Star Gods, стр. 54

my hand in his direction, freeze him in place, and spit blood onto the floor as I get to my feet. “Grunt all you want, you piece of shit.” I spit more blood and Maliki and Ally move toward me. I lift a hand for them to stop. “I got ‘im.” I lift Grunter off the floor with my mind. “Say hello to what used to be Levi’s ability,” I explain and throw him. He hits the wall only for me to grab him again, drawing him back to me. “Wanna know how it feels to lose your ability?” His eyes go wide as my hand touches skin and I pull his ability from him. “How does that feel, Grunter?” I place a hold around his throat, adrenaline coursing through my veins, and lift him toward the ceiling. He kicks his feet as my hold tightens.

“Zeke.” Ally steps into my line of vision. “Don’t kill him, Zeke. The feeling and the horror of it will haunt you forever. Believe me, I know. You will never forget what he looks like, what his facial expression was when you took his last breath. It won’t matter what you do, it will always be there in your mind that you took another life. C’mon, Zeke, let him go.”

My body shakes with rage, my face pounds with pain, and all I can taste is blood. I feel as Sage connects with me bringing our family with her into the room, and hear and feel her petrified gasp. “Why won’t they just leave me alone?” I demand through gritted teeth. “Why can’t they understand I don’t want what some damn legend foretells?”

“Sometimes we don’t have a choice,” Dad says. The amount of relief I feel at the sound of his voice is outstanding. He comes into my line of blurred vision with tears running down his cheeks. “You’re hurt badly, Zeke. Let him go. I’ll take care of him while your brothers heal you.” Dad places a hand onto my shaking arm. “Let him go, Zeke, please, let him go. You’re not a killer.”

I feel as Sage moves near me. I struggle, and with a cry of rage I release my hold, dropping the Assassin roughly onto the floor. Sage grabs me, placing her hands on each side of my face, turning me toward Maliki, as our brothers and Dad move in on the Assassin. A bright white light fills the room, and when it’s gone so is the Assassin.

“I know you didn’t leave Cesar, Claire, and the innocent to fend for themselves.” I lift my crusty, sticky, shirt from my skin, while gazing out at the night sky through Mr. Hansen’s classroom windows; until something soft lands in my lap. “I’m assuming you got everyone out?”

“We got them all out, and Dad sent Cesar and Claire to safety.” Tyce tosses what he sent me to Maliki. “That’s the best I could do for you both.”

I unfold the black t-shirt emblazoned with Prescott High History Bowl across its front in bright yellow and show it to Maliki as he holds up an identical one. “I guess we’re twins now.”

He chuckles and we both pull off our soiled shirts and toss them into the trash.

“Wait!” Ally exclaims from the table she and Abby sit on.

I gaze questionably at her over the top of the shirt partway up my arms.

She grins and bats her eyelashes. “I want to savor in your manliness.”

I chuckle, pulling the clean shirt over my head. “Very funny, Ally. Do I need to remind you you’re too old for either one of us?”

She scoffs, “Oh, you really know how to hit someone where it hurts.”

“I’m not too old,” Sage says from her seat in front of me, her eyes on Maliki. “Very nice.”

I elbow Maliki in the ribs and Dad clears his throat.

Maliki chuckles and pulls on his shirt.

“Now that we have that entertainment forever sketched in our memories,” Tyce announces, leaning back against the bank of windows. “These Assassins aren’t going to let us hang in here much longer to come up with a plan. In fact, they’re probably outnumbering us as we speak outside this door. We need to get this on our own turf and get this done—I want my girlfriend back.”

I hop off the desk. “I say we get them all into the gym.”

“Okay,” Dad says. “And?”

I shrug. “According to Maliki and Ally, there’s over fifty of them, some of which are on our side. We can continue to take out Levi’s followers one by one throughout the school at the risk of any one of us being alone—or, we can encourage them to come to the gym where Sage and I can take as many abilities as we can, until Levi and Levia come to face us. Once they do, one of them will make a mistake, we’ll take their abilities, render them helpless, and we go from there.”

“Ah,” Sage utters. “I’m not omnipotent, you are.”

I shake my head. “No, Sage, that’s what unlocked in you when Dad arrived—we’re omnipotent together. You have to help store these abilities, I can’t on my own. Levi wants me because he thinks only I can take and use others abilities. He has no idea you can use them too. He craves power, no matter where it comes from. And, since he can’t take abilities, he will attempt to do the next best thing and try to gain control of the one who can.”

“So, what’s your additional plan, Oh Chosen One?” Ally says, swinging her legs. “You do have an additional plan, right?”

I rock back onto my heels and shrug. “Use me as bait?”

“Well that’s a given,” Ally spouts back sarcastically. “You’re just going to run down the halls and yell, ‘come and get me’?”

I shrug. “Works for me.”

“Some of them would be stupid enough to fall for that.”

“But some of them won’t,” Maliki adds.

“This is risky no matter what we do,” Ashe says, standing next to where Abby is sitting.

Sage