Changer's Blood (Balancer's Soul cycle) (19 page)

The two men were standing and facing each other
,
with fifty
open
yards between them. Suddenly
her b
rother ran directly at Mr. Branderson at an inhuman speed
.
H
e was unarmed or she
so thought
.
Suddenly
as the blazing club swung at her
brother’s head
…
he
disappeared.

Mr. Branderson searched around in confusion for a moment then suddenly looked u
p. Kara
followed his line of sight a
nd heard
her
self gasp
along with Jillian
.
Her
big
brother was suspended in the air
by some unseen force
and stayed the
re
.
Connor
flew
about fifteen feet above the ground with his arms crossed
over his chest
and a
confident
smile was written all over his face.
Her
brother was flying under his own power.

Kara knew beyond doubt that this
i
s the world her brother
truly
belonged.

Kara
could faintly hear the short conversation
between the
two men
. “Connor
,
how do you plan to fight me all the way up there?”

“Like this!”
She
saw that his eyes didn’t close, but knew
his tells to understand
when he
started
concentrating.
Connor
was up to something.

With his attention diverted
,
while
looking at
Connor
in the air
,
Kara
saw Mr. Branderson
suddenly
disappear
down
into a hole. Somehow a hole appeared beneath h
im. As he dropped,
the hole closed around him
to
restrain everything except
for
Mr. Branderson’s shoulders and head
. That was
all that
now
stood above the ground. Kara
also didn’t see the club as it too
had been
consumed with
in the ground.

Kara
saw Sarah sigh with relief and suddenly Jillian started giggl
ing. She explained the chuckle
quietly “My mother
did the same thing to him
.
When Mother
found out Jack liked me
s
he buried him just like that.” S
he kept giggling.

Mark removed his hand off
her
shoulder and walked over to the buried man
first
.
H
e walked slow
ly
and his long black tail swished from side to side.

Connor
slow
ly descended to the ground as the
girls walked up to see the spectacle.
When they
all arrived Sarah
was the first to
ask “Connor
,
how did you use two elements simultaneously?”

He scratched his head saying “I just made one part of my mind concentrate on my flight with Pressure while I used
another thought of
Terra to capture and restrain Jack
’s movements
.”

“Speaking of me
,
” Kara
looked down at
the silver haired stump
. “Will you please help me
get
out of here?” He asked
,
struggling in the earth.

“Ok.”
Connor
said and suddenly
Kara
felt the ground
under
her
feet
tremble
. She
watched in wonder towards
Mr. Branderson and saw the ground pulling away from him slowly. And then
she
understood
what the vibration of the ground meant as
Sarah’s father started rising out of the ground.
T
he ground at his feet
began
pushing him up like an elevator.
H
e still had Haunt in his right hand and the flames were
completely
extinguished.
After Mr. Branderson finished
brushing the sand and small rocks
,
he started laughing.

“What’s to laugh about?”
Kara
asked.

He turned to set his azure eyes on
her
w
hile
smil
ing
. “Connor did say that he would win
this round
. I
’ll
have to admit
,
he had a flawless strategy
.” He lifted his hand towards her
brother
while
saying “For once in my life I don’t feel jealous after losing in a fight. I’m strong and experienced, but I’m pr
oud to have you around Connor.
I
t gives me all kinds of ideas
I’ve never considered before
.
I
t
’s
still
hard to imagine just how
much
stronger you’re going to be in the future
,
if you advance so quickly
.”
Connor
shook his
father-in-law’s
hand with reverent respect.

Sarah started another conversation moments later. “Connor
,
can you show me how you flew?”

He turned to look
at her and didn’t say a word. Kara
soon figured they wer
e conversing with their minds. She
turned to look at Jillian. “Does that
telepathy thing that they do
annoy you too?”

When Jillian
understood the
question she said
“Not
anymore
because it proves just how unique those two really are.”

“What’s unique about them
?
”
She
asked innocently.

Apparently
Kara
knew nothing from the way Jillian looked at
her
.

“Everything.” She stated
with a proud smile. “
Y
our brother is inventive, strong, smart and powerful
, but those qualities aren’t hard to come by
.
There is something rare about him that no one has yet to fully realize, not even he himself knows with a certainty.
Normal Balancers can only use one element or in rarer cases two. My daughter and your brother can use every element. It is unheard of for us
to do so
. Also mates can
’
t read each other’s mind
,
yet
they
can. Luck
i
l
y they can
’
t read
the
other immortals
races
minds.”

“You’re wrong on that
account
.” Mark said suddenly
,
walking up
behind
Kara
. “Those two also have
already
been able to enter my mind
, without effort
.” His deep
animalistic
voice reverberated through
Kara’s
entire
body
,
in a good way.
He rested a
warm hand over her
left shoulder as he walked to stand beside
her
.
Kara
felt remarkably comfortable
,
even as he looked like he was.
They had a relationship that went past the bonds of physical attraction
and couldn’t be articulated properly or accurately
.

Mr. Branderson shook his head saying “Let’s hope that the Keeper
’
s know what might be happening in their case.”

Kara
had to ask “What’s a Keeper?”

Mark answered. “You
’d probably refer to them as
Dragons.”

“Dragon
s are real?” She
felt suddenly out of breath
, but
her
imagination wasn’t
.
She pictured a terrifying, scaled creature with leathery wings that destroyed and burned medieval villages with the breath of flame.

“Yes
,
and they know more about anything than anyone
else
alive.”
Mark said as
Kara
glanced
over at the newly
weds
and saw they were still in their
own little
world.
The look in
her b
rother’s eyes said that he was
still
explaining things to her.

Kara
then saw Sarah nod
a minute or so later
. Everyone else stopped talking to watch
what was about to happen
as she
began to crouch
down. Suddenly she
closed her eyes and
jumped in the air
and
gain
ed
altitude
and soon she
flew
above the tree tops
.

Suddenly she screamed “I’m too high!”
She stopped at around six or seven stories in the air
and
even
Kara
could see terror in her eyes
.

“SARAH! Don’t break your concentration!”
Connor
yelled up to her.

As Connor shouted for his wife to maintain focus
,
she lost it and started plu
mmeting towards the ground. As Mark
tried
moving
to catch her
before she crashed to the ground
,
he
saw Connor’s eyes go
completely
white.

Suddenly Mark
could
actually
feel a tremendous force emanating from him.
It was like nothing
he’s
ever experienced before.
N
ever
before has he felt another’s
energy, but
Connor’s
felt
so thick and heavy that Mark
was almost able to taste it
p
ermeating
the air.
The ground and air beg
an
to reverberate
from the power Connor contained within
, in an instant
.
His body started glowing again
, but not for a demonstration
. He crouched down and as he jumped
Mark
felt a wave of
air
pressure
push against his
my body
and saw the sand spre
ading away from the force of the
blast
.
It knocked him back.
Connor propelled himself into the air at a speed that
Mark’s Changer
eyes could barely keep up with.

Connor
caught her in midair
,
about
thirty feet above the ground. He caught her with one arm under her legs and the other across her back.
I
t was a perfect catch, but she was truly afraid of what she did.
He could smell the fear.

As he started descending slowly
to the ground
,
the four of
them
ran to him.
Connor’s
body stopped glowing a
s he finally landed
.
She looked shaken and he looked pained.
Mark
could
clearly
see
that Connor
was feeling her unbridled terror from their link as mates.