Changer's Blood (Balancer's Soul cycle) (47 page)

As
Connor
f
ocused his
mind
he
heard Mark rise to his feet, but said nothing.
Mark
knew he wasn’t capable of saving his love so he let
Connor
try
what
he
needed to.
At least Mark didn’t go catatonic for long.

In the quiet recesses of his
mind
Connor
remembered what causes lightning.
That was the key to saving Kara, electricity.
In
his
mind
he
pictured positive
ly charged
energy
in his
left hand while negative
energy
flowed
in
to
his right. Connor
remembered that electricity always travels from positive to negative. Using that as a base
,
he poured as much energy as he
could into saving
his sister. Using
instinct
as a natural guide
to direct the power into
his
palms
,
Connor
opened
his
eyes.

His
entire body
began
glowing as well
.
E
lectricity
began
tingling
his
fingers
and grew uncomfortable
,
he
added even more power. All of
his
body’s
brightness
started to
move
and focus
directly into
his
hands
,
which were the
tools of rescue
. The only t
hing that now glowed brightly were
his
hands.
Connor
could hear the electricity zapping and sizzling
in the air around him
.
The air crackled with the power he summoned forth. He
brought
his
hands close together and arcs of
white and blue
lightning jumped
between
the space of
his
hands.

Instantly
,
he
smelled ozone.

Sarah’s eyes
grew wider
as Connor
looked at her
,
still breathing into
and for
Kara
. Before she said anything
he
said “Stand back.”
T
he moment her hands
and face
came off Kara
,
he
felt Sarah stem
ming
the flow of her power. Connor
finally acted when she
became
clear
and his
charging was sufficient
.

Usi
ng his
superhuman speed
Connor
placed
his
left hand in the center of Kara’s chest
and
his
right hand on the side of her left rib
cage
.
He made sure that when he
shocked Kara
,
the electrical path would be directed
through her heart. As
his
right hand touched her ribs the electricity passed through. Her back arched
involuntarily
for a moment
and he
let go
a
half
second later
.

Without removing his left hand he listened for her heart beat
…
no
thing
.

Connor
stood
and sho
cked her again. This time when he
shocked her
he
heard
his
little sister take another
deep
,
life saving breath
on her own
.
And her eyes opened again. They were still tearing in pain.

She came back…

Before anyone could say or ask anything
,
Kara went back to her terrifying screaming
and
violent
shaking
.
The change wasn’t over yet.

Suddenly Mark pushed Connor
away and
unfortunately he shouldn’t have
. Connor’s body remained
super
charged with electricity. The moment Mark
touched
him
he dropped to the ground
,
hard
, but
for only a moment. He got up
quickly,
like he was unaffected from the shock.

Connor
cut the flow of power
while
allowing
the
built up
electrical
cha
rge to dissipate through his
shoeless
feet
and
into the
wooden
floor
slowly.
He
had to make sure
he
wouldn’t hurt anyone else
if they touched
him
.

As
Connor
took a step back and allowed Mark to see that she didn’t die
yet
;
he
fell
back
on his bottom
when the room began spinning and his balance effected
. Connor
used
twenty times
more energy to create electricity tha
n when he
fought Mark and Jack together.
It was
more than
overly
exhausting, but worth it to know she didn’t die.
Connor
couldn’t help
smiling while
breath
ing
rap
i
dly
from the strain that his
body went under.

Sarah put a clock in the kitchen
a while ago
. As she came around to check on
him he
saw th
at this scare only took
a total of
nineteen seconds.

S
he
put her hand on his
left
shoulder as she checked
him
over. “How did you do that?”

THE PAIN… AHHH!!!
Why won
’
t it stop? Please let it stop! It hurts!!!

As
Kara’s
blood mingled with Mark
’
s she
thought
she
was prepared
for the pain to come
. She
was sorely mistaken
.
The pain
grew
so torturous
and all consuming of her
senses
that
she
couldn’t do anything to truly dull the pain
raping her
both inside and out
. The shaking and screaming only served to let
her
know
they she
was still alive
and fighting
to stay that way
.
The physical reactions and screaming didn’t serve any other purpose other than that.

Nothing seemed to ease the burning
and needle sharp pain
.

As the virus took hold of
her
body
Kara
could actually feel everything
shattering
and being altered
inside of
herself
.
I
t felt like every nerve cell in
her
body
incessantly
fir
ed
in pain lik
e scalding hot water clung to her
skin and wouldn’t wash away
or cool down
the slightest of degrees
.
Pain came from every direction and all at once to only intensify the torture.
Not even unconsciousness would take her.
E
very muscle in
her
body
kept
blaring at
her
like
she’s
ran a hundred miles in a
n hour
and
her
endorphins couldn’t and wouldn’t dull the pain.
Nothing
she had
ever experienced
before
in
her
life came close to this raw
searing
torture
.
Her
lungs felt like
she
was breathi
ng in red hot molten lead and her pounding
heart felt like it was pumping the
scalding
metal through
out
her
veins
and organs
in a slow and
meandering
throb
.
It was so hard trying to deal with the pain all on
her
own.
She
had to focus and
remember what Sarah said.

I need to keep my promise…

Don’t die! Don’t die! Don’t die! Remember this weekend…

Suddenly the pain eased slightly.
I remember my
pledge now
. I’m sorry I forgot Sarah. I’ll let you kick me for almost breaking my promise to you…

Kara knew she
needed to focus
harder
or else allow the pain to take control again
.
Mom, Brother, Grandma, Granddaddy, Jillian, Mr. Bra
nderson, Sarah and most of all M
ark; I’ll pull through. I need to prove that I’m not just a liability
to everyone
. I need to become stronger so that I can look at everyone else in the face and prove
that
I can pull my
own
weight… No stop that Kara.
She chastised herself.
Sarah said to focus on just one
important
thing and it will help.

When
Kara
finally understood that, the pain becam
e a dull throb in the back of her
head.
She
felt
her
body relax and
her
breathing eased, but
she didn’t dare open her
eyes or
else her
concentration would shatter
instantly
.

Kara
focused on the only thing that truly mattered in
her
life
,
Mark. She focused on when they
were alone recently and he would change in the apartment ju
st for her pleasure
.
She’s
petted all breeds of dogs
growing up
and his fur was by far the softest
and most comfortable to brush her
skin up against. His soft and furry ears
felt so silky smooth that she would play with them absentmindedly for hours. And when they
would watch TV together in his room his musky smell wasn’t appalling, but
strangely titillating
.
Just being around him made her feel that this is where she truly
belong
ed
.
Kara
knew every detail of him in all of his three forms by look and touch alone.

Her absolute
favorite thing about him
were his pure silver eyes.

As
she
concentrated on his features
she
could
faintly
hear
the outside
world
again.
First
she
recognized
her b
rother
’s
frightened
voice
. “Mark
,
s
he stopped screaming… is she?
Do I need to do it again?
” H
e sounded anxious
and worried
for some reason
.