Dark Nebula (The Chronicles of Kerrigan) (46 page)

Excruciating pain
and a strange hum
shot through her shoulder into the pit of
her
stomach, making her gag.

Kraigan squeezed tighter, forcing her to drop the broken saber and
then
wrenched
her free arm against her back.
Her arms
were
bent
at
awkward
angles
and
throbbed
, begging to be released..
Even though she pressed her lips tight together, a groan escaped.
She screamed when one of her shoulder blades pulled out from its socket.
Kraigan released her and laughed
when she stumbled forward, gasping
.

Closing her eyes, she focused on the hum of her healing tatù.
Tucking her chin, she pulled her shoulders forward and set the dislocation back into its correct place.
The wave of nausea passed.

“You do realize I’m going to kill you
.”
Kraigan
slapped her cheek hard, making it feel like her head would swing off her neck.

Rae
shuddered
.
Not because of his words
,
but
because
her healing tatù disappeared when he connected with her cheek.
It throbbed and burned.

He stepped back and stretched his arms, suddenly looking refreshed.
“
Another
fantastic
tatù.
Where did you manage to find all this great talent, dear sister?
Everyone at Guilder I’ve come across
is
lame.”
He rubbed his chin.
“Except for Desiree.
Now
that
one I had
fun
with.”

“You’re no family of mine.” Rae searched through her tatùs, trying to buy some time.
“We may have the same sperm donor
,
but that’s as far as it goes.”
She plucked a fight or flight tatù, something with speed and glanced cautiously towards the front door.
She hoped
Carter
would come barging in with the cavalry behind him.
“You’ve got a stealing tatù.”

Kraigan
mimicked her
American accent
. “
‘
You’ve got a stealin’ tatù.
’
” He laughed and scratched his head.
“Yeah, something like that.
Seems to me my tatù works different when matched to yours.
Maybe a mixing of the bloodlines?
Shame we can’t mix our talents together. Imagine our offspring’s ability.
”
He cocked his head and pointed to the carvings on the walls.
“Wouldn’t King
Henry
have
loved to know this?
He’d have mixed everyone and worked closer with the Xavier Knights instead of his damn Privy Council.”

Wh
o
the heck
are
the Xavier Knights?
Rae shook her head.
Kraigan was
speaking
gibberish
.

He nodded at her
, but
seemed to be talking
to himself
.
“It seems when I take other tatùs
,
they’re returned when I move to my next power.
But you
—
you’re screwy.
I absorb your power and you lose
the ability
completely
. So I’m basically sucking you dry
.”
He touched her red cheek before punching her in the gut.
“Healing not working for you at the moment?” He laughed.

Rae wrapped her arms around her stomach and gasped for air.
Bent down, she grabbed the dropped saber and stabbed it into his thigh.
She stumbled backwards, away from him.

He swore and pulled the saber out. “Bitch, I’m going to nail you to the wall and then use you for dart practice.”
He grabbed his bleeding leg and healed it.

Running
for the door, Rae let out a yelp when Kraigan knocked her legs out from under her
as he dove
after her
.
She fell to the ground and
was
instantly
catapulted
through
the air and
collided with
the wall.
She barely had time to get her hands out in front of her to protect her head.
Fierce pain shot through her left wrist and as she slid to the ground, her face scraped against a
woodcarving
.
She crumbled to the floor, her wrist throbbing and tight, wetness oozing down her cheek.

Swallowing the lump in her throat, Rae bit back the tears that threatened to fall and focused on another tatù.
She thought of Riley, the boy who
had
tricked her
the previous year
.
He had a cheetah tatù
. I
t would work.
She stayed crumpled on the floor, waiting for Kraigan to step near her.

She didn’t need to wait long.
She hear
d
his impatient breath and feet stomping across the marble floor.

“This is way too easy.” He wrenched her into a sitting position. “Give me something of a challenge.”

His touch took Riley’s speed tatù away.
Rae grabbed the first tatù she could think of,
her
wind power.
Throwing her arm towards him, she sent a strong gust in his direction.
He laughed and ran against it, like sprinting on a treadmill.
She upped the wind and he easily kept pace, actually moving closer to her.
He
leaned like a sprinter and slapped her hand. The
wind stopped immediately.

Rae pulled at any skill or strength tatù she could. Frustrated and
becoming
drained,
she hated how
Kraigan
managed to manipulate and steal each one away.
They danced around the Oratory, Rae
gaining more
bumps, bruises and cuts while Kraigan
appeared barely out of breath.

They moved fast and
her
tears begin to fall as she struggled to maintain the little resistance she had left.
She needed help.
She was becoming powerless.
Where the heck
’
s
Carter
?
And
the bloomin’ cavalry?

“Crying?” Kraigan mocked. “I can’t believe our father raised such a wimp.
Your tatù and Guilder couldn’t toughen you up, either?” He shook his head.
“Disgusting.”

His loathing irritated her.
Swallowing against the pain as he punched her again, she muttered, “Screw you.”

“What?” His arms pressed up tight against her, forcing the air out of her lungs and new streams of pain shot through her body.
“Did you say something?”

Why had he faked friendship
?
He
had obviously been
after something, but what
?
Rae grimaced and shut her eyes.
She felt
lightheaded
and nauseous.
Passing out sounded like an excellent idea, she doubted he could suck anything else from her while she was unconscious and not using any tatùs
.
A sudden thought jolted her eyes open.
She needed to find a useless tatù, pass it to Kraigan and then grab something better for herself to fight him.
She slumped forward, barely having enough energy to focus on breathing.

Kraigan reached behind and pulled something out
of his back pocket
.
He waved Uncle Argyle’s journal in front of her.
“Have you read all of this?
” He bent down and loo
ked into her face. “No? Shame.”

She made a meager swipe at it which he easily side stepped. “
One, your uncle’s a moron.
Two, our father was brilliant, even at
the
age
of six
teen
.
When
he
wrote this, he was only just tatùed,
and
yet
he
already
understood
his potential.” Kraigan glanced at the journal with respect.
“
M
y
tatù
is so similar to his.”

He dragged her towards a wall,
seemingly
distracted
by
his
own
thoughts.
“But you
—
you seemed to have limitless power
.
You’re
like the queen among the freaks.”
He laughed and with superhuman strength,
shov
ed
her into
the wall.
“However,
it
seems your
power
’
s not so infinite.
Unlike mine.
”

Rae said nothing.
She
searched
for a tatù.
Everything felt dead, like someone
had
pulled the plug.
Desperately, she dug deeper.
There had to be something.

A hum, ever so slight, ran alongside her veins.
Blinking
,
she concentrated harder.
A tatù
she had
never used
and
had
almost missed.
She needed its power but
she
needed
to sacrifice
something insignificant
to Kraigan first for her plan to work
.

Her head
slammed
against the wall
and
brought her back to the present.
Her cheek burned and a searing pain throbbed beside her eye. Warm blood ran down her face.
Kraigan had slapped her, hard.

“Pay attention, idiot.
I’m t
alking to you,” Kraigan
’
s spit hit her in the face.
“This journal’s got the entire brainwashing experiment researched and explained to a tee.
Your little Privy Council has no idea what’s involved.
T
hey never will.
When I bring this to
The HOC
’s
followers, it’ll blow their minds.
Except I’ll show them through me, not Dad’s teaching.
I’ll claim the glory and power.
Finally, I’ll get what I deserve.”
He pounded a fist against her chest to emphasize.

Pulling the telepathy tatù, she sent another message to
Carter
and let courage fill every corner of her being.
She pulled herself up to her full height.
“No one’s gonna believe you’ve
figured it out.”
Her body contort
ed from pain but she forced herself to ignore it
.
“They’ll
give me all the credit
.
I’m the freakin’ powerhouse
tatù
girl.
I’ve got
Carter
, Guilder, the Privy Council and my enem
ies
assured of that knowledge.
You actually think anyone’s going to give
you
any credit?”
She poked him with a finger.
“As soon as they learn you absorbed my tatù, they’ll see it completely different
ly
.”
She tried to fake a laugh, but it sounded more like a bad smoker’s cough.

Kraigan
scowled, then
grabbed her finger and twisted it.
The pain shot all the way to her elbow but she grinned when she felt the telepathy power disappear.

“When you’re dead
,
your babble won’t mean squat
. When --
”
he paused, his brows crushing together. “What th
is
--?”

“When I’m dead?”
She pulled at
the one unused hum -- his tatù --
hoping
to leave him powerless
for a moment.

Kraigan slammed his palm against the wall close to her face and grabbed her neck.
She flinched but waited.
He wouldn’t stop until one of them no longer needed air.
Even
dead
,
he would
probably keep going.