Saphora: vol.1 Retention (The Athena Universe) (33 page)

She had been telling the truth.

The sound of the door opening interrupted Glover’s thoughts, making him shift his attention to the curtain that surrounded his bed. It wasn’t long before it was pulled back, revealing Officer Johnson and Roland. Johnson smiled at him, taking her hand off the curtain.

“Hey there, tiger,” she greeted, putting her hands on her hips. “You got pretty banged up, didn’t you?” Glover tried to smile back, nodding his head.

“So it seems,” he answered. “But I’m fine. Just a few fractures.”

“Just a few fractures he says,” Roland scoffed, shaking his head. “Stop trying to sound so tough,” he chuckled. Glover grinned. But it was gone as quickly as it had arrived, his face suddenly getting more serious.

“Where is Saphora?” he asked. Johnson sighed, crossing her arms.

“Home, I’m guessing.” Glover shook his head.

“Have you spoken to her?” Johnson shook hers.

“Why’re you
worried about her? She
left
you at the scene.” Glover shook his head again, looking up at the ceiling momentarily.

“The story that she told her doctor. That she tried to tell us?” he began, looking over at Johnson. She half nodded, signaling him to continue.

“Yeah? What about it?” Roland asked.

“She was telling the truth.”

Both Johnson and Roland froze at the statement, hesitating to even look at each other.

********

Sitting at his desk, Lupin sat with his forehead against the palm of his hand. She’d slipped away from him again. When was he going to find the time to examine her properly? He sighed, rubbing his hand against his forehead and burying his fingertips in his hairline.

It was then that his phone rang. His office phone. Looking up from his current moping position, he cleared his throat and reached for the phone, picking it up on third ring and holding it against his ear.

“Hello, Dr. Lupin’s office. Lupin speaking,” he answered, slightly exhaling.

“Dr. Lupin? This is Officer Johnson. How are you?” Lupin shook his head slightly, raising his brows.

“Well, I’ve been better, Ms. Johnson. What can I do for you?”

“Have you spoken with Saphora lately?”

“Briefly. She was in my office not too long ago.”

“Is she still in the building?” Lupin slid his hand down his face, exhaling.

“No, I’m afraid she cut our session short. Were you wanting to speak with her?” Johnson hummed.

“Yes, but we can talk to you as well. I need you to tell me the story Saphora told you.” Lupin blinked, his brows raising momentarily again
.

“Story?”

“The story she told you about what happened to Jones,” Johnson clarified. Lupin’s posture straightened as he sat up in his seat, instantly more alert about where the conversation was headed.

“What about it?” he asked after some hesitation.

“We need to … compare it to that of one of our officers.”

“What happened?” Johnson huffed, putting her hand on her hip as she turned slightly to look over at the alert Glover.

“There was an incident on the highway involving Officer Glover, Saphora, and what he describes to be the fire-wielding man known as Tebias.” Lupin’s eyes widened as he pushed away from his desk, stretching the cord of the phone slightly.

“Tebias …” Lupin’s eyes darted about, almost as if denial, before quickly shifting to that of curiosity. He reached to the side and opened the drawer to his desk, aiming to find his notes. But what he found alarmed him. All of his binders, notepads, and stationary that he had gathered over
the years of Saphora’s case, were now sitting in a minuscule mound of ash. He started at the inside of the drawer in disbelief, his mouth agape. His eyes raised to look forward, as his brain scrambled for some sort of explanation. Coming up, with only one, he stood up, gripping the phone as the cord stretched.

“Is there somewhere we can meet?”

              “So what happened to your car?” Jared asked, cleaning out a mug and leaning on the counter behind the register. Maverick shook his head, closing the register and handing the woman her change. She smiled to him and he returned the gesture, before turning around to face Jared as she walked away.

“I had to uh, get some work done on it. I got into a little accident on the highway,” Maverick said, crossing his arms.

“Aw, man. Not the Camaro. Not Black Beauty. Is she doing alright?”

“Yeah, she should be out of the shop in a few days. It wasn’t anything too serious,” Maverick chuckled.

“Oh thank god. And
speaking
of highways! Did you hear about the
massive
accident that happened? A car blew up and everything. Like in the movies,” Jared said, coming closer to Maverick, and leaning beside him on the register’s counter. Maverick’s body grew a little stiff as he averted his eyes.

“Oh yeah? What caused it?”

“I don’t even know. I haven’t had time to watch the news about it. I just heard my sister talking about it this morning. Pretty wicked. I think she said there was some like, fire that came out of nowhere – whatever that means.”

“Random fire, huh? Maybe a gasoline truck exploded?”

“I don’t know, but that whole road is messed up. It’s probably not going to be open for like, the next week.” Maverick sighed, letting go of any chance he had to get his car back within the week.

“Yeah, most likely.
” Jared nodded, pausing in the conversation before changing it entirely.

“
So
,” he sighed, looking over at Maverick. Maverick raised his head to give Jared his attention, noticing the change in his voice. Seeing the wide grin on his face, he groaned, knowing exactly where the conversation was going.

“Drop it, Jared.”

“Like hell I will. And you’ve got some nerve, man. This is the first girl you’ve looked twice at in the past two years and you’re keeping her a secret? Not cool, man,” Jared complained, shaking his head. Maverick rolled his eyes.

“Well maybe if you weren’t so critical of her I might talk about her a little more,” countered Maverick. Jared raised his hands in surrender and lowered his head.

“Okay, okay. I will not bad-mouth the girl. So please.” Maverick sighed, shifting the weight on his leg to the other and tapping his foot slightly.

“What do you want to know?”

“Let’s start with why you like her.”

“She’s different.”

“Different how?”

“She just is. She looks at things differently. Experiences them differently. And everything she says is genuine.”

“Genuine, huh.”

“Yeah.” Jared shook his head.

“Is she the one?” Maverick rolled his eyes and dropped his arms.

“Come on, man. It’s been like a week.”

“Well! You seem to be head over heels already. Leaving work to talk to her. Ignoring my calls. Ditching game nights,” Jared pointed out, theatrically counting them on his hand. Maverick shook his head.

“I just … I really like her. I don’t know.”

“You guys bang yet?”

“Dude!”

“What!” Jared laughed, shrugging his shoulders innocently. “It was an innocent question, I swear.”

“
No
, we have not banged, yet,” Maverick groaned. Before Jared could respond, Liz came out of the kitchen.

“Good. That means there’s still a chance,” she chimed, coming behind the counter area with the boys. Jared’s brows shot up as he heard Liz’s voice from behind him. He made an expression that
read ‘uh-oh’, and averted his eyes to the right. Maverick scoffed, looking at Liz, unmoved by her flirtatious tone.

“For you? I’m afraid not,” he responded with sudden bluntness. Taken aback, Liz frowned with the rather forward rejection. She crossed her arms, jerking her neck to move her hair from her face.

“You’re forgetting that you owe me a favor for closing by myself,” she warned. Jared looked from her to Maverick, knowing better than to interrupt the conversation.

“I’m going to fix that. The next time we close together, you can leave. And I’ll do it by myself, so we can
be even. Aright? How about that?” Maverick said matter-of-factly, quickly dismissing the problem before it could escalate. Liz frowned, as Jared fought to contain his laughter. Liz scowled at Jared, smacking his arm with the back of her hand and making him jump slightly with a smile.

“Whatever. I’m sure you’re horrible anyway,” she countered, turning away and going back into the kitchen to retreat. Jared snickered as Maverick’s brows pinched together.

“Horrible?”

Jared chuckled, shaking his head.

“Don’t even worry about it, dude. You did good. You did good,” he laughed, patting and gripping Maverick’s shoulder.

              “Now, when I attempt to strike you, I want you to push my wrist away, and blow fire at me with your other hand,” Hydra instructed, easing her stance into a more battle-ready one. Saphora shook her head slightly, her stance similar to Hydra’s as they stood in the middle of Maverick’s living room. They had pushed Maverick’s furniture out to add to the space they had.

“I don’t know if I can do that so quickly … And eve
n if I could, I don’t want to hurt you – or Maverick’s apartment,” Saphora argued warily. Hydra reassured her.

“You won’t. I’m covering myself in a layer of water. It will absorb the fire that makes contact. I’ll put out anything that misses.”

“I still don’t know if I’ll be able to do it,” she said, glancing down at her hands.

“That is why we’re practicing. I’m not expecting you to get it right the first time. Come. Are you ready?” Hydra stepped forward. Saphora sighed, raising her hands and swallowing the
lump in her throat.

“Whatever that means,” she said, steadying herself.
And without any warning, Hydra came at Saphora, swinging her right fist towards her face. With hesitance and shock halting her before she thought to raise her arm in defense, she was too late by the time Hydra’s knuckles stopped about a centimeter away from her left eye. Her eyes were wide, staring straight at Hydra, who was looking back with somewhat of a frown. A few seconds passed before she lowered her hand and took two steps back.

“Again,” she said, putting her right foot forward.
Saphora sighed, feeling her heartbeat come back with a thump.

“What if I hurt you?” she asked worriedly.

“You won’t,” she reassured, taking a step forward. But Saphora took a step back. Hydra frowned. “You need to learn. You must attack as if you believe I am trying to hurt you.”

“But I can’t.” Hydra paused, before making a necessary decision.

“Very well,” she said, spinning as she stepped forward towards Saphora with a quick pace. Saphora blinked repeatedly, taking a step back off guard. But the spinning continued, until Hydra’s left palm made contact with Saphora’s jaw, knocking her back and to the ground with a thud. Saphora curled up on the floor slightly, as she went to lift herself up in shock. She looked up at Hydra with wide eyes, one of her hands going to delicately hold her stinging chin.

“You … You hit me,” she breathed.

“Get up,” Hydra instructed. Saphora scoffed and stood up, keeping her eyes on the slightly swaying Hydra. She didn’t actually know which one of them was swaying.

“Hydra-“

“Again.”

“This is ridiculous. I’m not-
“ Before Saphora could finish her sentence, another blow was delivered – this time, just below her ribcage. The breath was knocked from Saphora as she stumbled back and doubled over in pain. She hissed and groaned as air returned to her lungs a little slower than she would have liked. She grit her teeth, blinking hard. It wasn’t long before her eyes began shifting colour as she blinked – being brought on by pain and anger. A known stimulant for Saphora’s power. She looked up at Hydra, who backed away again.

“Again,” Hydra demanded. Saphora slowly corrected her posture, her hand still against her ribs. “Defend yourself as your life depended on it. Attack with power blinded by rage. Again!” she shouted, coming at Saphora once more. Her right fist aimed
for the side of Saphora’s skull. But this time, Saphora reacted. Her wrist came up to deflect the blow as instructed, and her other hand pushed forward, her open palm thrusting itself into crease of Hydra’s ribcage, knocking her back.

But Hydra didn’t stop at being pushed away. She spun on her heel and went to send a kick towards Saphora’s shoulder.
With wide eyes, Saphora ducked, coming back up when the leg had made its way around. But when Saphora stood back up, she was greeted with a blow to the crease of her neck by Hydra’s vertical hand. Saphora cried out in pain as she stumbled back, gripping the area. An involuntarily slash of wind whipped off of her body, and Hydra paused her attacks.