Kai's POV
That bitch. That horrible, arrogant, awful bitch. She kissed me. She freaking kissed me.
That bitch.
I ran my fingers through my hair, not caring about how it looked giving its normally unkempt nature. Though I could feel the anger surging through me like wildfire, I did have to feel a bit grateful towards her. She did send Jay and Cole away before…practically molesting me. I shook that thought from my head, which had begun to throb. She kissed me, that's all, it was just unexpected. I sat down on the edge of my bed, rubbing my palm across my forehead. This was insane. I squeezed my eyes shut. This was too weird. Where had this girl come from? Who was she really? How did she know things about me that I barely remembered about myself?
I felt the pain in my head blossom in the middle of my forehead. I blinked rapidly, trying to wish it away. I crossed my fingers across my face and twisted my body, laying my head against my pillow. It didn't help much. My nails began to dig into the skin on my temples as my migraine got worse. I felt my lips part as I cried out in pain. I have to calm down, this couldn't happen here. Not with everyone on the boat. I squeezed my eyes tighter and tighter, feeling the fire move through my body, trying to choke it back. Just as my mind began to blur, to disappear into the dark nothingness, I felt someone force my mouth open, their fingers were jammed into my lips above my teeth, so I couldn't bite them. I felt something hit the back of my throat and I tried to cough it up, gagging on its smooth surface, but whoever it was placed one hand over my mouth and the other held my noise tightly, forcing me to swallow the foreign object. One of their thumbs was pressed against the curve in my collarbone, and they only let go of my air tubes once they felt me swallow. I gasped for breath as I felt the fire inside me begin to fade. I opened my eyes, feeling the heat sting them. "Sorry about having to force it down your throat." I sat up slowly, rubbing my throat as I turned to look at her. She held out a glass of water towards me, closer than I would have been after I threatened to strangle her. I slowly reached out, taking the water shakily. I took a couple of gulps while she walked over to the other side of the room, sitting in the small plastic chair I had moved in. I blinked, turning towards her.
"What…the hell?" She smiled.
"Glad to see that I didn't mess you up too bad." She leaned towards me, laying her forearms on her thighs, hands nestled in one another. I glanced down at my hands, fingers spread wide like a fan.
"How…how did you…?" Aryan let out a chuckle, pulling her hands apart, revealing what she had inside. She held up a small plastic bag between two fingers, chock full of medium sized, oval-shaped black pills. I pressed my fingers lightly against my throat. I glanced back at her, my anger towards her flaring again. I put on my most intimidating face. "Tell me what's going on. Tell me who the hell you are or who you think you are." She shrugged her head towards her right slightly.
"Okay. I'm gonna need more specifics than that." I turned away from her, thinking for a minute.
"Any question I have, you'll answer?" She nodded slowly. I crossed my arms, shifting my body so I could lean against the wall, my feet hanging off the bed. "How did you know about my….drinking problem?" Aryan blinked.
"I can read minds. Next." I raised my hands in a questioning surrender.
"Uh, care to elaborate?" Aryan's shoulders slumped, the aggravation clear on her face.
"Your brainwaves are the energy that runs your body. Next question." I opened my mouth to tell her that wasn't really an explanation, but decided not to say anything. I wouldn't want anyone to say anything to me. She leaned her face on her hand, pushing her middle finger into the corner of her eye.
"Why did you kiss me?" Her brown eyes glanced up at me through her fingers.
"Because I couldn't rip your clothes off on the deck." I felt my eyebrows raise, pushing myself off the bed and walking over to the opposite wall. She didn't budge, simply followed the movements in my muscle as I bent down, putting my hand against the wall near her head. I was trapping her in a small space and she knew it, but she showed no sign of any fear. In fact, she showed no sign of anything.
"Don't bullshit me, Aryan Brookestone." I ran my tongue across my dry upper lip. "I get that you're used to being the alpha, you're used to being in control, but I see what you're doing. I won't give you what you want." She smiled, bobbing her head slightly.
"Has anyone ever described your eye color as amber?" I mirrored her smile.
"Stop changing the subject." She cocked her head.
"You know, that's the only thing you all have in common, besides the fact that you all have alpha personalities forced into omega positions. Each one of you has a specific eye color, specific enough to describe with one color." Her eyes began to stare wistfully towards the corner of the ceiling. "Cole is slate, Jay is denim, you're amber," she sighed lustily, "Zane is cyan." A small smile played on her lips and I felt a knowing smirk form on mine.
"You like him, don't you." Aryan's face had resumed its normal determined look.
"I kissed you because power is energy. No matter what type of power, being physical, mental, supernatural, it's all energy." She ran her tongue along the bottom of her top teeth. "Sometimes, if I'm lucky, I can…borrow someone's specific energy, yours being heat energy, fire. Personal physical contact usually does the trick. I needed it to extract Zane without hurting him." I blinked twice.
"Did it work?" Aryan bobbed her head to one side.
"Well, I got him out." She let out a small laugh. "We're a lot alike, you know. Heroes who are a lot better at hurting than helping." I scoffed, walking back over and sitting down heavily on my bed, crossing my arms.
"Sensei says he can make me into a hero. Hell, he may say I am one, but I'll never be a hero. Never." I looked down at my last word, my arm blocking out its sound, but she heard. She chewed on her lip.
"There's a spectrum. A power spectrum. Every power, every element, falls into this spectrum." She swallowed hard. "Ice is one-hundred percent on the light side, Earth and Lightning fall in the middle." She didn't need to say anything else.
"And fire is on the darker side." She looked down at the floor.
"Can I…can I trust you with something? I know you have a problem with me, but…" I cut her off.
"Yeah." She pressed her lips together.
"Energy…energy belongs on two sides of the spectrum. Both dark and light. And…I don't know which side I belong on." She pushed herself up, walking over to me. She used her fingers to offer me the bag of pills, which I hesitantly took. "But I have a good idea. There's a monster inside the both of us, but fire is more unpredictable than energy." I glanced up at her as she walked towards the door, my fingers playing through the plastic with the pills.
"Wait, where are you going?" She walked out in the hall, grabbing hold of the doorframe as she turned back towards me, leaning into the room.
"Hey, I'm just the bitch who kissed you. Why do you care?"
Zane's POV
I glanced in the mirror for the tenth time exactly since eight in the evening. I looked the same as I had the last time I checked. Same blonde hair, still sticking straight up as it always did, except for the single piece in the middle of my forehead that never seemed to do what I wanted it to. Same blue eyes that almost seemed to glow in the twilight sunlight. Same square jaw, set tightly, same long noise that was on the smaller side, same thin lips, even thinner because they were pressed tightly together. I was wearing my usual choice of attire, a white collared dress shirt, made less dressy due to the fact I always rolled the sleeves up to my elbows, straight black pants, a little too long for my 6'4 frame, causing them to bag at the bottom. I noticed the little things as well, like the fact that I could see every muscle in my arms and neck because they were clinched, tense as they almost always were. The way I could almost see the bandage on my shoulder through the white material of my shirt. Little flaws I hoped she didn't notice. This was the first time I had ever felt like this for a person. There was a difference between love and like, and love took time, this I knew. But this was the first time I had ever liked anyone in this way. The internet called it a crush.
I turned back towards the small twin bed in my room, glancing at the clock that sat on the small table next to it. Only 8:17. We had to leave after dark, it was not that I was ashamed of being seen with her, it was just that I enjoyed the idea of having a scandalous rendezvous with a girl. I turned towards the door as I my ears picked up the springs in the kink began to tug and contract. I blinked my eyed at Cole as he pushed the door open, hand still on the outside of the knob as he leaned into the room. "Hey, I just wanted you to know that the anchor is down and I'm going to bed." I swallowed.
"As are we all." Cole nodded slightly, lips pursed.
"Yeah." His gray eyes darted up and down my body, narrowing in confusion. "Are you going somewhere." I felt the lie I had practiced all afternoon fly off my tongue like it knew no other words.
"No. This is just the attire I changes into after my incident, seeing as my suit was wet. I will be changing into my sleep attire after you leave." Cole smiled slightly, a twinkle of laughter in his eyes.
"Okay. Didn't need your whole life story, but whatever." He pulled the door closed slightly, not setting the latch into its designated whole. I breathed a sigh of relief, that would make it easier for me. I only had to wait moments before I heard the tell-tale click of three doors, meaning that my brothers had all "turned in for the night", as the expression goes. With a sigh, I gently pulled the door away from its frame, the notion similar to ripping the seam of clothes. Careful to avoid the noisy board right in front of my door, I pulled the door shut with a click similar to those of others. For all they knew, I was tucked safely behind the door. No one would know I was gone.
When I reached to deck, she was already there, leaning against the wall that separated the deck from the freezing waters below. Her dark brown hair, normally pinned back, had been allowed freedom for tonight, the warm summer wind blowing it around her face. She was dressed as modestly as me, a dark green sweater that hung loosely around her torso, dark colored jeans with a pair of dark leather boots, worn as though they had already been in use. Her dark eyes were pointed up towards the barely lit sky. I felt myself smiling as I walked over, leaning on the wall next to her. She let out a sigh.
"This was always my favorite time of day, the time known as twilight. It was always a break between my hard, bitter days and my painful, long nights." She smiled down at the strip of ocean between the boat and the land, eyes travelling back up to the sky. "I always loved the color of the sky at this time, I can describe it perfectly." I laughed slightly, my head turning more towards her.
"You cannot describe colors." She pressed her lips together and turned towards me, leaning on her elbow instead of her forearms.
"I can." She blinked a few times. "Close your eyes." I raised the arm that was not holding me up towards the side.
"Why?" She pressed her small fingers against my arm, the look in her face the look of sudden alarm.
"Please." I let out a breath through my nose, but carefully did as she asked, succumbing to the darkness behind my eyelids. "That one spot of contempt, shining through in your deepest regret. The halo of light surrounding the only star in the sky. The feeling on your skin when you're in the moonlight. The feeling of your lover's cold feet on the back of your legs at night. Your saddest happiness. Your happiest sadness. The betrayal that you oddly understand. The melody of the only song that makes you cry. The cries that you caused. The feeling of your fingers digging down into the sand as you pick up the perfect seashell. The feeling of your drying tears. When warm rain soaks your hair. The smell of gentle lavender, blowing in the clear sky. The…"
"The color of the sky as twilight." I finished slowly for her, opening my eyes hesitantly, only to find her eyes closed as well, as small smile playing on her lips.
"The cry of the sun as it reaches out, its last ray fading from the sky." She opened her eyes, letting out a labored sigh. She smiled widely at me, trying to hide her slight blush in the approaching moonlight. "So, where are we going exactly?" I shrugged slightly.
"Truthfully, I did not have an idea about where to go until a moment ago." She smiled, ducking under my face, which I didn't realize was pointed down towards the ground.
"And…now?" I ran through the thought in my head, wondering if it was a good idea, if it was something I really wanted to do.
"I would like to…show you something." She smiled again, walking over next to me and hooking her arm through my elbow.
"Lead the way. And after that, I have a few ideas of my own."
In honor of tomorrow being the famous day of love, I am going to try to post the next two or three chapters of this story, which tell the tale of Zane and Aryan's date. Hope you enjoy!