A Touch Of Lightning (COMPLETED!)

Chapter 15 Runaway

Chapter 15 Runaway

"His trail leads straight West. I suspect we might be gone a couple of days. I'll keep in touch till the limits of our connection, then call you when I have more information." Ahleena told Jacob, using her telepathy to connect with him even though she was already a full mile away from the mansion.

He sent back a mental nod of acceptance, trying to keep his emotions under tight wraps, trying to keep Ahleena from sensing the depth of his worry.

Ahleena could still feel his concern. She knew how he felt about his students. They were more than simply students to him, they were family. Callin running away worried him, making him wonder what signs he had missed, making him wonder why Callin felt the need to run away.

She didn't think like he did, wasn't worried like that. She had sensed Callin's frustration and his lack of control. She figured he must have ran because he was worried about losing control, and because he was scared of others truly seeing what he was.

Callin was her most frustrating, and also her most interesting student. He had been at the mansion for almost two months but still he kept his walls up with her and everyone else. She couldn't begin to train him if he wouldn't trust her, but she hadn't yet been able to figure out how to truly gain that trust.

She increased her speed, racing through the lush California forest, confident she would notice if he changed his direct West heading. She ran for most of the day, stopping only for a fifteen minute rest and a quick snack. She was traveling light, just the clothes she wore, a small backpack with a some dry foods, a tiny tent, and her two swords.

When the sun finally began to paint the sky with fiery colors and the shadows stretched across every clear opening, she made camp. Her legs complained from the demanding pace she had set all day, but she knew she would be ready to run all day again tomorrow, if necessary.

The water thrashed and twisted, rising up in sudden, frothy swells as if trying to break free of gravity's unrelenting grasp, then swirled back in sullen, gray fits when it was denied. Callin sat on the end of the longest dock in the small, seaside town, his thoughts as chaotic and turbulent as the storm-tossed ocean.

He stared down at the moonlit water, trying to keep his thoughts from skittering back again and again to what he had given up by leaving the mansion. He felt like he had left behind his one chance at a family, at some semblance of a normal life. But he knew it was for the better, because he knew the lab would not stop hunting him, and when they found him, bystanders would get hurt or killed.

The labs assassins weren't the only reason he had left. He didn't want to dwell on what might happen if he were to lose control of his power around so many others. He had never had his walls tested so thoroughly, so constantly, at the labs. Nothing they had done to him that he could remember was ever as destructive to his walls as the combined attraction he felt for Carmen, Ahleena, and Raina.

Carmen was a walking danger to him. It was bad enough that his attraction to her was nearly uncontrollable, but what made it simply impossible was the fact that she was just as attracted to him, and his treacherous nose knew it. Just the scent of her was enough to begin cracking his walls. He seriously doubted his ability to control himself if he had to be in the same room as her for more than an hour, no matter who else was in the room. His nose was simply too sensitive, taking her subtle, all-female scent and thrusting it directly into his imagination, where it recklessly threw open the doors of his primal side.

So now he was in this tiny, seaside town, sitting on this dock at night, trying to figure out his next move. Thoughts of Ahleena, Carmen, and Raina jammed up his brain, making him nearly growl in frustration. If the mansion had just one beautiful telepath, he may have been able to cope. But the triple threat of the three girls was far more than he could deal with. He sighed, feeling frustrated and penned in, restless along every nerve in his body. Just then, his keen ears detected voices behind him.