Rupture (17 page)

By now young Hutto Toth the Altertranshuman with a Werebear entity felt a primordial urge to lift her in the air and tear her clothes off. He knew this feeling wasn’t normal—that most guys didn’t have to deal with such strong urges. His brothers all said it was because of his problem, even though they never knew until recently what that problem was.

When she put her other foot on his leg, his hands worked both of them while his mind struggled and a voice inside him kept saying,
keep it together, keep it together, keep it together. She’s the daughter of two Alumni Association Council members
.
She’s also an Alter with all kinds of crazy abilities that no one knows about.
He did a good job, pretending to listen to her complain about her mom, grinning back as she sent flirty smiles his way, but it all shattered for him the moment she splayed her legs for a second and her dress hiked enough for a perfect look.

The moment seemed to last a minute in which he tried not to stare and tried not to let his face curl up with desire. She saw, and her moment of hesitation was all he needed.

He launched himself forward and lifted her off the swing, and nearly tripped and fell, but he caught her.

“Hey!” she said.

But her legs wrapped right around him and he felt the pressure of her, and groaned. She grabbed his neck, and he held her like she weighed no more than a child. Face to face, he looked into her eyes and saw that she wanted this.

“Yeah?” he asked once.

She nodded. “Hell, yeah.”

They began kissing, and reaching, and ended up in the wet sward behind the swings.

* * *

But Simone Wellborn wasn’t just interested in getting laid. She had thought this out before she ended up on her back with her legs in the air and a Werebear ready to emerge. As she had been working him into a lather, she’d been mentally keeping herself centered. She wasn’t afraid of the sex. She’d been with two boys in her life, both of them putty in her hands. And she’d felt comfortable enough, even though it wasn’t that big of a deal. She knew that Hutto, though, would be different.

“Don’t ever channel with a boy, dear,” her mother once told her. “And definitely don’t try to summon. It’s very dangerous. And if he likes you, definitely don’t.”

Soon, her dress was up above her chest, and he was unsuccessfully trying to get her bra off with one hand, while the other sneaky one kept working its way south. None of that mattered now, though, because Simone was giving in to another urge—one she had always resisted out of fear. The equanimity her lords gave her always stopped this progress, the final activation of the kata of summoning always just beyond her because she had never gone alone.

Normally, she would end the connection in her bucky. Tonight, she would continue, alone.

She felt herself growing stronger. When her bra popped off, Hutto said, “All right!” and stared like he’d never seen breasts before.

She felt herself transform enough that she was managing his strength with no effort, but he was too enamored to realize it. She was also bigger, longer, fuller. The slow transformation changed her body chemistry; it was something she’d done many times in her bucky, but never to this extent. It was painless and unexplainable and a great way to destroy an outfit.

When she dug her nails into his back, tearing through his shirt, he yelled and raised his head. She looked into his eyes and reached for the thing inside him, and for a long moment of stasis they hung in the balance.

“Oh, heck,” he said.

“Let it out,” she mumbled.

She felt him change instantly, heard his clothes tear, and felt the weight of the summoned Werebear. She mumbled the final words of the mantra, letting her own transformation accelerate, holding him as his body morphed.

She shut her eyes, not wanting to see. She felt the fur in her hands that somehow smelled of forest scrub. She caught a glimpse of the huge, hairy thing with a maw of slavering teeth and with intelligent eyes, and his male member at full attention. She smelled his animal breath and felt the warm spray from his nostrils as he stood over her. He was like a giant bear over a stunned salmon taken from a river.

He growled once deep in his belly, and she called out to him, and heard something else’s voice.

She knew she was no longer Simone—that the high school girl had receded far beyond any previous transformation. She felt the other presence; the channeled entity in her mind awaited at the threshold to consume her. At the last moment, just before Hutto’s beast dove into her, she said the words to finish the kata of summoning and became what she was meant to be.

It had never worked before. But her lords had abandoned her; now she would abandon them and make herself open to what would come.

She opened her eyes just once, turned away from the rutting man-animal atop of her, and saw a golden glow in the skin of her arms, almost as if scales might be forming. She saw unnaturally long fingers, extending in sharp fingernails. But these were no frail things that might snap on a hard surface. She curled her hand once and felt bone-crushing power flow through her like it never had before.

“I can’t believe it,” she mumbled.

She had become a true psy-sorceress like her mother, her body now a vessel. Her lords did not come, as her mother had claimed. The peace and calm she’d always felt when she’d summoned had been replaced by something else, something fuller. She was not sure what entity she had summoned and that had changed her body. But she knew she wanted it to fully emerge and that she would do whatever it took to learn those final steps. She would do what her mother asked and
become
. And she would do it on her own, without her Lords of Order.

“We are here,” she heard herself say to no one, sensing it wasn’t her voice that spoke. Hutto was enamored and heard nothing. Simone said, “I am finally here.”

She surprised herself by digging her talons into his back. She felt the beast in him flex its displeasure, but it kept on going. The weight of him somehow didn’t matter. She was carrying him, as if he were as light as a feather.

* * *

When he roared, she knew it was over. She was swimming in the experience, almost like an observer, no more concerned by him than if he were a gnat. She saw lights popping on in the dorms out of the corner of her eye. She smiled, even as he pulled himself away, even now looking more and more like a boy.

She stood over him, completely naked, but taller than even her brother Rigon. Her arms were long enough to encircle several men. Her body rippled with strength, glinting gold in the moonlight. Hutto looked up at her with confused admiration, still struggling with his own transformation, which he was now fighting. But Simone was content to remain as she was.

Let my mother come see, she thought. This was what she wanted. I am just like her. 

Hutto returned to normal in a few minutes. He scooped up his shredded clothes and did his best to cover himself. He also did his best to shield her because even in the shadows it was plain to see what the new girl was. The RAs came first, and both ran back in fright.

“Stay in the trees, for Christ’s sakes,” he said.

She was much taller than him now, and frightening, and his transformation had taxed him. He stared at her with confusion. Yes, Hutto, the new girl you just had sex with is extremely dangerous, she wanted to tell him. But he appeared more worried she might be upset about what had happened on the grass. He looked at her as if she were the problem society had struggled to destroy for the last two generations:
a psy-sorceress with an attitude
. He should be afraid, but for some reason she guessed he wasn’t. Society had hunted people like her for two generations because society considered them witches and warlocks. Society blamed the Rupture on them. And people like her had literally burned for it.

People like Hutto.

Even now he valiantly tried to shield her from prying eyes in the dorms. He stared at her as if he couldn’t decide between running away or making another pass at her. She saw him staring at her misshapen eyes, at her changed face, her skull that was rounded like a teardrop. She assumed she looked ... other than human.

“Christ on his bloody cross, you’re amazing,” he said as the RAs kept the students from approaching. “What are you?”

She ran a sharp fingernail across his brow like she might scalp him and nibble on his flesh. “I am what my mother wants me to be.” The voice was deep, sensual, and deadly.

“You want everyone to know?”

“Everyone.”

Even in the face of such sublime power, Hutto laughed. “Last year, they’d have burned you at the stake.”

“Let them try now.”

“Right on, baby. Right on.”

She glanced at movement behind him.

She stepped back into shadow. A small form walked into the moonlight on the other side of the swing set, and paused. Both Hutto and Simone could see the silver Consortium Bodyglove that somehow absorbed light and the Mirrorshades that provided night vision.

Yancey Wellborn edged around the swings without taking her eyes from them. When she stopped, she did so at a distance.

“Is this what you expected of me?” Simone asked, still with another voice, stepping around Hutto. “You always knew?”

“Always.”

“Is this what you are?”

“Mine is older, more experienced, but, yes.”

By now, a naked Simone was nearly Hutto’s size and already beginning to shiver from her reversal.

Yancey carried a large towel with her. She walked over and handed it to Simone. “Let’s get you inside. You’re probably tired.”

Simone wrapped up. “I’m hungry.” Hutto stood to the side watching with fascination. Simone gave him little wink, and he winked back.

Her mother glared. “Tell me you didn’t ... ”

“I did.”

“Simone ... he’s a—”

“—Werebear? I know. And I’m a wicked sorceress with all kinds of evil powers. I bet Daddy would be so proud.”

Her mother yanked on her arm to get her to shut up. “You’re not evil—just misguided.” She pulled her daughter along. “You’re going to start wearing a Bodyglove.” Another yank. “And don’t do that again with him. It’s dangerous. What if you lost control? Or he did?”

“I did.”

“Simone!”

“What!”

Yancey Wellborn, licensed Consortium agent and wielder of unexplainable magics, led her rebellious daughter away by the hand, and glared at the teenage boy like he better watch out.

Hutto, of course, smiled like a rock star.

* * *

The next morning, when Simone emerged from faculty housing with scratches all over her body, she wore them like badges of honor—not because she’d gotten them from Hutto—but because they were the leverage she thought she needed. They were proof she’d taken the final steps to summon her entity. Her mother had made her wear a simple Bodyglove, one very similar to hers, under her clothes to cover the marks as much as possible, then led Simone straight to the main campus auditorium. While people still filed in, Simone took her place on stage with the other Alters.

This day, her mother had explained, would be a unique day in Sterling’s history. Two Alumni Association Council members were to speak to the student body. Word had spread, and even though the campus might get locked down because of the Joss incident, students and parents had been pouring in Saturday morning to hear the news. The Council made the decision to let everyone in, at least for the announcement. Then they would have to leave immediately.

Summer session wasn’t over, neither was band camp, or two-a-day football practice. The month before the school year at Sterling was always busy on campus. And this year was no exception. Besides, everyone had also heard about the recruiting of the Alters, Simone’s brands, and—rumor had it—her tryst on the swing set behind the dorms with super-cool-guy Hutto Toth.

This was all part of her mother’s plan, it seemed. Simone couldn’t resist because her mother was Agent Yancey Wellborn, one of the most powerful Alter psy-sorceresses in the Western Hemisphere.

She knew that her mother still fumed over the fact Simone had gone dirty with Hutto Toth. Both of them knew what that meant. It was one thing to step gingerly into the katas and accept what came with respect and caution. It was another thing to open herself like she’d opened her legs and let whatever in that wanted in.

Simone stood quietly on stage, head down, as if this were a spelling bee and her word was Czechoslovakia. Kimberlee stood next to her but graciously kept her questions to herself. On the other side, Wally and Beasley chatted with Hutto about how full the parking lot was. Half the auditorium was filled with students and parents who’d arrived a couple weeks early. Simone’s mother and brother stood offstage with Mr. Vaughn and Keila Vaughn. The nice old lady, Mrs. Ogilvey, had remained in faculty housing. Rigon wore his typical rough-and-tumble agent gear, as if he were ready for the Outback. Simone thought it was an odd choice when most of his battles were fought with his mind and ones and zeros. She was proud, though, had always been proud he was her amazing brother.

He glanced at her a few times from behind his shades, offering reassuring smiles.

He understands, she told herself. He has to.

She rubbed her arms and felt the soreness in her ribs and between her legs and knew there were some things he couldn’t understand.

Hutto also cast a few glances at her, smiling like the schoolboy he was, obviously annoyed she was avoiding him. He was going to have to get used to that for a little while, but only a little.

“What happened last night?” Kimberlee asked.

They huddled alone on the far side of the stage near the curtain. No one was backstage on their end, and they stepped deeper into a niche occupied by a curtain-drawing mechanism.

“I scored myself a boyfriend,” Simone replied.

“No! It’s true?”

“Yep.”

“You did it?”

“Oh, yeah. Look at him.” Both girls watched Hutto entertain Beasley (who had warmed to Hutto much faster than anyone guessed) and Wally (who looked like he’d shovel Hutto’s shit with a spoon). Simone thought it was disgusting how people fawned over him, as if he were some divine being. “Just a boy with a Grizzly inside him.”