worthwhile, someone not dangerous. Someone not a beast. Tears welled, my lip trembled. I tried to pin the flesh under my teeth, tried to still the shake. “Beast,” I tried again…tried to make him see. “Monster.”

  “No.” He shook his head. “No. I don’t believe that. I don’t believe that at all.”

  I breathed…breathed in his words, and his kindness and felt the power ebb inside me.

  “Not a beast. Not any of those things. But I know someone in pain when I see it…I know someone in trouble. We can help you.” He looked to Leah, who swallowed hard and then gave a slow nod. He turned back to me. “All you have to do is trust us.”

  He lifted his hand, and reached for me. “Talk to me…talk to Leah. Let us try to understand what happened to you.”

  This time I didn’t hurt him. This time I didn’t panic.

  “No more metal.” I jerked my gaze to the kitchen. “No more metal.”