Page 39 of Captured Immune

Craig backs me into the ropes, pinning me there. I punch his chest, but it’s as effective as punching a statue. He doesn’t even flinch. He continues pointing a finger at me, even pressing it against my forehead—hard.

“How are you doing that?” His shock flashes through my mind.

Doing what?

“Sorry, Derek.” Craig unpins me, then points a finger at the muscular guy. With the sound of a balloon releasing air, Derek shrinks to the size of a small dog. I scream, but I’m the only one who does. None of the other people look slightly surprised—not even Katie, who’s typing away on her iPad from the front row of the auditorium seats. Is seeing people shrink like that normal around here?

In a tiny, high-pitched voice, Derek shouts, “Hey! Unshrink me!”

Pixie draws her arm back like she’s about to pitch a baseball. In the palm of her hand, a ball of water appears. She tosses it at mini Derek, and it lands right over his little head, drenching him.

“That’s fucking rude!” Derek shouts in his high-pitched voice. “Craig, unshrink me, you bastard!”

Craig points his finger at Derek. With the sound of air being blown into a balloon, Derek returns to his normal size. He leans against the ropes for support. “Damn. That shit hurts,” he says as he wrings out the bottom of his drenched shirt.

“The shrinking or the water ball?” the Asian woman asks.

“The shrinking, bitch. Yours, I barely felt.”

I don’t even see the water ball grow in her hand before it’s launched across the room. Derek ducks, and the water splashes all over the floor.

“Missed me, bitch,” Derek says, grinning.

A third water ball appears in the woman’s hand. She raises it into the air as it doubles in size. “Call me a bitch one more time.”

“Enough!” Victor shouts. “Pixie, since you’re so eager to use your powers, why don’t you go next?”

“Gladly.” Pixie’s water ball evaporates in a cloud of steam in her hand, then she marches toward me and stops barely a half step from my face. I log more of her features into my brain: nose ring, sharp eyebrows, plump lips. How am I going to remember all this?

Her minty breath wafts over my nose as she puckers her lips into an O shape. She blows air at me. I wait for something to happen, maybe for my face to melt or my eyeballs to pop out. Nothing happens.

Pixie steps back as her genuine confusion races through my head. “No fucking way.” She takes the gum out of her mouth and blows air at me again.

Then she blows a third time.

Finally, she twists on a heel, puckers her lips, and blows air in Derek’s direction.

He slaps his hands over his ears. “Ow! Stop!”

Pixie does and returns her gum to her mouth. She smirks at me as if we’re good friends. “I just love fuckin’ with him.”

“Ruby,” Victor says, “how ’bout you try?”

The redhead doesn’t move from her spot. Instead, she simply raises her open palm out to me and hisses through her teeth. When nothing happens, she advances toward me. Her black booties click with each step she takes until she’s right in my face.

“Is it workin’?” Derek asks.

“Do you hear her screaming in pain?” Ruby says.

Screaming in pain?What is she trying to do to me?

“If you touch her, will it work?” Victor asks.

Ruby places her hand on my arm and hisses again. When nothing happens, she releases me. Then she directs her hisses at Derek. He drops to his knees and screams like he’s being attacked by giant cobras. When Ruby puts her arm down, the screaming stops.

“What the fuck?” Derek is still on his knees, clutching his stomach. “Going through an incinerator would be less painful than that.”

Ruby shrugs, smirking a little. “I had to make sure my powers still worked.”

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