A Touch Of Lightning (COMPLETED!)

Chapter 30 The Armor and The Rage 1

       

Chapter 30 The Armor and The Rage 1            

Callin sat up and rubbed his eyes, his ears and his nose immediately hard at work cataloging everything around him. As if the instant he woke up, he needed to understand his surroundings completely, even if he could see that he was simply in the bedroom he shared with Carmen and Raina.

Their breathing patterns were slow and steady, matched by their heartbeats, telling him they were deep asleep. His ears and his nose caught nothing unusual, but he knew something had woke him. He swung out of bed and padded out into the living room, the hardwood floor cool on his bare feet, his head up as he sniffed the air constantly. Still nothing.

He stood in the heavy shadows and closed his eyes, focusing his senses outwards. Sending a ring of increasing awareness outwards. Questing. After a few minutes, he growled under his breath as he still caught nothing unusual. It was extremely rare that his senses woke him up with a false alarm. He suspected whatever he had sensed had left, that it was no longer close enough for him to detect.

He gazed towards the closed door to Ahleenas bedroom, wondering how awake she was at that moment. He held no doubts that even in sleep, she had sensed him moving, was even now tracking him. Suddenly it occurred to him that their mind-link was always active. Even now, as she slept.

He grinned darkly and immediately set his imagination to work, his eyes closed as he focused on creating as detailed imagery as possible. What would happen to her dreams if he flooded the link with all manner of interesting thoughts, images, and sensations?

He narrowed in on the recent, and oh-so vivid memories of kissing Carmen and Raina, sending as much of his reactions into the link as possible. He could feel his heartbeat ratcheting upwards in response, as he remembered the heat of those kisses. As he re-lived the experience by bringing the memory up into the very forefront of his thoughts.

Then his eyes flew open as he heard a soft moan from the bedroom. Raina! He had totally forgot how her empath power was also always active! He clamped his thoughts, sensations, and emotions down under tight control, feeling his cheeks burn in the dark. He hadn't intended to torment her dreams, too!

He abruptly felt an overpowering urge to get away from the three girls, to get some space to think and breath and just live. He knew the urge to run was due to feeling like he had Ahleena perched on top of his every thought, watching him 24/7. And he knew living in the same small cabin as Raina and Carmen was also wreaking havoc on his control, like an unstoppable machine bent on tearing down his walls and leaving him open and vulnerable.

He stepped out into the night, his eyes flicking left and right as he checked his flanks. It was a honed habit, one that was borne out of a lifetime of danger. It was an instinct he had been slowly letting go of, as the relative safety of the mansion set him at ease. Now, his every instinct was fully alive, fully alert, and he stalked out into the woods with the hunters precision and silence.

The sensation of his instincts fully alert and ready was fierce, hot. Like life accelerated. It was always thrilling when he ramped up his senses, but now, with his power having grown so much lately, it was completely intoxicating. He walked for an hour, lost in thought, lost in examining how his power had grown and changed.

Then, as he stood in the moon shadows under a towering pine tree, he found himself contemplating his bone armor. That lattice of glittering white bone that had grown up out of his body and covered him, protected him, and gave him wicked spikes on his forearms, shoulders, and calves. It had burst out of him uncontrolled, in reaction to the Flayer, and he hadn't thought too deeply on it ever since. It had been agony on a core-deep level, and it was not something he wanted to remember.