Crossfire - a sizzling slow burn with supernatural powers

Weekend - in the meadow

Brandt rushed between tree trunks that rose like columns from the ground. I tried to keep up, darting first one way and then the other. In the darkness, it was difficult to determine where the trees were and where there was space between them. More than once, I knocked my shoulder against the unmoving trunks.

I followed the hissing sound of electricity. Brandt was somewhere ahead of me. I fumbled forward in haste, until the other side of the trees was illuminated in blue light. It was Brandt.

He stumped around the middle of a meadow, his frustration or anger evident in his jerky movements. Electricity shot away from him as blue lightning. Brandt tore his black t-shirt over his head and threw it in the ground. He raised his arms and screamed at the sky. Blue lightning rippled over his torso and struck towards the sky. He was illuminated by the hue of power that rose from multiple points of his body. His angry howl equaled the roar of electricity.

Even standing between the trees , I could feel the brute power echo in my chest. It was uncomfortable and overpowering. I fell to my knees.

Brandt looked in my direction with his shining blue eyes and crackles of electricity marring his face.

"Get away from me, Harper!" His voice thundered.

The weight of his power against my chest kept me from speaking even though I was across the meadow from him. I shook my head. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't leave. I couldn't leave Brandt like this. He was enthralled by his power, wild, and out of control.

He turned to cry out towards the sky again, accompanied by lightning strikes that shot to the clouds above the meadow. So much power in the air, sizzling the molecules.

I rose to my feet, supported by a tree trunk. I wanted to help him. I needed to help him. If I could. Could I help him down? I stepped out from the tree line and into the meadow.

"Stay back!" Brandt yelled.

He wouldn't hit me with his lightning on purpose. If he did get close, I would push his power away, as I had pushed Mats away in the training center. I could do it. Brandt wouldn't hurt me. My hair frizzed around my head with static electricity. The air was bursting with power.

"Harper!" He commanded in a tone of voice that told me to stop in my tracks.

I stopped as his blue gaze seared my soul. He closed his eyes as the electricity continued to pour from his body. He was beautiful and deadly.

"I don't know what happened," I said aloud. The sentence made Brandt take a breath and the blue lightning strikes calmed a little. "Let me help you."

There was a tiny moment in time, where everything was still before the hiss of Brandt's electricity evolved to a deafening roar so loud it made me shake. He began to scream above the sound. Every word quaked with immense emotion.

"You help me? After I pulled you into this. Don't you see?"

He looked at me, before putting his head back and screaming towards the sky, lightning strikes shooting from his eyes. I was in the middle of a natural catastrophe. Blue lightning lit the entire meadow and I was afraid to move. The lightning strikes drove from Brandt's body towards the sky in an almost tubular form. I was mesmerized and horrified at the same time.

I wanted to go to him, as if I could calm him or say something to make everything alright, even I knew solutions like that didn't exist in the real world. Brandt was stuck in his own private prison and I could only look in from afar.

The lightning died down with smaller strikes like after shocks. Brandt dropped his head and his arms. Steam rose from his naked torso. He stood still trying to catch his breath. The sight of him was breathtaking and disturbing.

I walked up to him as slowly and calmly as I could.

His hair was wet and fell in front of his face.

I wanted to ask him if he was okay, but that was a stupid question. He wasn't okay.

"Hi," I said instead, feeling immediately like a dweeb.

"Sylvana is right. Powers can be used for good or bad."

So that was where this was coming from. I didn't know a lot about Brandt, but I had seen the destructive side of his power. I reminded myself. I had seen Brandt kill and again and again that fact moved far back in my memories. He had tried to erase my memories. He had also saved me from the orders of his own father.

"I know." I said. None of us are all good or all bad.

The heat emanating from his body drew me closer. I touched his chest and let my hand rest there. A crackle of blue electricity skipped over my hand. It didn't hurt. I could feel the turmoil of his power in his chest. And then our eyes met and my heart skipped a beat.