Zero Sight (18 page)

“
Hush,” she ordered. “Trust in me.”

Before I could object, she whipped out her box-cutter and opened up her left palm. She repeated the motion on her right. Her dark blood dribbled onto the floor. I barely had enough time to let out a gasp before she started slashing my own. I stood stunned, too scared to do anything about it. Finished cutting, she put the boxcutter back into her cargos and grasped my palms with her own.

I began to pull away, but to my surprise, I found the pain in my hands was easing. I looked up at her in confusion only to realize how close we were. I could feel the cool breeze of her breath, count her eyelashes, smell her perfume.

As our blood mixed, Rei looked at me serenely. Perhaps she was feeling as good as I was…

“
Fascinating,” she muttered. “It is just like Bátor’s poem.”

“
Rei,” I asked meekly. “This isn’t going to…” What was the word for it?

Rei was looking a bit woozy. “No. You needn’t to concern yourself with that.” She shook her head clear. “However, I would appreciate if you never mention this. It could be easily misconstrued.”

I stared at our hands warily.

“
My most anxious baggage, relax. I owe you this. I did not expect you would sense another mage. I did not expect you would pursue a killer exuding such an obvious killing intent. And I certainly did not expect that after observing our opponent’s power, you would still attempt to intervene. I miscalculated badly. It was my fault you were injured.”

I tried to respond, but I was feeling rather odd. Euphoric, maybe.

Rei seemed to notice the transition and released her grip.

“
That should be about enough,” she said. “Now observe this.” Wiping off her hands, Rei walked over to the dead man and kicked the chair. It began to spin around in circles. For some reason, it reminded me of those revolving meat thingies at Greek sandwich shops. My growing euphoria mixed with a new sense of nausea. I guess that was the point. Rei was leveling my high.

Rei turned away from me, her expression troubled.

“
I also did not anticipate you would form a weft-link while dying of a heart attack.”

My head spinning, I tried to focus on her. Giggle or throw-up? That was the question.

“
What?” I managed.

“
Unbelievable. You don’t remember the spell at all, do you?”

I shook my head no. If I opened my mouth I was definitely going to throw up.

“
Fascinating…you certainly can’t be lying to me now.” She strummed her chin. “It
is
common for mages to whiteout when they lack control. And your file did note another such incident…but a partnering permutation? At your level, to be able to conduit that complex a spell…and on a diversion?” Rei shook her head. “Some people have all the luck.”

“
Luck?” My head was swimming. I was trying to hold on to the conversation, but I’d much rather be running to the bathroom. “I’m sorry. What are we talking about?”

Rei sighed and wiped some of the dried blood off her face.

“
Dieter, if I told you outright you would say something like ‘oh, you’ve got to be kidding me’ or ‘but that’s
impossible
.’ You Imperiti are all the same. You reject that which conflicts with your beliefs. If you do not puzzle it out yourself, you will not accept it.” Rei put her hand on my shoulder. Her palm wasn’t bleeding anymore. “My most impossible charge, you appear to have a brain—use it.”

I knew I needed to focus, but little sparkles were dancing on the periphery of my vision, and my skin felt warm and fuzzy. I bit down on my lip to cut through the haze. I think I understood what Rei was getting at: We pick up facts one by one. Take them in. Memorize them. Recall them. But concepts? Concepts are different. You have to work at concepts. Build a foundation. Tease out the details. Run through examples. If you keep working at it day after day, things finally start to click. You can’t explain concepts like you can explain facts. You can’t memorize them. You have to earn them. And sometimes that can hurt…

The flashback came before I expected it, and this time the memory was more vivid, more tactile, than it had ever been in the past. It had to be because of what Rei had done to me. It was like…like…I was on drugs.

“
Rei,” I muttered, “I don’t feel so good.”

“
Relax,” her voice said from somewhere nearby. “Wooziness is a well documented side-effect. Not much reached your bloodstream. The sensation should pass soon.”

“
Should
?” But that wasn’t what I was worried about. That wasn’t what was driving my heart faster. Ripples of energy danced in front of my eyes. I knew them well. They preceded the punches. I learned to listen to them the hard way. Failing meant pain. They spoke the truth. They protected me. I wanted to linger and stare at them a while longer. I felt safe here, not alone, but I floated past them. I could sense people approaching too. It was useful to know when my father was coming home. It let me know when I should go up to my room. It helped me avoid getting hit. I frowned as it finally occurred to me: I had always told myself my hearing was just a little better than other people, but that wasn’t right. I could sense my father from over a block away. It was why I rarely bumped into him. I had always been using my Sight that way. Not thinking about it. Just doing it.

I didn’t like this. My mind was too pliant. The carefully constructed barriers were melting. What had Rei done to me? Without the barriers…without the barriers my mind was going to go
there
. My sub-conscious was always trying to go
there
. I didn’t want to think about it. I didn’t want to go back…but it was already too late.

A rock.

Flames.

Screaming.

Splatter.

I panicked. I couldn’t get the images to stop. I
needed
them to stop. The tall man standing over me laughing. The sparks erupting from his hand. My own left hand absorbing them. My right hand pointing at Rei. The sea of white. The panic was driving forward out of control. I started getting dizzy. Rei was shaking me, shouting, but it didn’t matter, the pressure was building again. I saw the flash of fear in her eyes. Saw her dive out the window, glass shattering. Lights popped. Timber crackled. The office plunged into darkness. A sharp pain surged in my skull. Overcome, I dropped to my knees. My memories returned, and I started to scream.

Dust caked my nostrils. Sirens sounded in the distance. My right hand reached up. It knew what to do. It grabbed hold of Tyrone’s face and snapped down like a vice. He looked at me through my fingers. He was confused…no…petrified. I stared back in fury and tightened my hold. He tried to pull away, but my grip was stronger. Too strong. Ferocious. Unnatural. He wasn’t getting away…not ever again.

And then the power surged out. Tyrone’s face crackled like chicken skin on a spit. He started to scream. The smell of singed hair mixed with something else. The smell shook my resolve. He was in so much pain. Too much pain. I tried to stop it. It was savagery, inhuman savagery. It needed to stop, but my hand kept its grip. His eyes bulged under some unseen strain. The left went first. Then the right. The warm fluid ran through my fingers.

Like warm jelly.

Enough
, my mind screamed.

Not safe
, a voice echoed back.

Tyrone wasn’t fighting anymore. Hell, he wasn’t ever going to fight again. It needed to stop, but the surge wouldn’t abate. It redoubled instead. The bulge of power inside me was shifting. A barrier was giving way. I could feel it buckling under the strain. And then it tore. Power rushed into my shoulder, surged up my arm, and smacked into Tyrone’s screaming face. Spray masked my vision. The sound of concrete rent to rubble erased my hearing. Heat coursed around me. Whiteness filled my vision. My consciousness slipped. Exhaustion enveloped me. And then it was I who was screaming, the room lit by a dim red glow.

The corpse of a man was strapped to a chair in the corner. His skin was slashed to shreds. His head hung loosely. I had returned to the warehouse—but I could still smell Tyrone burning.

What planet was I on? Who could even invent this shit? Revulsion and shame overwhelmed me. I puked my guts out in disgust. When I ran out of stuff in my stomach, I kept going till I ran out of air. I puked until my body hit the kill switch, and I collapsed into her outstretched arms.

The faint scent of blood mixed with the taste of bile on my tongue.

Not the best wake-up call.

I was lying on a cold tile floor, but the air was hot and moist. I sat up slowly, my vision blurry. I was naked from head to toe. Normally that would concern me, but I didn’t give a damn at the moment. I’d had a rough day, and lack of clothing wasn’t that high on the list. (Realizing you melted someone’s face off tends to realign one’s priorities.) I blinked my eyes and looked around. It was a shower room. That explained the steam. I was grateful. It was helping to wash the smell of blood from my sinuses. I went to rub my head but stopped. I had forgotten about the burns. I probed my fingers carefully. No pain…that was odd. The fierce throbbing had vanished. Bracing myself, I looked down at the damage.

The burns were gone. My hands had healed.

Only a few rough wavy scars remained on my palms. I felt the spot on my forehead where Rei elbowed me. No bump. No bruise. I felt my ribs where the tall man had kicked me. No tenderness. “So that’s real too…” I muttered.

Looking about the room, I spotted my clothes laid out on a nearby bench…someone had rinsed them out. I gulped. They were hanging to dry next to Rei’s. I could deal with the hoodie, fatigues, and tank top—but the panties were kinda freaking me out.

“
Pink?” I whispered. “You have got to be kidding me.”

Water splashed in the corner of the room. My body tensed. There was no way she was…

Boys grow up oblivious to the fairer sex. Their daily concerns involve Tonka trucks and Kung-Fu movies. But boys grow older. One day, a girl makes a subtle motion, a swish of hair, a bat of an eye, and suddenly the lad takes notice. That’s when all the problems start. It starts slow. He doesn’t work it out right away. He finds the Spanish teacher’s lectures more interesting. He double takes passing a billboard. Then one morning, he wakes up sticky. He learns to do it manually. He accumulates a collection of porn—a compendium the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the library of Alexandria burnt to the ground. He becomes an expert on female anatomy. He learns breasts. He learns butts. He can mentally image the entire high school cheerleading squad in a dramatic re-enactment of
One Thousand and One Arabian Nights
. He prepares for all conceivable eventualities—and he’s entirely unprepared for the real thing.

Rei’s back was to me. She was busy working the blood out of her hair. It was dim. She hadn’t bothered with lights. Probably didn’t need them. What little there was struck her skin and blurred. It was that same fuzzy glow I’d noticed in the office. As she moved it was like staring into a silver prism, the whites and greys reflecting this way and that. The effect had something to do with the water—but what I didn’t dare hazard a guess. I spotted a red tattoo on Rei right shoulder blade. I had never seen a red one before. The design was simple, almost cartoonish. It depicted some sort of large lizard. The lizard’s tail wrapped around its own neck, strangling it. The beast’s scaly body formed a circle, and on its back resting like a leaf was a cross. I was trying to figure out what that symbolism might mean when I got…distracted.

Rei was shifting her weight from foot-to-foot as she scrubbed. She was humming, bouncing to the beat as she did. Reddish water flowed over her buttocks as they flexed and relaxed. An inviting darkness cowered between them. I swallowed. Rei’s figure made all my boyhood fantasies seem pathetic—as ridiculous as a kindergartner's finger painting. Frankly, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I was sitting buck-naked on the floor ten yards from the most beautiful thing I had every set eyes on. She was washing the blood of three dead men out of her hair—and I was pretty sure she was humming a show tune.

I felt a tad lightheaded. My blood supply was fast tracking to less important regions. Reminding myself of the recent death-feast, I sent my deepest apologies to my most underutilized appendage and stormed over to the nearest showerhead. I jammed the button with the big ‘C’ on it, and a gush of ice water brought me back down to Earth. I closed my eyes and let the gallons roll over my head. As water streamed over my ears, I tried to sort out my life.

How had I gotten myself into this mess? I should have been on the noon bus to New Haven by now. I should have been wondering what dorm life was going to be like. Instead, I was standing naked in a New York City warehouse next to an extremely attractive killing machine. I had just aided and abetted the slaughter of two very large men and witnessed the torture killing of one very badass…whatever he was. On the bright side, Rei had been nice enough to wash the blood out of my clothes. At least she was a conscientious killing machine.

I examined my body in the dim light. No signs of the blood, guts, or vomit…