Salient Secret 2

20

Vada

"You're trying to kill me!" I shout and start backing away and he starts walking towards me, "Don't you dare come near me!" I warn teleporting to the other side of the kitchen.

"No no no, Avery I swear I did not put whatever that is in there," he says slowly moving towards me while slightly crouching.

"How stupid do you think I am??? I saw you eyeing the glass when I put it down!" I yell.

"I was only looking at it because I thought I saw something, Ave you have to believe me, I hate you right now for everything you put me through but that doesn't mean I want you dead," he says calmly, trying to get me to be calm.

"Stop moving!" I shout and he stops, but then he turns into Palmer and uses her powers to throw knives at me, fortunately I duck and they all miss me. "Kai what the hell!" I shout, forcing me right back into panic mode. Kai starts bending over like a drunk person vomiting, with a struggle, he looks up at me and says, "Run." I study him a bit longer and notice blue veins bulging at the back of his neck, something is definitely wrong. My powers can't stop whatever this is, I'm going to need help. I teleport behind Kai while he is still bending and I take us back to my house, as we get there, he changes into Arlo, whips around and grabs me around the neck stopping my air flow.

"Ahhhhhhh!" Tanith screams at the sight and her plate of food goes up in the air. Everyone else comes rushing in. Arlo slash Kai starts choking and eventually drops me to the ground, I look up and realize it's Cassian sucking the air out of his lungs.

"It's a possessive demon!" Tanith shouts."I can see it in Kai's head!"

"How do we beat it?" I ask.

"I need to get my hands on Kai's head," she responds.

"Cassian stop, it's still Kai, you'll kill him!" I yell, I know when Cassian twists his hands like there's a ball in them, he is trying to crush the person like a piece of paper being crumpled into a ball. When Cassian stops and hesitates, Kai changes into him and holds his hand out to do something to him, I instinctively teleport in front of the real Cassian and I feel pressure on either side of me, it feels like I'm being squeezed to death by a snake. I didn't even notice her but Tanith puts her hands on either side of fake Cassians head, her eyeballs roll back and Kai turns back into Kai and then starts shaking rapidly. This giant slug with two arms rises out of Kai's head and starts clawing towards all of us, but then Tanith pulls it back her powers and it disappears into thing air when it reaches her open hands.

"Where did it go?" Rik asks the question we're all thinking.

"I sent it back to its realm," she answers like it's normal. I really do forget how powerful Tanith is, considering her sweet personality, you'd never say she's the gatekeeper of hell.

"Avery," Kai says through coughs, I rush towards him. "I'm sorry," he says.

"Kai it wasn't your fault," I say.

"But it was, I could see everything I was doing but I couldn't stop it," he continues.

"That's how possessive demons work, they don't take over your body, they basically take control of the drivers seat of your mind, even though you could see everything, it was in complete control," Tanith explains. "What we should be worrying about is the fact that possessive demons can't pass into this realm unless someone opens a gateway for them."

"Who would go through all that trouble just to possess someone like him?" Imelda says earning an upset look from Kai.

"And who has that kind of power?" Rik adds onto his sisters question.

"Guys they were using Kai to kill Vada, we know exactly who this is," Cassian says and we all know he is referring to Salutis.

"Who?" well everyone knows except for Kai.

"Don't tell him. We don't know if we can trust him, just use Palmer to get rid of his memory of all of this," Imelda says not even trying to whisper for Kai's benefit.

"What? No, no one is taking any of my memories away. Ave it's me, you know you can trust me," he says looking straight into my eyes, trapping me in a trance, damn those devil blue eyes.

"Vada, can we have a word with you," Cassian says pulling me aside with the rest of the team. "He is the head of a freaking base, why is this even a question? He can't be trusted."

"I agree with Cassian," Tanith says.

"Same," Rik adds.

"Of course you're going to agree with Cassian because none of you know Kai. We have never spent a day with that guy in our lives. The only person who decides whether we should trust him or not is Vada because she is the only one who knows him, and we all trust her," Imelda says and I can't help but smile at the fact that the most heartless person I've ever met is standing up for me...which is exactly why I can't let emotions cloud judgement. I have a gut feeling telling me not to trust Kai, and that gut feeling is never wrong.

"We can't trust him," I reluctantly admit.

"Really?" Imelda asks.

"Yeah, I don't know why, but my gut is telling me not to," I answer.

"And we all know your gut is never wrong," Tanith adds, you see I told you.

"So what do we do with him?" Cassian asks trying to conceal his joy.

"The only way this works out is if we get Palmer to wipe his memory of today," I say. "She wasn't home when I went there, I'll go check again and then I'll go to her moms place, you guys keep Kai here," I direct and they all nod.

"You're don't trust me do you?" Kai says after noticing I'm about to leave and I shake my head no in response."Understandable, but if you're going to take my memory of today please just do me one favour."

"Sure," I respond.

"Get Palmer to erase you completely from my memory."