Becoming (15 page)

They didn’t pause to chat with any of the
people in the few offices, making an apparent beeline for their
destination. Amber appreciated the directness of Nick’s course. He
moved with purpose and confidence, which somehow helped ease some
of her anxiety about the strangeness of this situation. She
couldn’t bring herself to converse with the other two girls yet.
Chatting with strangers wasn’t her strength even on a good day. Her
thoughts swirled, doubt and confusion taking the lead with a
healthy dose of fear running a close second.

They soon reached an office near the back of
the administrative corridor. After offering to hold Gabriel’s
hooded sweatshirt and taking it from him, Nick knocked on the
closed door and a voice on the other side said, “Enter.”

Amber took a deep breath as Nick opened the
door and waved her and Gabriel ahead. As soon as they crossed the
threshold, Nick closed the door behind them, giving her a bit of a
start.

Her gaze shifted quickly around as her hold
on Gabriel’s hand tightened. There was a single gray, metal desk
with a brown faux-wood top straight in front of them, facing the
door. Two gray, fabric-covered visitors’ chairs faced the desk. A
large bulletin board covered in papers and brochures was attached
to the wall behind the desk, with two windows on either side of the
board. Overstuffed bookshelves covered the right wall of the room,
while a full-size printer/copier/fax combo unit and several filing
cabinets sat on the left. A name plate on the desk read, “Nicholas
Tomaganuk.” She assumed the office was being borrowed for the
purpose of this meeting.

This assessment of their surroundings took
only a second, and her gaze swiftly settled on the man she figured
must be Ini-herit. Somehow, it didn’t surprise her to realize it
was the blond man with dark eyes who had caused Gabriel such
anxiety during the dancing. He stood behind the desk with his hands
behind his back in a nonthreatening pose, but his gaze scoured over
them both as though he was trying to see their very souls.

“Gabriel, what have you done?”

Once again, Amber started. The deep, ominous
tone of his voice seemed to echo through the room, even though the
volume of it hadn’t been much above normal. Realizing that
Ini-herit was addressing Gabriel as if he knew him, she looked up
at Gabriel questioningly.

He was staring at Ini-herit with a puzzled
expression. Then he flinched and released her hand, bringing both
of his hands to either side of his head.

“Gabriel?” she asked uncertainly.

He made a sound like a hiss, his eyes
squeezed shut as if in terrible pain. Alarm lanced through her. She
swiveled to see how Ini-herit was reacting. He still stood behind
the desk, his intense gaze directed on Gabriel. And in that moment,
she understood that whatever was happening to Gabriel, Ini-herit
was causing it.

With an agonized cry, Gabriel fell to knees,
still clutching his head. Rage such as she had never known suddenly
flooded through Amber, propelling her between Gabriel and
Ini-herit.

“Stop it!” she shouted, and flung her hands
out as if to ward off whatever Ini-herit was doing to hurt
Gabriel.

To her shock, it felt as though she came into
physical contact with an invisible barrier. As she threw out her
hands, Ini-herit’s impassive expression morphed briefly into
amazement even as his head snapped back as if from a blow. He
stumbled into the bulletin board, shaking it loose from its
moorings and crashing to the floor.

“Gabriel,” she said shakily, her heart
feeling like it was in her throat. Dropping to the floor beside
him, she put her arms around him. “Look at me. Are you okay?”

He was now on all fours with his head down.
Even as she watched, a steady stream of blood poured from his nose
and onto the floor.

“Oh,” she managed, her panic rising.
“Oh.”

After a quick glance around in which she
realized Ini-herit had one hand on the desk and the other pressed
to his forehead, she noted there was nothing resembling a tissue or
paper towel nearby. Her small purse held only her camera,
sunglasses, some cash and her driver’s license. Giving up, she
pulled her sleeve down over her left hand and reached out to stem
the flow of blood.

“Come on,” she said, using her right arm to
guide Gabriel into a sitting position.

She found it surprisingly easy to move him
and figured he was in a severely weakened state. Her angry gaze
shifted to Ini-herit, who had evidently recovered from whatever had
happened and now watched them expressionlessly. She returned her
attention to Gabriel. His complexion was pale and shocky. His
glazed eyes kept shutting and then flickering back open.

Working hard at keeping her voice calm, she
told him, “I’m going to try to stop the bleeding.”

“I can be of assistance,” Ini-herit offered
after a moment.

“Do you really think I believe that?” she
snapped as she switched to the other sleeve, her first now covered
in blood. The flow of blood seemed impossibly strong for a simple
nosebleed. Fighting back her distress, she used her left hand to
pinch the bridge of Gabriel’s nose. “You’re the one who did
this.”

“I did not know,” he said by way of apology.
“I would not have caused Gabriel harm.”

She shook her head. Then when Gabriel swayed,
she said, “Don’t you dare pass out on me. I’ll never let you live
it down.”

“That is inevitable,” Ini-herit said without
inflection. “He is hemorrhaging and will lose consciousness
shortly. And then he will die.”

The blood drained from her face. “What do you
mean? What did you do to him?”

His expression unchanged, he responded, “That
is not as important right now as healing him. Your stubbornness is
preventing him from recovering.”

She hesitated only a second, then gave a jerk
of her head to beckon him closer. “If you harm him, so help
me—”

“Yes, yes.” His tone remained level and
unconcerned. Lowering down into a squat, he caught her gaze. “You
must remove your hands from him.”

Pursing her lips, she reluctantly did as he
ordered. Her hands were now both coated with Gabriel’s blood. She
absently wiped it on the front of her sweater while she focused on
what Ini-herit was doing. He placed both of his hands on either
side of Gabriel’s head.

“Look at me,” he commanded.

Something in the power of his voice must have
gotten through, as Gabriel’s blue-gray eyes flew open and focused
on Ini-herit. No other words were spoken. They continued to sit
there and stare at each other for a long moment. Amber looked from
one male to the next, wondering what on earth was going on and
whether Gabriel was in any danger. After another minute, she
noticed that his nosebleed had stopped.

Finally, Ini-herit broke the connection. He
sat heavily on the floor and seemed to stare into nothingness.
Amber saw with a jolt that his nose was bleeding, though only one
drop had emerged versus Gabriel’s previous free-flow.

“Amber?” Gabriel said faintly.

She turned back to him, so relieved to hear
his voice that she was afraid she might turn into a simpering,
emotional mess right there on the ugly carpet. Instead, she crawled
to him and gave him a small smile. “Hey. Are you feeling
better?”

He slowly rubbed his temples and blinked as
if to clear his vision. “Man, my head is killing me. What
happened?” He abruptly stilled and stared at her sweater. “Why are
you covered in blood? Are you hurt?”

“Oh, I’m fine,” she said, feeling remarkably
calm as her wobbly arms gave up and she plopped down into a sitting
position beside him. “No need to worry about me. After all, it’s
all your blood.”

With disbelief etched on his features,
Gabriel pulled his T-shirt away from his body and studied it, the
blood on it already starting to congeal. Amber reached up with her
blood-stained hands to wipe ineffectively at the drying blood still
covering him from nose to chest. Even though she was able to wipe
away some of it, he was a mess. The sight of all of the blood on
his face, neck and shirt, not to mention what covered her and the
floor, made Amber light-headed with the realization of how close
she had come to losing him.

“Did you have another Incident or something?”
he asked, once again turning his gaze to hers. “Are you sure you’re
all right?”

“She is fine,” Ini-herit responded from his
place on the floor beside them. “Your injuries were caused by
me.”

“Accidentally, he says,” Amber added when she
saw Gabriel’s darkening expression.

Ini-herit got to his feet and looked down at
them. “It was not on purpose. And we are now wasting valuable
time.” Turning, he strode back behind the desk, this time taking a
seat in the chair.

Frowning at Ini-herit, Gabriel moved to get
to his feet. He got no further than his knees when he faltered and
had to sit back down. He brought a hand to his head with a
groan.

“Maybe you should let me be the gentleman for
a change,” Amber said, trying to make light of the situation. She
was concerned about how pale he looked. Pushing to her feet, she
reached down to help him up.

“I don’t think I can make it up,” he said
quietly, as though raising his voice would hurt too much.
“Something’s not right.”

Once again, Amber felt the tickle of fear in
the back of her throat. She glanced over at Ini-herit, who shook
his head. She then realized he couldn’t do anything else for
Gabriel. Since her knees no longer wanted to support her anyway,
she sank back down to the floor.

“Okay,” she whispered, her voice just a shaky
breath.

She didn’t know what to do. Should they call
an ambulance? Was there an EMT or nurse on staff at the museum for
such things? Would they even be in time to help Gabriel if he had a
bleed in his brain? And what if it wasn’t a normal injury, since
none of this was at all “normal?”

Suddenly, she flashed to the experience at
the pond and the first time they kissed. That connection had helped
heal them both after she had nearly drowned. And kissing Gabriel
since then had helped stabilize her during the onset of her recent
episodes. Catching his pained gaze, she made her decision.

“I get extra points for this,” she said to
him, and then, swinging one of her legs over both of his so she
straddled him, she quickly leaned forward to press her lips to
his.

When he started to jerk back, obviously
cognizant of the blood all over his face and Ini-herit sitting a
few feet away, she held him tighter. After a moment, he relaxed
against her and deepened the kiss, probably sensing her reasoning.
She ignored the salty, coppery taste of the residue left on his
lips. Instead, she instinctively focused on his energy and essence,
running her hands along his upper arms, chest and back as though
she was rubbing a healing salve into his skin. Then she wove the
fingers of her left hand into his dark, wavy hair near the base of
his neck, gently stroking the muscles tensed there.

Eventually, his arms lifted from their
bracing position on the floor so he could put them around her, a
sign he was regaining strength. As the kiss continued, she felt his
fingers brush against her bare skin several times, then encircle
her waist. His fingers flexed on her hips as though they itched to
move along her body and it was a struggle to keep them in place.
Thus, Amber sensed the kiss had done its job.

Finally, she pulled away from his mouth, her
heart racing and her lungs burning. Gabriel was in a similar
condition, his chest rising and falling rapidly as he held her
gaze. She was deeply relieved to see that his color had returned
and the pain had left his eyes.

They both then became aware of the presence
standing right beside them staring down, and they lifted their
heads as one to look up at Ini-herit. Amber wondered how long the
strange man had been standing there essentially watching her make
out with Gabriel, and wanted to die of mortification. His dark gaze
was inscrutable, but his eyes seemed to glitter with understanding
as he looked from one of them to the other.

“So…it appears your powers have already
started to Become.”

Amber sat in one of the armless visitor’s
chairs across from where Ini-herit once again reigned over the
desk. Gabriel had pulled the other chair up right next to hers and
was now holding her right hand. By unspoken agreement, they had
gotten up from the floor after Ini-herit’s announcement, none of
them wanting to have this conversation while Amber and Gabriel were
sprawled in such a position. There wasn’t a thing that could be
done about the blood covering them at the moment, so they just had
to deal with it. Now, Ini-herit sat quietly, staring unblinkingly
at Amber.

“Powers?” Gabriel prompted in an effort to
restart the conversation.

“Indeed,” Ini-herit replied, his dark eyes
shifting to Gabriel. “We were unsure what form each of the girls’
powers would take. It appears Ambryl has already begun to develop
the ability to heal. At least, she can heal you.”

Amber and Gabriel exchanged a look. “Ambryl?”
they repeated at the same time.

Ini-herit paused. He seemed lost in thought.
Then he said, “The story of your origins has many beginnings.”

Rolling her eyes impatiently, she said,
“Look, could we just skip the trailers and get right to the main
feature?”

“What she means,” Gabriel explained when
Ini-herit blinked in obvious confusion, “is we just want to know
what’s going on.”

“Yeah. I mean, am I psychic? Telekinetic?”
she asked.

“No,” Ini-herit answered. “At least, not in
the human way you mean.”

There was another heavy pause as they
processed this information. Gabriel looked from Amber to Ini-herit
and said slowly, “Let me be sure I’m getting this right. You’re
saying that Amber isn’t human?”