The Marked Son (Keepers of Life) (16 page)

“Yes?” She leans closer, until we’re only a sliver apart.

I don’t know how to explain what I feel, how to express the longing, how the air between us is my enemy because I want her in my arms and nowhere else. My hand slips away. “I’m going crazy. I want to believe all this, but—”

Kera throws her arms about my neck and brings her lips to mine. I give in and lift her into my arms, holding her tight. She tastes of sweet clover. Of promises that will never be broken. Of memories we’ve shared and those to come. The kiss deepens and my senses explode. Her hands clutch at my hair, and I pull her even closer, reveling in the comfort of belonging.

Slowly, she pulls away. Her lips touch my ear, her breath whisper soft. “Believe, Dylan.”

“I do,” I say, like a lovesick puppy. She pulls away, and I fall into her eyes, into the magic that surrounds her. I want her to stay exactly where she is, to never let her go.

She steadies herself by clutching my arms. “When I felt you, I hoped. When I touched you, I knew. We are meant to be. Forever.”

First date declarations are never a good sign. Warning bells usually sound.
Time to break it off with the clingy chick.
The possessiveness shining from her eyes should scare me a mile away from here, but it doesn’t.

A laugh bursts from her throat. “Look at what we did, Dylan!”

The ground around us has burst to life. The grass is thick, the wildflowers brilliant. A nearby vine drips heavy, lilac-colored blossoms. It’s like we’ve stepped into a kids’ movie. All that’s missing are twittering birds, a cute deer or two, and a guy singing some catchy theme song.

She’s right. We’re meant to be together. There isn’t a doubt in my mind.

Her fingers push a strand of hair off my forehead, and I lean into her touch. She smiles knowingly. “This is torture, but I have to go. The
pux
… I need to take them back before they slip free.”

She takes a step away, and I grab her hand, stilling her. “Come back. Tomorrow.”

I don’t care if I sound desperate. I’ve never felt this way before, and I don’t want it to end.

Her smile widens, and in a split second, she’s back in my arms, pressing her lips to mine in a hard kiss. She pulls away way sooner than I’d like, as reluctant to leave as I am to let her. “You don’t have to ask. Now that I’ve found you, I’ll never let you go.”

Awaken to Reality

I lean against the tree where we’d left Leo and Jason, and let out a deep, happy sigh. “She’s amazing.”

My joy is contagious. The bark skitters beneath my back. The trees above me dance and litter my shoulders with glistening, pale green leaves. A lone bluebird darts in front of me, twirling in a show of acrobatics, while a squirrel scampers from limb to limb and chatters excitedly at me.

Leo and Jason sleep next to me. Long gone are the wolf and Jason’s high, branchy bed. Soft, thick moss I called forth cushions their heads. Me. Not Kera. I created the little tufts. I hold my fingers in front of my face.

“Seriously amazing.” I’m enamored as much with my newfound power as I am of her.

I stretch out my hand. My palm grows warm, and a soft glow slips over my fingers and up my arm until I’m flush with power. I shut the glow off, then turn it back on. Off and on and off, blinking like a traffic light. I’m in complete control. No more worries about becoming a human glow stick. I call on the power again. The earth bubbles and up pops a vine, which slithers along the ground until it reaches the nearest tree. I watch as it hugs its way up the trunk and huge, trumpeting orange blossoms sprout along its shoot. I close my fist and the vine stills, yet it thrums with life, as does the whole area. The once plain pocket of forest is dotted with flowers and grasses and all sorts of growth that I’ve coaxed from the ground since Kera left. My skin dims to its ordinary pallor, yet I feel like a master painter perfecting the landscape stretched out before me.

Ordinary painters create illusion. I create stunning reality.

The sun rises, although there is no visual sign of it this deep in the woods, except for the brightening palette of light grays, rich greens, and muddy browns. Rain patters, but we stay dry thanks to the heavy cluster of boughs I’ve woven over us.

Jason stretches and knocks into Leo, who grunts and pushes him away. Slowly, Jason’s eyes open and he sits up, confusion on his face. “What’s going on? Did we sleep out here?”

I nod.

“Why?” He yawns and stretches some more. “I hate camping, and don’t take this wrong, but I don’t know you well enough to want to spend the night getting wasted in the woods with you.”

“You don’t remember what happened?”

His eyes narrow, and I can almost see his brain clicking back in time. “The ghost. We were going to find the ghost.”

Leo pops up, all decked out in flowers and ripped clothing, his hair a mass of knots and finely leafed plants. His glassy-eyed expression sways from Jason to me.

“What the—” Jason scoots back. He turns to me. “What happened last night?”

“Tiny people,” Leo says on a rough whisper laced with fear. “Glowing tiny people. Am I right?”

Jason’s eyes widen. He jumps up and spins around, his stance defensive and alert. “Where are they?”

Excitement thrums against my bones. I can’t keep silent a moment longer. I lean forward, the excitement in my voice catching their attention. “Guys, something amazing happened last night.”

“Is it going to explain the way he looks?” Jason asks.

“Watch.” I stand. Heat flares. The soil bubbles beneath my feet higher and higher, and then I’m off, surfing around the area, dodging trees and debris, laughing at the shocked looks on their faces.

Jason yanks me off the dirt mound when I pass, slamming me to the ground. The wave of soil that had been beneath my feet immediately flattens and I find myself staring up into his angry face.

“What the hell is going on?” he growls.

I jump up, and Leo, with his goofy hairstyle bobbing as he moves, stands between us. I try to push past him as I yell at Jason. “That was messed up! What’s wrong with you?”

Jason’s lips thin, strengthening his scowl. “I don’t know. It was wrong. Unnatural.”

Leo places a hand on each of our chests, becoming a tall, thin partition that barely stops me from thrashing Jason, here and now. “Take it easy. You caught him off guard is all.”

“Yeah,” Jason says, scratching the stubble sprouting on his chin. “What happened to you? To us?”

“I’m trying to tell you. Those lights? They’re the
pux
. They came, and you guys fell asleep, just like my grandpa and the sheep.” I glance at Leo. “Kera came, and we stopped them from making you their slave. They completely trashed your house, by the way, but we caught them, and she took them back.”

“Who’s Kera?” Leo asks as Jason says, “Back where?”

“Kera’s the girl! The one we came to catch. She’s a…she’s a…”

“Ghost?”

“No. She’s something else. Something amazing.”

Leo’s eyebrows rise. He drops his arms and steps beside Jason. “You like her.”

“What?” I ask, my mind full of Kera.

Leo nudges Jason. “He likes her. Look at him.”

Jason’s body contracts into a hard knot, the tension in him aching to explode. “I don’t care. He made the earth move. He rode it like a wave. That’s not normal.”

“No. It’s not.” I face them. “
I’m
not normal. I’m a
first
.”

Leo and Jason exchange a worried glance.

“Okay, bro. You can be first,” Leo says. “And it’s your right to be as abnormal as you want, so long as you keep it cool.”

There’s a definite calm-the-crazy-guy tone to his voice. I’m done being the odd man out. “I’m not crazy. Finding her is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Haven’t you guys ever felt like you didn’t belong? That something was missing? I know what’s missing now. I get it. Watch.”

A sudden glow sweeps through my body, and the nearest tree shudders to life. One of its limbs dips and lifts me up. The guys yell and duck, only straightening when they see me jump from branch to branch with abandon. The movement is freeing, knowing the trees won’t let me fall. Jason and Leo gape up at me, shocked by what I’m doing. With one last leap, I land in front of them, breathless with excitement.

Confusion, fear, and disbelief intermingle on their faces, but I can’t stop. The release of power is pure bliss. Chest heaving, I lift up my hand and a hawk spins through the trees and lands on my arm. I stroke its feathered head.

Jason’s eyes are wide with alarm. Leo blinks rapidly, as if his brain can’t keep up with everything he’s seeing.

The hawk tips his head and screams, a warning to fear him. I can feel the rapid beat of his tiny heart, how he wants to be free and fly. I can’t deny him and lift my arm. The hawk takes off. “It’s wild. Kera says
firsts
can control nature, can make stuff happen that humans can’t. I don’t understand it completely, but I’m not going to stop. I can’t stop.”

Leo peers up at the trees. “Are they alive?”

I feel their restlessness, but little else. “Not in the same way you and I are. All I know is, if I ask, they do whatever I want.”

“So they won’t attack us?” he presses.

I smile and shake my head. “No.”

Leo goes to a tree and puts his hand to it, like he’s trying to do a Spock mind meld or something.

Without warning, Jason moves right in front of me, an intensity I’ve only seen on his web site photo album shining from his eyes. “Can I do what you do?”

“Not by yourself.”

“But you can make it happen, right?”

The temptation to try pushes at my thoughts, but my grandparents will be up soon if they aren’t already. I need to be smart about this. “I don’t know. What if we’re seen? It’s getting light.”

“You worry more than my grandma,” Jason says on a groan. “It’s raining, Superboy! No one will see us. Come on. You gotta share the moment.” He looks to Leo for backup. “Am I right?”

“It’d be cool,” Leo says with an ambiguous shrug, but there’s a glimmer of hopeful excitement in his eyes.

The haze of heavy rain clings to the forest. Jason’s right. No one will see us, and it would be fun to see what I can do.

I let the power race to my hands. On seeing them glow, Jason shouts. Leo smiles.

First things first. I call for clear skies above us. As soon as I ask, the clouds begin to swirl until a hole punches through the clouds, revealing a band of blue sky. Though rain continues to sweep down heavily on the rest of the forest, where we are, the sun shines. I stare at my hands.

Jason lifts his face to the light. “That is totally cool.”

Leo smiles even wider. “Bro, you can control the
weather
.”

The awe in his voice echoes the awe I feel. Whatever I wish seems to happen without me even trying. This isn’t just cool, it’s freaking surreal. I can make things happen people only dream about. Excitement jets the power-charged glow along my arms, rocking the ground where we stand. The two of them shout their surprise, and I grin. “I hope you guys are ready for this.”

I call on the earth and dirt rises under their feet. Jason’s bulkiness totters for a second before he catches his balance. Leo flexes his knees, surprisingly steady on his feet for a lanky guy. Their faces are taut with expectation.

“Here goes.” I concentrate and send the pair darting between trees, narrowly missing shrubs and low hanging branches. It doesn’t take long before I get the hang of it.

Riding my own dirt wave, I speed them along, direct them through clearings, and rip new trails through the underbrush. We race, pitting ourselves against each other, trying to knock one another off balance.

We plow through the woods, scaring the wildlife as we rush by. We circle around and before too long, we end up back where we started. Leo and Jason laugh, and while they’re distracted, I step onto a branch and disappear into the trees.

The dirt under their feet grows flat. “Hey!” Jason shouts.

They search for me, calling my name, but they don’t know to look up. I finally yell down a challenge. “Ready for some real fun?”

Without warning, I send tree limbs to pluck them from the ground. A thought fires within me, and Leo is catapulted into the air. He yells, long legs and arms flailing, and I send a branch to catch him. When he hits, a shower of leaves cascade toward the ground.

Jason crouches on his branch, muscles tight with expectation. “Do it!”

The branch quivers, and he goes flying. I leap along the branches with my friends, growing more confident in my abilities by the minute. With my control, there is no fear of anyone falling. We leap among the trees like crazed squirrels. Pine cones are plucked from their limbs, and a game of dodge the pine cones commences. Jason leaps from a nearby branch and whips a particularly large pine cone at me, which smacks me dead center on my forehead.

For a brief moment, my attention wavers. A mistake. Jason takes that moment to leap to the next tree, yet there is no branch waiting to catch him. He hits the edges of several spindly limbs, vainly grasping for a handhold. Leo yells. I shake off the surprise and concentrate on a tree. Its roots ripple up, shredding a jagged line into the ground as it leans forward and extends a branch. Jason lands in a leafy fist only a few feet from the ground.

My ragged breathing sounds loud in the sudden quiet. Shaking free of the leaves, Jason twists about and glares up at me. “You trying to kill me?”

The limb dips and he slips to the forest floor where Leo and I join him. “Sorry, I…”

I rub my eyes, suddenly more tired than I’ve been in a long time. The weight of exhaustion presses down on me, pulsing like a living thing, demanding I close my eyes and sleep.

I slump forward and Leo and Jason catch me. Leo slings my arm around his shoulders. “Are you all right?”

The rain I’d been holding back finds us. Jason swears as he slips into place beside me. “You look wasted. You need to lie down.”

I raise my droopy eyelids, but my legs feel gummy. My head is spinning. I can’t focus. Even my mouth refuses to work properly. I can only grunt.

Their whispers lap against my ears, waves of sound I can barely distinguish as sleep presses down on me.

“Let’s take him home,” Leo says.

“Dude,” Jason huffs, his arm tightening around my waist. “He can barely walk. Adults don’t like seeing their kid dragged home semi-conscious. Trust me on this.”

“We can’t leave him here in the rain.”