Before Beasts, There Was Sound--Book 1

Seize

That bitch's paralyzing-whatever-shriek had nothing on Boris's punishments, where you had to stand as fast as lightning after being flogged, or else you'd just get flogged again. Kai was up and running by the time Hillary's cry had ended. He latched a hand onto the short wall outlining the roof's edge and used his momentum to fling his legs out into the space. He swung down, catching himself on a window ledge, then jumped again and landed on his feet.

The white girl broke off mid-note with an 'eep!' from her position huddled behind an A/C unit. Before she could so much as breathe he had her head under his arm and her other arm twisted back behind her back.

"Thought I would let it slide if you fixed up some scratches, eh?" He tugged on the arm, making her yip with pain before pulling her along by her captured head out of the alley and to the chaos which had become the front of the coffee shop. He nearly got bowled over by the fleeing veranda sitters. Luckily, even when panicked, his glare had a way of getting others to avoid him.

The girl didn't fight him. He didn't think she dared.

He stopped where Kenny and Hillary crouched over a kneeling Ray. Drigger wobbled a few feet in front of him.

"Ray? Ray! Come on, speak to me!"

Kai gracelessly flung the girl besides Ray. She didn't quite manage to get her other arm around her in time to catch her and stumbled into Hillary, who yelped in surprise.

"What the—Kai!" She righted herself and the buggy clothed assailant. "Oh my gosh, are you—"

She stopped mid-sentence as Kai whipped out what could only be a heavy duty zip-tie and yanked the girl's hands about her. Kenny somehow found his voice at this point.

"What in the world are you doing?"

Kai didn't respond. He just pinched her wrists together with one hand and tugged the zip-tie close with practiced fingers. Once more, she didn't fight him, nor did she raise her head.

"You brought your car, Hillary?" he asked. Maybe she'd actually be useful in all of this.

"So you can truss back a tied up girl, like hell!"

"If you'd just wait a moment before getting violent—"

"Chief," said Kai in that tone he knew his team always obeyed. "I need you to take her picture and do a search." Kai was already searching her pockets, but so far he already figured there wouldn't be anything in there.

"Ray's not gone!"

Kai froze. So did Hillary. Just as the two turned their attention to him to stare, Ray groaned and shook his head.

"Ugh, my ears...my head..."

Kai snapped his eyes to the wobbling, but still spinning Beyblade in the street. Now that he was taking a closer look at the blade, there was barely any yellow in the middle, which there would have been if the blades bit had gone blank.

"I think she's done something to him because he still won't respond to us, but he's still here!" said Kenny, his hands wrapped tight on Ray's shoulder and arm.

And almost as though to prove what he said, Ray mumbled, "Chief, you're hurting me. Wha-what's going on?"

"I just meant to stun him, make it seem like I took his soul," said the girl, so quietly she could hardly be heard above the sudden blare of distant sirens. "I just—I just vibrated his bones a bit. I-I did it once before and the guy recovered after a few minutes, though the ears—the ear bones are so small and work off of vibration—"