The Seventh Immortal (Hearts of Amaranth #1) Page 7

  Chapter Seven

  Another officer fired. Then another. The air was filled with the thunderous sound of gunshots as every police officer on the street unloaded on Paul. Grant had filled his command with so much power that even their common sense was overwhelmed. They did not stop with a few shots, or even when they finished their clips. They reloaded and they kept shooting, the vox dei still ringing in their ears.

  Kait closed her eyes and waited to feel the hot sting of the bullets against her skin. She was close enough to Paul that some of the errant gunfire would inevitably hit her. Ultimately, she wanted to feel it. She needed this to hurt.

  Nothing happened. While Kait braced herself for pain, not a single bullet struck her body. She opened her eyes and gasped.

  The air was full of bullets, but they were frozen mere inches from her hand. Hundreds of small metal rounds, still spinning in place, dotted the space between Kait and the police officers.

  Kait stared at her hand. She didn't know how it was possible, but she was sure of what she saw. She'd stopped the gunfire. She prevented a single bullet from going past her.

  Her eyes darted to Grant, who was only now recovering from her attack. His mouth hung open and he stared at Kait as she continued to hold the gunfire in her hands.

  “This isn't something you or the others can do, is it?” Kait asked. Grant didn't even move. He was too terrified. That was the only answer she needed.

  Suddenly, Kait felt a surge of anger. Why was she still asking this man questions? He'd tried to kill Paul. He'd tried to exploit her affection for him by putting his life in danger. She didn't need to defer to him. Now she was more powerful than anything he'd imagined.

  Kait closed her hand into a fist. With a flick of her wrist, she let go of her hold on the frozen bullets. She cast them back at at the police, before realizing that they were blameless in all of this. With a quick mental correction, she directed the bullets into their cars and the surrounding streetlights.

  Sparks and glass rained down upon the street. Everything went dark. The cops panicked, unable to even comprehend what they'd witnessed. Kait had stopped every one of their shots in mid-air and sent them flying back. They were terrified. They had every right to be. Even Kait didn't understand what she'd done.

  It was only a matter of time before Grant figured out that Kait was just as confused as him. She had no idea how she stopped the bullets and certainly wasn't sure she could do it again if she had to. She needed to escape.

  Kait ran up the stairs and grabbed Paul's hand. “Come on,” she said. “Let's get out of here.” As soon as she had a firm grip on him, she took off away from One Metropolitan Plaza. She didn't know where she was going, but anywhere was safer than in front of that building.

  Her legs moved faster than she expected, and she had to slow down to make sure Paul could keep up with her. It made a certain sort of sense that she would be somewhat faster and stronger than most people. Her muscles wouldn't tear, and her bones wouldn't break as easily as those of a normal person.

  Once Kait and Paul were a few blocks away from the skyscraper, she found and alley and ducked inside. They would be after her before long, and she had to make sure they were hidden somewhere they couldn't be found. Then they could go back to her hotel room, pick up her things, and... And Kait didn't know what was next.

  “What was that?” Paul asked as soon as they slowed down enough for him to talk. They headed into the alley carefully, with Kait watching every door they passed. “Did you do that?”

  “I don't know,” Kait replied. “I think so. Probably. It must have been me but... I'm not sure what that means.” As they reached the center of the alley, Kait turned on him. “Why didn't you run? I told you to run.”

  Paul shook his head. “What happened back there... I wasn't going to miss that. You stopped those bullets with your mind. That was amazing.”

  “I didn't know that was going to happen!” Kait exclaimed. “You certainly didn't!”

  He rubbed his head. “Yeah... Maybe I wasn't thinking clearly, but I knew I couldn't run away. What I just saw changes everything. Everything about the world is different now--everything that everyone thinks that they know, and I was there to witness it. I'm the only one who knows.”

  Kait looked at him like he was insane. “You're right, and now the mayor's office is going to want to kill you for that knowledge. Maybe Fractal Capital and the Obshina, too. They have just as much to lose.”

  The reality of this started to sink into Paul. His shoulders slumped. “I'm not going to be able to tell anyone about any of this, am I?”

  “Probably not a good idea.”

  “But think of the journals!” Paul exclaimed. “I could be published anywhere I decided to submit. Immortality... Telekinesis.... Right under our noses.”

  “You left out mind control,” Kait said.

  “Mind control?”

  Paul still didn't know about the vox dei. Kait shouldn't have been surprised. While she'd used it in front of him and on him, the power didn't manifest itself in such a dramatic fashion. “Never mind,” Kait said.

  In an instant, Paul forgot that she'd said anything about mind control, leaving her with a pang of guilt. She needed to figure out a way to control her power. She seemed to use it unconsciously, without thinking, but when she tried to command Paul to save his own life earlier, it had failed to work.

  A few minutes later, a series of police cars zoomed down the street outside. Undoubtedly, they were chasing after Kait. The whole city would be looking for her. No matter what she was going to do next, she would have to be careful.

  Once the cars were gone, Kait and Paul exited the alley. As it turned out, they were only a couple blocks from the hotel where Kait had her things. They hurried through the lobby, hoping no one would notice them. Kait still had blood on her torn shirt, and surely stood out in a crowd.

  Reaching her room, Kait was reluctant to invite Paul inside. She could still remember what happened with Spencer just inside the door. She'd screwed everything up, and she didn't want to do the same thing to Paul. The feelings she had for him were different than the confused lust she felt for Spencer... Even if she could guarantee his safety, she wasn't sure she wanted to go down the same path.

  “Listen, I don't know where we go from here,” Kait said, turning to face him before she entered the room. “I dragged you into this, so I feel... Responsible. But I can't help but think that the longer you're around me, the more danger you're in.”

  Paul sighed. “You haven't heard a word I've been saying this whole time, have you?” he asked. “Whatever all of this is—whatever you are—I want to be a part of this.” Suddenly, he blushed and looked away, as if that wasn't exactly what he meant to say. “Everything that's happened today is a hundred times more exciting than anything else that's happened in my life... Or that I'd ever expect to happen. Even if I had a choice, I couldn't just walk away from this.”

  Kait smiled. It felt good to think that Paul had reasons other than the vox dei to be around her. Even if it was just scientific curiosity or thrill-seeking, it was better than the Gospel's insidious mind control.

  “That doesn't answer my question,” Kait said. “Where do we go from here? If you really want to help, I need it. I don't know this city. I don't know this world... How do we hide out from them?”

  Paul considered this. “They probably know who I am, so you can't just come back to my apartment... We need to find a place of our own, at least until things die down.”

  “I've got plenty of cash,” Kait replied. “Should be enough to last us for several months, if we need it. Hopefully we don't.”

  A grin appeared on Paul's face. “Good! We're really going to do this!” He looked down at her for a moment. His hand raised to caress her cheek and he leaned towards he. He was going to kiss her.

  Kait pulled away from h
im. “No,” she said. “No, we can't...”

  “Oh... So you're not--”

  “It's not that!” Kait exclaimed. She knew what he was going to say, and he was wrong. Kait was very attracted to him. She wanted more than anything than to grab him and pin him against the wall. Her mind was filled with all of the ways she wanted to use him. But she couldn't... Not until she could reign in her power.

  Kait couldn't limit the vox dei yet, but she could control how she benefited from it. She wasn't going to coerce anyone else into sex, no matter how much her body ached to be touched.

  These desires weren't going to end. She remembered what Silvi said. The Gospels experienced sensation much stronger than mortal humans. They were live wires, attuned to every nerve in their undying bodies. She would want it. She would even need it, but she would have to abstain. Kait wasn't going to hurt anyone else.

  “Let's just take it slow,” Kait said. “I... I still don't know what I am. I still don't know what I can do. Aren't you frightened of me?”

  “No,” Paul said. He leaned in for another kiss. Again Kait had to rebuff him, backing further into the hall. This time he got the message.

  “Slow,” he continued. “I can take it slow.”

  “Good,” Kait replied. She unlocked the door to her hotel room and stepped inside. Everything was just how she left it. Even the faint scent of her desire lingered in the air near the doorway, where Spencer had rested his hand after he pleasured her. She hoped that this was just because of her heightened senses, and that Paul couldn't discern it.

  Kait hurried away from the door. She didn't want to think about Spencer anymore. He was gone. As long as she stopped herself from making the same mistakes, she could put him out of her mind.

  Pulling the suitcase out from under the bed, Kait opened it. She showed Paul the money that she had, as well as the few documents she'd left herself before jumping off the top floor of the courthouse. As she organized everything, her fingers stopped on the her passport. She opened it up and looked inside.

  Find the Gospels. Then you will understand.

  “This is the one message I left myself,” Kait explained.

  “What does it mean?”

  Kait shrugged. “I don't know. We call ourselves the Gospels. Christa, Thomas, Silvi, Eve, Grant, and Mayor Levin... And me. We're the Gospels.”

  “You sure you're the same as them?” Paul asked. “Grant seemed surprised that you could stop those bullets.”

  He was right. Kait wasn't like the other Gospels. She didn't find them in the years immediately after the Kurgan event. She had no ideology. She had a mysterious power that seemed to go beyond the vox dei they used to control the men and women around them. Maybe Kait wasn't a Gospel. While they were immortal, they didn't really provide any answers to her existence.

  “I don't know,” Kait said. “I still don't know what I am.”

  Epilogue

  “She stopped the bullets in mid-air?” Daniel Levin asked. He sat in his warm, leather chair in his office at City Hall. Police Chief L'Enfante and Pastor Eve stood in front of him. In theory, they were his subordinates. He was the first of them to arrive in St. Louis. He was the one who established their base of power. “In over two hundred years, I have not even heard of anything like that.”

  Grant curled his lip as he considered the situation. “She's not one of us,” he said. “That much I'm sure of. She's something worse. A destabilizing agent. Christa and her lackeys must be thrilled. She will send this city into chaos.”

  “Don't be so sure,” Eve interjected. “Maybe she's the one we've been looking for all this time. Maybe she's the one who made the rest of us like we are.”

  “All the more reason to hate her,” Grant spat.

  Daniel held up a hand, staying Grant's fury. “Calm yourself, my friend,” he said. “Keep your emotions in check. As soon as we give into our hate, Christa has already won. We must stay strong. We must stay disciplined, and approach these new developments with a measure of caution.”

  Eve glared at Mayor Levin. “You're being a hypocrite,” she replied. “If you hadn't shot that man in my church, we might not even be here. We might have convinced her to join us, and we might be celebrating our victory over the forces of chaos right now.”

  “He knew about us,” Daniel snapped.

  “And now another does,” Eve said. “This boy she saved... He knows what we are. Nothing has changed.”

  “I will remember my mistakes, but I will not repeat them. You are right. I was wrong to shoot that man. We need to tread more cautiously with this girl.”

  Grant shifted uncomfortably. “And where do we go from here? She has humiliated us. She needs to suffer for what she has done.”

  “She can stop a hundred bullets and send them screaming back at our police,” Daniel said. “What do you suggest we do that doesn't put us in a worse position? I think we need to stop thinking about hurting her and start thinking about apologizing to her.”

  “Apologize?” Grant leaned forward and slammed his fist into Daniel's desk. “Do you know what I've been through? I had to convince a dozen men that everything they witnessed tonight was some kind of hallucination. I had to dance around the truth, to keep them from discovering the truth about her... Let alone the truth about us. She threatens everything we have worked for and you thinking we should--”

  “I think we should be careful,” Daniel said, interrupting Grant. “Kait Selias changes everything, and we have to adapt. She would be a powerful ally.”

  “And a dangerous enemy,” Grant noted.

  “We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now... She is our friend. And we will treat her as such. We will hope that Christa's people will make the mistake of turning against her. Maybe we can bring her into the fold.”

  “What if we can't?” Eve asked.

  “Then we find a way to destroy her,” Mayor Levin said. “Before she can destroy us.”

  Cover Credits

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