He ripped the lighter on again, grabbed the flame and shot the red stream across the room like a flame thrower. He found his aim precise as he controlled the distance, velocity and intensity of the blaze. He didn’t flinch at the horrific sounds of those screaming. He couldn’t show any mercy. These soldiers were the enemy trying to hunt down his family—his mother—and no one was going to hurt his mother ever again. Ever!
Evan used his hearing to determine when the room had enough. Now, the screams were fewer replaced by groans. He released the lighter’s tab and closed his hand. The fire immediately stopped pouring from him.
Then, just as fast as it came, Evan held his hand out and absorbed all the flames still burning in the room.
Sticky, thick blood still oozed down his chin from his shattered nose, but Evan didn’t care about himself. He fell to his knees at Kylie’s side and gasped at the sight of her. Her green eyes were closed now. The scene was surreal as he shook his head in shock at the look of serenity on her beautiful face as she lay in a field of violence, destruction and death. Her face looked luminously pale, serene. If it weren’t for the droplets of blood splattered across her neck, she looked as if she had finally found peace. With shaking fingers, he searched her neck for a pulse.
He felt one flutter weakly. Her heart was barely beating.
“Why did you do this?” he heard himself sob at her. The sound of his own voice brought him back to reality like a slap across the face.
“Alik!” Evan yelled in the direction he last saw his brother.
“Ev,” Alik coughed his brother’s name.
Evan hesitated for a moment, instinctively wanting to stay with the girl who gave her life for him, but forced himself to stand and run through the smoke and destruction to his brother’s side. Alik shoved a soldier’s charred body off himself and reached out for Evan’s hand. The pepper spray had completely blinded him, but he was determined to find his brother and get everyone the hell out of there before another team of soldiers steamrolled them with a round three.
Evan grasped his brother’s arm firmly and helped Alik to his feet.
“Creed! Cole!” The boys called together.
“What the hell just happened?” Creed groaned holding his side. The brothers followed the sound of his voice and helped pull him free from under a pile of burned soldiers.
“Turn off your pain sensors, Creed,” Evan advised. “You’re gonna need it.”
“Dang little brother, you don’t have to tell me twice.”
Creed shook his head trying to clear it of the drug he’d been given then rolled his shoulders, popped his neck and dropped his arms to his side.
Alik was weaving on his feet, having gone back to his normal size. He had injuries and chemical burns from the pepper spray all over his face. Evan wished to God Alik could turn off his pain, too.
“Cole?” the boys called, desperation slipping into their voices. They needed to get the hell out of there now.
“I last saw him over here.” Evan waded through the bodies and pulled a few aside before finding Cole still unconscious in the corner, right where Evan last saw him.
Evan shook him hard. “Wake up man. We’ve got to bail, now!”
Cole groaned, “Please tell me,” he moaned and tried to finish kicking a body off his outstretched legs, “why I smell barbecue.”
Evan and Creed reached out and pulled Cole to his feet.
“We have to get the hell out, now!” Creed had to concentrate on not gagging at the horrific scent.
“I’m right behind you, but I’m not leaving without Kylie.” Evan ran back to her side. Flinching at all the blood, he reached inside the jacket she wore and sighed with relief as he retrieved the two vials—his research—unscathed. Quickly he reached into his back pocket for the black sunglasses case he’d brought and slipped the vials inside. He repocketed the case while scanning the space for what he needed.
It didn’t take long to find. He leaned over Kylie to reach for a razor-sharp, six-inch blade from one of the dead soldier’s weapons belt. His left hand was already itching to catch a sliver of moonbeam in his palm. Once the flame burned blue and white, Evan quickly heated the knife’s metal.
“I’m so confused,” Cole mumbled as he helped Alik across the room. “Who’s Kylie?”
Both boys stumbled and tripped over the bodies littering the floor of what used to be their peaceful home. Behind them, Creed quickly helped himself to abandoned weapons, picking them up and stacking them in his arms as though harvesting a crop.
“The enemy.” Creed glanced back at Evan in time to see him yank her shirt wide open.
“Why are we worried about her?” Cole frowned.
“She took a bullet for him,” Creed explained. Looking back, he saw Evan start to cauterize her bullet wounds.
The boys managed to stagger back to the garage. Creed popped the trunk and dumped the weapons inside. He kept two on him; one in his waistband and the other in his hand.