See How She Fights (3 page)

Once inside he pushed me against
the wall and ravaged my mouth with his own. I was breathing heavily by the time
we surfaced on our floor.

“That was an awesome distraction.
Could you do that for all future elevator rides?” I asked as it dawned on me
that I had not panicked at all while in the elevator. My fear of closed spaces
was not getting any better.

“I didn’t do it for that, but any
excuse to kiss you is fine by me,” he said as he brushed my hair behind my ear.
He slid the keycard into the slot and rushed me inside.

Before the door had fully closed I
was wrapped around him. I kissed him deeply as if it were the last time I would
ever feel his lips on mine again. Ever since his almost demise I found I could
not merely kiss him. Every time it was like it might be the last.

Kennan consumed me. We became one
as our clothes magically melted to the floor in a blur of hands and lips. He
trailed kisses down my body leaving me writhing and breathless. I needed more
of him. I would never get enough. I grabbed him and pulled him up my body so
that I could crush my lips against his. He moved inside of me making me cry
out. I was lost to him.

**********

We spent the next hour devouring
one another until we were both breathless and boneless. I lay next to him
panting.

“This is why I sleep until eleven,
woman. You destroy me,” he said through breaths.

“Not my fault,” I barely uttered.

“We should go get some food. I
think there may be a PF Chang’s down by the Parthenon. You interested?” he
asked as he started to get off of the bed.

“Do you really need to ask?” I
hurriedly reassembled my clothing. PF Chang’s was my favorite Chinese food in
the entire world. Their double pan fried noodles were next to heaven in my
book.

“I suppose I really didn’t need to
ask,” he said with a smirk as he started to put his shirt back on. I walked
over to him and rubbed my hands over the ridges of his abdomen. His tattoos
stood out in stark contrast to his skin. I wanted to devour him once more.

“You keep touching me like that and
we won’t be going anywhere,” he growled. My stomach responded with its own
growl.

“Fine, but only because my stomach
wants to eat itself right now. I will get back to that later.”

We headed out and made our way down
to the Vanderbilt campus side of town. I realized on the way that Nashville was
bigger than it seemed, it just didn’t have an overabundance of skyscrapers.
Just as Kennan had promised, PF Chang’s sat directly across the street from
Centennial Park and the Parthenon. We pulled into the parking garage and made
our way down to the restaurant. My stomach growled the whole time.

Dinner was delicious. I spent the
entire time shoveling food into my mouth like it was my last meal. I was
convinced Kennan was going to leave me one day just based on my horrible
tendency to inhale my food. I looked up at him sheepishly as he laughed.

“You never cease to amaze me at
what you can consume. How you stay so small is a wonder,” Kennan snickered as
he got back to his massive pile of food.

“I am only small to you because you
are so freakishly large,” I snickered.

“These people don’t think so,” he
said with a sly grin.

“Yeah, because you used your
Guardian mojo on their brains. For all I know, you have made me appear to be a
seven foot Amazonian,” I snickered. It would be really funny to try that sometime.

We finished our meal and headed
over to the park. Unfortunately, we got there too late for Kennan to see the
statue of Athena. It looked as though we would have to come back and see it
again. Not that I minded. Nashville was a gorgeous city that was filled with
uncommonly nice people. We meandered around the columns as Kennan told me about
the real Parthenon and how it exploded when a weapons cache caught fire.

We walked around the lake and sat
in a swing overlooking the water. The ducks floated by aimlessly. I allowed the
peace of the moment to wrap around me. I knew that this was probably the last
peaceful evening I would have for a long time to come. After an hour or so I
started to yawn and Kennan called it a night.

When we made it back to the hotel I
was too tired to keep my promise of ravaging him. Instead he put a block on my
dreams and we climbed into the bed. The king bed was hardly big enough. I had
to curl into his body just to have some room. Not that I minded. Being wrapped
up in Kennan’s arms was my absolute favorite place to be. He was my home and my
safety.

“I love you. More than anything
else in this world,” I whispered as I sank into sleep. I felt Kennan’s lips
brush my forehead as the last of my awareness slipped away.

**********

CHAPTER
THREE

When I woke up the next morning, I
was a bit discombobulated. It had been a long while since I had woken up in a
strange place. Once I got my bearings, I looked over at the clock to see what
ungodly hour would greet me. It seemed five a.m. was the winning number.

 I rubbed my eyes, thinking how
dumb it had been for me to tell Molly we would be there this morning. I should
have said afternoon. If we were going to make it to Chicago before noon, we
needed to leave soon.

I shoved Kennan’s shoulder, trying
to wake him up. It did absolutely no good. He was an immovable mountain. I
decided to resort to another tactic. I grazed his ear with my lips and started
to kiss my way down his chin to his neck. I let my lips trail down his torso
until he finally started to stir awake.

“We need to get going,” I said as I
abruptly stopped.

“Oh no you don’t, woman. You are
gonna finish what you started,” he growled as he rolled me over and pinned me
to the bed.

“But we told them we would be there
this morning. We have to get going if we want to make it before noon,” I said
pleadingly.

“This won’t take long,” he said
with a grumble as he started kissing my neck.

“But, morning breath!” I squealed.

“Hush, I am working here,” he said
as he took my mind off of everything but him. I could not think of anything but
our bodies anymore. I needed him. I gave in and rode the wave of his pleasure
until its apex. When it crashed down around me, I was left feeling
simultaneously empty and complete.

I looked at him with narrowed eyes.
“We really need to go, Kennan. You know Molly will be freaking out. She already
sounded tightly wound on the phone yesterday.”

“Fine, but we need coffee,” he said
as we got up and found our clothes. We got dressed in a hurry and made our way
down to the lobby where there was a coffee stand, or Valhalla. Whichever.

We got our coffee and made our way
out to the car for the seven hour trip. If we were lucky we would make it there
just before noon. Stupid Kennan and his glorious body ruining our schedule.
Okay, so maybe I didn’t mind so much. The truth was I would take any excuse to
attack my future husband.

**********

The car trip to Chicago was far
more boring than the one to Nashville had been. The scenery consisted of
cornfields, soybean fields, farm houses, and the occasional windmill. There was
not even a hill in sight. I was bored to tears by the time we finally made it
to the city limits. The noise of my old home welcomed me in with a warm
embrace. I was surprised by how much I had missed the hustle and bustle of the
city. Kennan steered the car toward our old house, and a thousand memories
assaulted me.

We passed the pub that Kennan owned
when I first met him. I thought back to that first encounter. I still don’t
know how I had been so blind to him for so long. I blame my own jumbled brain
for not seeing how amazing he was back then.

We made it down the two blocks to
our old brick house. Now it was Molly’s. I looked up at the old building and
the nostalgia rushed in. Pizza nights with Kennan, him waking me up from my
dreams, every single moment we had spent there. The memories of Gram’s, Kennan
and my old life swelled to the forefront.  The house beckoned me in. I could
honestly say I did not miss living there, but the memories the house contained
made me long to be inside once more. Kennan parked the car and I jumped out,
eager to be reunited with my old house and the people that now lived inside.

As soon as I opened my door, Ian
came running out of the house. His clothes were subdued and matching.  I was
instantly convinced something was wrong.

“Are you sick, Ian?” I asked,
concerned for my friend’s well-being. Every other time I had seen him he had
been in ridiculously loud clothing. He picked me up and twirled me around in a
hug.

“Nope, I am in deep trouble though.
This is my way of trying to apologize,” he said as he sat me down and walked
over to give Kennan a manly embrace.

“What did you do?” I asked as Molly
appeared on the front step with hair that resembled a straightened rainbow clown
wig. “Oh no, please tell me you didn’t!” I turned back to Ian with a horrified
expression. He looked downright pleased with himself.

“I thought it would be funny. She
is always so serious. Plus she wouldn’t stop nagging me about my clothes,” he
said with a shrug, only slightly cowed.

“I swear to God, I am going to kill
him, Izzy. I don’t care if he is my Guardian. I am going to murder him. I think
that the Council will understand,” Molly said as she hugged me, keeping a wary
eye on Ian.

“Please tell me it isn’t permanent
color. I mean, if it is temporary maybe we can fix it,” I said, running my
fingers through Molly’s once blonde hair. She looked up at me, her bright eyes
brimming with tears. I knew it took a lot to make the hard Molly cry.

“It was the only kind I could
find,” Ian said. He smiled brightly at Molly which just made her that much more
upset.

“Well, maybe you could go dark for
a while. We can go pick something out right now if you want,” I said hopefully.
I wanted to get Molly as far away from Ian as I could. She was bound to stab
him with anything available.

“Dark would be good. Let me go grab
my purse,” she said, making her way back inside.

“I will get everything taken in. Be
careful, do you understand me?” Kennan asked as he pulled me in to kiss my
forehead.

“Promise,” I said as I stood on
tiptoes to kiss his mouth briefly.

“Gag!” Ian exclaimed.

“Shut it you. You are lucky Molly
has not set every last one of your belongings on fire. You better hope we can
cover that up. Otherwise I may help her kill you,” I said pointedly.

Molly came running out of the house
with a sweatshirt on. The hood was pulled tightly over her hair trying to hide
the rainbow monstrosity. If Ian had done it well it would not have looked so
bad. As it was she looked like a rainbow cheetah with random splotches of color
all over her once blonde hair. She grabbed my hand and pulled me down the
sidewalk as I yelled a hasty bye to the guys.

“So, it is going well I see,” I
said with a snicker.

“I hate him. One second he is sweet
and totally there and supportive and the next he is just a jackass. I don’t
know what to do with him, Izzy,” she said. The frustration rolled off of every
word.

“You still haven’t heard anything
from your mom?” I asked. It was a subject we tried not to talk about. She had
been missing since the lab evacuation. No one had seen or heard from her since.

“No, nothing. I don’t know what’s
going on. I don’t know if she is dead or alive. I think that maybe she was with
the Corporation too long. Maybe she just doesn’t trust the Council. I’m not
sure. She could be dead for all I know,” Molly sniffled and I pulled her into
my arms. “I just wish I was finally old enough to have the full-blown visions.
Maybe then I could see what was coming. Ever since we left the lab and I
stopped getting the injections my brain mojo has been off.”

“We’ll find her, Molly. Kennan said
that several members of the council have been out looking for her for quite
some time. Right now, let’s worry about your hair. I am thinking a deep
chestnut brown. What do you think?” I asked as we made our way to the store
down the street.

“I think I still want to kill him,
slowly,” Molly griped.

“I think that our dear, sweet Ian
is like that boy on the playground, pulling your pigtails,” I said with an
arched brow.

“You do realize I have no idea what
you are talking about, right? I was raised in the Corporation.”

“Right, well in elementary school,
when a boy likes you, he pulls your hair. Or he is just generally mean to you,”
I said, like a well-informed documentarian.

“Not funny, Izzy. I am leaving the
romantic entanglements to you and Kennan. I don’t have time for that. Besides,
I hate him. Like, hate him, hate him. The Corporation, or Ian, if forced to
choose, I may just go back to the Corporation. I honestly don’t know which of
the two is worse,” she grumbled.

“You know which one is worse. Don’t
lump Ian in with them. I love you Molly, but he deserves better than that. Even
if he did turn you into a rainbow cheetah.”

“I know. I am just so stressed with
everything. He doesn’t understand that I don’t operate like you. I need calm
and space, not hijinks and pandemonium. He thinks that he can pull me out of my
depression by making me laugh. I just need to be sad for a while. I don’t really
think there is anything wrong with that. She is my mom. She might have been a
horrible one, but she is the only one I have,” Molly said as tears started to
gather in her eyes.

I could feel her loss keenly. I
wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into a hug. I realized how foolish I
had been. I should have been there for her instead of being wrapped up in my
romantic bliss. I felt like someone had punched me in the gut.

“I should have been here for you
more. I am sorry for abandoning you to Ian. But you have to know that he cares
and that is the only reason he is doing the stupid stuff he is. I’ll talk to
him. Maybe I can get him straightened out.”

We walked into the drug store and
made our way to the meager hair dye selection. I held up multiple boxes to her
face until we decided on a brownish red color. It was dark enough to cover the
colorful disaster without turning her into a Goth wannabe. We walked up to the
counter and made our purchase. As we headed out the door Molly started in on
the questions. I knew I couldn’t fool her.

“So, what is really going on, Izzy?
You didn’t come all this way for a social visit. Spill it,” Molly said,
sounding more like herself.

“I’ve been having dreams again.
They are becoming more frequent. When I told Kennan he freaked and made me call
Isadora. I can’t explain it. I feel like there is something bad coming though.
Something worse than what happened before.” As the words left my mouth I
realized it would be worse than before. Whatever was coming our way carried
with it a darkness the likes of which I had never seen before.

Just as the words finished leaving
my mouth I was sucked into a vision. Molly moved us to a bench knowing exactly
what was about to happen. I was grateful she had not let me face-plant on the
sidewalk. With that, my awareness slipped away completely.

**********

I was looking over a barren
landscape. I had seen this place before. This was the Badlands. Why in the
world was I standing in the middle of the Badlands? I looked around and saw a
man standing off in the distance as if he were waiting for someone. Slowly I
made my way over to where he stood. I hid myself behind one of the rock
formations, trying to be as silent as possible. I wasn’t sure if he could see
me or not. I wouldn’t risk it.

When I finally got a closer
look, my breath caught in my throat and my legs threatened to give way. My
heart beat quickly as I looked upon the man that had haunted my nightmares for
so long. My eyes refused to believe what they were seeing. Xavier was there, in
absolute perfect health. Was this the past? Was it the future? Why didn’t these
stupid visions come with a date and time stamp?

A hazy figure appeared and moved
towards Xavier. I could tell it was a woman, but beyond that I could not see
anything. It was as if she was shielded from me. I could hear her and I could
tell where she was, but beyond that, all of my senses were dulled. She
approached Xavier and began talking in a voice that was somehow familiar to
me. I couldn’t place it.

“Hello again, Xavier. How are
our plans coming?” she purred.

“Everything is coming together
nicely. The Chicago base is almost completely set up. Are you keeping up your
end of the bargain?” he asked, unaffected by her tone.

“Oh, of course I am. I wouldn’t
want to disappoint you. You have given me everything I could ever want. My only
desire is to please you,” she said with the same syrupy tone.

“Excellent, then make sure
everything is set to bring in the other Seers. I expect you to be there and act
as my right hand. Do you understand?” Xavier’s tone brooked no opposition.

“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere
else,” she said as she rubbed a blurred hand down his chest. He stood as still
as a statue. The look on his face spoke of tolerance without a trace of
pleasure. He did not enjoy her attentions, whoever she was.

The figures disappeared into thin
air as I was ripped back to the present.

**********

“Izzy, what the hell? Are you okay?
What happened?” Molly’s barrage of questions was giving me a headache.

“Slow down. Let me think for a
second, Molly,” I said, trying to get my stomach to settle. I would never get
used to the nausea the visions induced. Each time I was left unbalanced, as if
I was struck by a terrible case of vertigo.

I sat with my head between my
knees, trying to make sense of what I had just seen. I couldn’t understand who
the woman was. If she were a Seer like me, then why would she willingly help
Xavier? What was she to him, other than his right hand? Why had he suffered her
attentions with only a bare trace of disgust? Xavier was not one to tolerate
anything. So whoever she was, she must be important. She must be powerful. I
pulled myself up.

“We need to go, and now,” I said,
standing up and heading down the street. I didn’t wait to see if she followed.
I needed to see Kennan. I needed his help to make sense of what I had just seen.
Xavier was his brother, surely he would know what it all meant.