The Havoc Chronicles (Book II): Unbound (4 page)

Rhys looked at me skeptically, clearly not believing that I could be that nonchalant about the situation. Given how protective he and my dad were, likely the only thing that would convince them that I was fine was time.

“One last question,” I said. “What did you do to the guys after I left with Amy?”

Rhys’ face split into a mischievous grin. It was a different look, but one that suited him. Who was I kidding? Everything looked good on Rhys.

“I just made sure they understood that if they weren’t in jail by the end of the day that they would quickly discover there are worse things than a prison sentence. Much worse.”

He shrugged and flicked his varé open. “Ready to train?”

I was tempted to ask for details, but I figured I could fill in the blanks well enough. Besides, I was enjoying looking at that smile. I opened my varé and stood in a defensive stance. “Let’s do it.”

***

Amy called me on Sunday, having just seen the news.

“Do you think it’s them?” she asked. “The ones who attacked us?”

I had to handle this carefully. I wasn’t worried that Amy would figure out I was a Berserker – the possibility of real-life superpowers would never cross her mind – but I didn’t want her to know that the men who had attacked us really were the ones in the cage. It would bring up too many awkward questions.

“I don’t think so,” I said. “I got a good look at the guy with the gun, and he had a dark beard.” I sure hoped she didn’t get a good look and call my bluff. “The guys on TV didn’t have beards, and I doubt they had any way of shaving in that cage.”

“I guess so,” said Amy. “Are you sure it wasn’t the same person? It was kind of dark and hard to see, and it seems an awfully big coincidence for there to be more attackers in that same area on the same night.”

“I’m positive,” I said. “You’re right. It was dark and hard to see. But after you were knocked out, our guys heard someone coming, and they started running. The gunman’s hood fell down and I got a good look at his face. It wasn’t either of those guys.”

That seemed to satisfy Amy, or at least it stopped her from asking me more questions. I hoped she would let it go. Otherwise, I would have to ask Kara or Mallika to cast a haze on her.

***

 I had hoped that the story would die down before school on Monday, but developments over the weekend kept it fresh in the news. The men were convicted sex offenders from California who had violated parole by traveling to Portland. Their pleas to be locked up, and their claims that a glowing girl attacked them made for sensational headlines. The story not only hit the local news, but also got a few mentions at the national level.

When Rhys picked me up for school, I was grateful that he didn’t ask any more questions about my emotional state. Between my concerns about Amy and the stress of the constant news coverage, the attack on Friday night was the last thing I wanted to discuss.

Apparently not too many of the kids at school paid attention to the news, because I didn’t hear anyone discussing it in the halls as I walked in.

All thoughts of Friday night were pushed to the back of my mind as Rhys and I walked to Physics that morning. We had just passed the drinking fountains when we met Josh walking down the hallway in the opposite direction.

Ever since he had started dating Ginger, by a sort of silent mutual agreement, Josh and I had stopped all communication. Whenever we crossed paths, we did our best to pretend we hadn’t seen each other. What was left for us to say? You can only apologize so many time to a boy for smashing him into a tree. 

Today, instead of looking away, Josh kept his eyes locked on me as we passed, even turning to look behind him as I walked by. It wasn’t a friendly or flirting kind of look - those days were long gone. No, his expression was cold and blank, his emotions as inaccessible as a James Joyce novel.

“What was that all about?” asked Rhys.

“I have no idea,” I said. I kept my eyes forward and continued walking, but I had a strong feeling that if I turned around, I would see Josh still standing there, a lonely island in a sea of moving people, his eyes never leaving me.

I didn’t turn around.

At lunch that afternoon Josh’s strange behavior made me even more uncomfortable. I sat in my usual spot and tried to have a normal conversation with Rhys. The operative word here was
tried
. I couldn’t help noticing that Josh was looking over at me far more often than normal. I tried to ignore him, but my distraction must have been pretty obvious because Rhys finally turned around to see what I kept looking at.

He turned back to me with a rather amused look on his face. “Ahh, Josh. Now I see why you’ve been so distracted during lunch.” He looked down at the table, the smile slowly fading from his face. “Do you still have feelings for him?” he asked.

“Does nausea count?” I asked.

Rhys gave me a skeptical look. “Do you really expect me to believe that? I’ve seen the way you two so carefully pretend the other one isn’t there when you think someone is watching. There are obviously still some unresolved feelings.”

“There’s nothing between us,” I said. I frantically searched for a new topic. I wasn’t terribly experienced in this area, but I was pretty sure most guys didn’t want to hear about their girlfriends’ ex-boyfriends – they tended to get territorial and find ridiculously stupid ways of marking their territory.

Not that we were even officially dating, but Amy had said that Rhys had claimed to be my boyfriend. Or was that just an excuse to explain why we spent so much time together?

Rhys gave a small shrug. “If you say so.”

I opened my mouth to reply, but shut it again as Josh stood up from his table and walked over to us with the appearance of someone who was preparing for a heated battle to the death.

“Madison, can I talk to you for a minute,” Josh said. He gave Rhys a distrustful look. “Alone?”  

“Uh, sure,” I said. Rhys leaned back in his chair and folded his arms, clearly unwilling to move. “Let’s go out in the hall.”

We wound our way through the maze of lunch tables and out of the cafeteria. It was quieter out in the hall and the temperature was several degrees cooler. We walked part way down the corridor before I spoke.

“What are you doing?” I asked. It came out sounding harsher than I had intended. “You know Ginger is going to throw a fit when she finds out that we’ve been talking. It may not mean that much to you, but she’s pretty good at making my life miserable.”

Josh put his hands on his hips and looked at me, no hint of a smile on his face. I cringed when I saw his expression. What had happened to that happy, good-natured guy that I had dated? He used to be so fun and now he seemed so serious all the time.

“This is more important than Ginger,” he said. “Where were you Friday night?”

Sudden comprehension dawned on me. The attack. He must have seen the news and made the obvious connection. “What are you talking about?” I said.  

Although I didn’t think it was possible, his face grew even sterner. “You know what I’m talking about, Madison. Friday night two men were attacked by a glowing girl with superhuman strength. I don’t know about you, but I only know of one person who fits that description.”

Well, so much for plausible denial. It was time to jump to the alibi. “All right, if you have to know I was out with Amy on Friday.”

“I know it was you,” said Josh. “Look, I’ve kept your secret because you promised me it would never get out of control. But you could have hurt those men.”

Okay, this was too much. He was worried about me hurting them? The unjustness of it was too much.

“Look,” I said, a note of anger creeping into my voice. “Those guys attacked us and dragged us into an alley at gun point to do who-knows-what. They were convicted sex-offenders! If I hadn’t used my powers, you can bet there would be grief counselors here and you would have spent all day in an assembly mourning the deaths of two students.”

Josh seemed taken aback. “That’s not the point,” he said.

“Oh, what is?”

“The point,” he said, “is that your powers are out of control. You’re a danger to yourself and those around you. I mean, you practically destroyed a building.”

I could not believe we were having this conversation. I had defended myself and Amy from assault and he thought I was the out-of-control bad guy here?

“I did not destroy a building. I just pulled down the fire escape.” Okay, when I put it that way it did sound bad. But I was clearly justified and never "out of control".

“I’m sorry, Madison, but I don’t think I can let this go on anymore. I don’t see this going anywhere good.”

“You can’t ‘let this go on anymore’? What are you saying, Josh?”

“I’m saying that if you don’t turn yourself in and get some help, I’m going to call the police and tell them what I know.” He paused and ran both hands though his hair in frustration. It didn’t help my mood that I noticed how cute he was when he did that.

All my frustration vanished. Instead of angry I felt sick, like I had been kicked in the stomach and was going to throw up. “You would really do that?”

He nodded. “It’s for your own good, Madison. This has to stop before you or someone you care about gets hurt. Turn yourself in and get some help. It will be easier for everyone.” And with that parting shot he turned around and started walking back into the cafeteria.

“Josh, wait,” I said, reaching out a hand after him. I desperately needed him to stay. I couldn’t let him leave like this. If only I could make him forget that night had ever happened.

Blue mist shot out of my palms forming a billowing cloud that swirled around Josh and then suddenly constricted, sinking into him.

Josh stopped walking and simply stood there, unmoving. What had I done? I ran after him and grabbed his shoulders, looking into his glassy eyes – eyes like I had seen on my mom the night Mallika had cast a haze on her.

I looked around the hall, hoping no one had seen what I had just done. Then I remembered that only a Binder could see the blue mist of the haze.

Now I just had to remember how to make the haze work. I had seen Mallika do this with my mom, and Kara had explained the basic theory to me, but I was still terrified that I would somehow mess it up and turn Josh into a mindless puppet.

I thought about asking Rhys for help, but I didn’t dare leave Josh alone like this, and when I looked at the clock I saw that I only had a couple minutes before the bell rang and the hall became flooded with students. I had to do this now.

I took a deep breath and spoke. “Madison is a Berserker. She can glow and has super strength. When you two were dating, she started glowing and accidentally hurt you. After that you told her to go away. She left and you broke up with her and started dating Ginger.” Oops. Should I have said anything about Ginger? Well, there was no turning back now. “Recently you saw on the news that some men were attacked by a glowing girl and you think it’s Madison.”

I paused, trying to remember if there was anything else I should say. There was less than a minute left before the bell rang – I needed to end this quickly. I lifted my hands and clapped them together in front of Josh’s face, the way Mallika had done with my mom. That had seemed to be some sort of ending signal. Josh blinked in surprise and without a word turned and walked down the hallway.

“What was that all about?” asked Rhys when I went back to our table. The bell rang so there was no time to explain. “I’ll tell you later,” I said and grabbed my trash.

I didn’t see Josh for the rest of the day, which was just as well, and when Rhys tried to bring up the subject, I managed to find excuses not to talk at the moment. I didn’t like hiding this from Rhys, but I had promised Mallika that I wouldn’t tell anyone about my Binder powers until we knew more.

By the time we got into the car I could tell Rhys wasn’t going to let the subject drop. He had that stubborn look on his face that gave him a dark, brooding presence that I found extremely attractive. The down side was that I also knew that he meant business. He was going to find out what had happened, whether I wanted to tell him or not.   

Sure enough, the moment we got into the car Rhys said, “So, what happened with Josh?”

I had expected this and so I had prepared a suitable story to explain what had happened. I had heard somewhere that the best lies were mostly truth, so I decided to go that route. It was time to put my acting skills to the test.

“Josh heard about the men who attacked me on the news.” All completely true.