Crossfire - a sizzling slow burn with supernatural powers

Fighting in the dome

Levina and I turned back to her car and got in.

"What's the dome?" I asked, panic creeping into my voice.

Levina started the car and drove down a service road.

"It is where we train," Levina paused, "and where every corporal disciplining or punishment is administered."

I tried to swallow the lump in my throat. My body was in panic mode. Punishment.

"I don't think he'll kill you. He will lose Brandt, if he does. I'll try to contact Brandt and tell him what's happening."

Levina stopped the car in from a building with a domed roof and exited the car. I took a deep breath. I could almost hear Dingo from Titan Fitness,

"Take a breath and steady yourself. If you can't choose flight, then you have to fight. Accept that fact and engage."

I repeated the last sentence under my breath. Engage.

Levina opened the passenger door.

"Coming?"

I nodded. I was unable to control my voice at that moment. I stood up and walked into the dome with Levina at my side.

Despite the ominous name, I expected a training center as modern as the one at Setter Hill. The dome was industrial, grey and dark. There was a curved hallway with rooms along the outer rim. Levina and I crossed the hall and entered the room that gave the dome its name. A security guard stopped Levina at the door.

"Just her," he said with a nod in my direction. Levina and I shared a look, before I continued on my own.

I entered the dome, which resembled a bullring. Neil Duncan stood in the middle, and I felt a little like an unprepared matador. He had his hands behind his back, but his eyes glinted blue in a display of his anger. His stance seemed authoritative and yet relaxed, but he was ready to explode and I could very well be the final flash of a red cape, which would set him off. I walked closer even though my legs felt shaky.

"I told you to stay away," Neil Duncan began, "but you, and Brandt, think you know better. You don't." Neil sauntered around me. I held my ground, only turning to look at him. He wanted me to be afraid, and I was, but he didn't need to see how afraid.

"You are a distraction. Nothing more. Brandt will tire of you soon enough." Neil Duncan paused to let his words sink in. The words hurt, but I knew they weren't true. There was something more between Brandt and I. I knew it. I held my head high and blinked to keep any emotional tears at bay.

Neil Duncan raised his hands and a spark of blue lightning jumped from one palm to the other.

"It seems a little incentive is appropriate." He sent a jolt of blue lightning straight at me. It hit my thigh. Absorb the power, I yelled internally to myself. I stumbled backwards.

"Perhaps I'll even erase your memory of Brandt and all of this." He stroke out, aiming at my head. I ducked and the blue strike hit the floor somewhere behind me. There was no where to run and hide. No protection or cover. I tried to run around him, as he sent strike after strike after me.

Sweat pearled on my forehead. This wasn't like training with Dingo or with the powered Mats or even fighting with Juanito. Neil Duncan's strikes were heavy and meant to cause damage. He struck again in a series of blue lightning jolts that I barely escaped as I dove into a roll drop and quickly got on my feet again.

"You're fast. I'll give you that." He circled me again, before sending a blue lightning at my heels. I jumped in the other direction, but Neil Duncan was expecting my movement and hit me with blue lightning, straight to my chest. It stung like being tased, or so I would imagine.

It wasn't a single strike, it kept firing electricity into my body. I absorbed as much of his power as I could, but I only felt pain filling my body. It was too much. I couldn't feel my hands or feet. My body was taut with electric current and I didn't know how much more I could absorb. The place in my chest that he was striking with lightning was burning.

I was about to black out, when the dome lit up in blue light. Neil Duncan was hit and cried out in pain. His hold on me ceased and I fell to the ground. I realized as my feet touched the ground, that I had been lifted and suspended in the air by Neil Duncan's electric power.
Neil turned towards the entrance and behind him, I saw Brandt.

Brandt charged his father with a combination of lightning strikes and kicks, the majority of them hitting their targets. I saw them fighting from my fetal position on the floor. My perspective was shadow filled as unconsciousness threatened to pull me under. The electric power, I had absorbed leaked from my body.

I heard Neil Duncan bellow Brandt's name followed by bright blue light. A thud sounded as Brandt was thrown backwards and landed on the floor. A kick hit flesh, followed by another thud. I couldn't keep my eyes open. I heard a stump and Neil Duncan screamed in pain. The sounds around me faded.

I was lying somewhere safe and soft. There was a pillow under my head and I was covered by a blanket. I opened my eyes. The room was dimly lit. Brandt was standing at a tall window, looking out. He saw me in the reflection and turned.

"How do you feel, sweetheart?" His voice was low and hoarse.

"What happened?" I asked, trying to sit up, which made my head pound. "Woe."

Brandt rushed over to my bedside and supported me in the task at hand.

"Take it easy. I need know, what do you remember?" The look on his face was devastating. He was afraid that my memory had been fried. I reached for him and pulled him closer.