Page 8 of Leif

Standing up, I began to move toward the door. I made my way out with her until I heard someone walking toward us. I phased out, watching the whole world shift from light to darkness—like an inverted photo—as I slipped between this world and the next. She stayed anchored in my arms, and I held onto her with a sigh. No one could see us like this.

The guy walked past like a human-shaped lantern of light, past the room she’d been in, and went deeper into the cave. I breathed out as the shadows deepened, and the light began to darken to gray, then charcoal, telling me I’d spent enough time between.

“Who are you?”

She looked up at me from my arms.

“I’m no one.”

She looked confused, and the last bit of light blinked out. I came out of the between as the darkness threatened to swallow us both and I felt her slipping from my arms.

Adjusting her as we slid back into the real world, I glanced down into her peaceful face. As best I could tell, my power seemed to put me in limbo, a space between reality and whatever else existed. There the body didn’t matter, but consciousness did.

Fully phased out of reality, I was invisible, but I’d learned with Ryker and Draco that they didn’t see the space between. To them, everything was normal, they were just intangible. So there was more to my talent that I didn’t yet know.

I made my way to the jeep, hoping I hadn’t spent too much time on the other side. I’d never let things go dark like that. The time I got to spend there was highly variable; I’d spent days at a time, or mere seconds. I didn’t know what determined my time, but I knew that the creeping sense of fear as the light began to blink out always left me with a knot of dread in my gut.

What would happen if I stayed in the darkness until it consumed me?

I hurried toward the Jeep with her in my arms when a shout rang out behind me. The kid’s eyes met mine in the rearview mirror, and I knew that he could see me. And while I knew his talent, I wasn’t about to betray mine. Even to him. He seemed like a good kid, but I wasn’t giving him the kind of information that might put him in danger. He didn’t need the weight of my secrets too.

A boom rocked me, and I realized they were shooting at me. Focusing all my energy on her, I phased her out. She was still visible but untouchable, because I wasn’t about to put her in the dark alone.

If her psyche could still see, hear, and feel, I wasn’t going to leave her to the darkness.

Dirt puffed up here and there as bullets whizzed past and buried themselves in the dirt. I hurried to the Jeep as quickly as I could as bullets pelted the vehicle. Hitch ducked, the engine revved.

Terror filled me. Had they hit him?

“Are you okay?” I shouted at him.

“Fine! Do you mind hurrying up?”

I grunted, carrying her faster as pain ripped through my shoulder; the same side her head was on. Gripping her tightly, I heard the men behind me shouting as the ground rumbled, and the world began to shake.

“Let’s go!” Hitch seemed unconcerned with what was going on behind me, and I realized he was creating a distraction as I made it to the Jeep. “They’re busy with that earthquake. Let’s get out of here.” He waited for me to get her in the back and get in beside her. “She’s pretty.”

I glared at him.

He glanced forward, clearing his throat before speaking. “Sorry. Going.”

He stomped on the gas, and dirt flew behind us as he tore out toward the main road. I braced her, holding on tight as the quaking continued. Trees fell behind us, and I phased the Jeep out as a tree fell across the top of us before falling right through like we didn’t exist.

He drove right through, a disbelieving look on his face. “How did that miss us?” His eyes met mine in the rearview mirror.

“Just lucky, I guess.” I glanced at my shoulder, then searched her head, praying that the bullet that grazed me passed through her without making any contact.

As I searched, we pulled onto the main road and roared off along the old highway.

I found a lump on the back of her head.

“Hey, can you show me how she got this knot on the back of her head?” What if I phased her, but the bullet still lodged in her skull? Fear filled me, and I glanced up as he pulled off the road.

“Let’s be quick, in case they’re following.” He nodded forward, and I could see her springing at the guy who’d been in the back of her cruiser. Her arm locked around his throat, and she held him firm. I saw her lips move, but didn’t hear what she’d said as the strong man snuck up behind her.

The man swung a ham fist at the back of her head, knocking her out. The criminal fell forward, gasping for air before standing up and tearing into the strong man.

“If you killed her, I’ll fucking rip your dick off and shove it down your throat until you choke to death on it.”

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