Chapter 23

The officer standing next to me glanced over at the patrol cars and then ran for them. Maybe he had something in one that could slow Dan down because guns weren’t going to be enough.

I got to my feet. If Dan pushed past the other two officers, then I wanted to be ready to run.

Then I remembered why I was there. I glanced at the house. Grace was inside somewhere. Rachel may have been with her at this point, I didn’t know. I couldn’t run away and leave either of them to fend for themselves. Grace was normal for crying out loud. She wouldn’t have a chance to stand up to Dan. And Rachel? Dan hated her more than he hated me. He’d probably be happy only putting me in the hospital. He blamed Rachel for Grace leaving him. He’d see her dead.

Anger filled me. Anger at the thought of what Dan did to my best friend. Anger at what he had done to Grace. Anger at what he might do to Rachel. Sure, I was still scared, but I wasn’t about to let this bully continue rampaging on like a wild bull. I had power. I had slowed down Charlie and he had some kind of protection, so why not slow down Dan?

I watched Dan. He hadn’t moved from his spot yet, but there was more violence. I knew that as well as I was breathing. But if I could help the police stop Dan, if I had enough power to help stop him, then it would be worth it.

I thought about Eric. Between the two of us, he was the better strategist. I could use one of his brilliant ideas now. Then I had a sudden flash, a memory. It was a rainy Saturday afternoon and we had spent the day in his room playing a new game. At one point we ran into a villain we couldn’t seem to kill. We tried and tried, but we couldn’t do enough damage. Then Eric looked at me with a wicked grin. “If you can’t kill it, trap it.”

I nodded to myself. It was a good plan, but how would I trap Dan?

The two officers with their guns trained on Dan continued to order him to get on the ground, and he continued to ignore them like they were nothing more than a gust of wind.

I walked out into the lawn. Dan watched me approach. One of the officers realized I was getting closer and put his hand out toward me. “Don’t come any closer.”

I stopped then and there, staring at Dan. “You hurt Eric,” I said.

Dan studied me for a second. His eyes narrowed as he recognized me. “You’re one of the kids from the café. That bitch’s new cock.”

His language was lacking something. Oh, intelligence. “You’re not going to hurt anyone else today Dan.”

He laughed, it wasn’t a friendly chuckle either. “You should go home, kid. Before you get hurt, like your friend.”

More anger flowed through me and I let it register in my eyes. “You won’t lay a hand on me.”

Dan chuckled again, “Oh really? How are ya goin’ to stop me?”

I didn’t smile, but I couldn’t stop what was coming either. “Mind over muscle.”

He snorted. “And that’s going to save you a trip to the hospital?”

“I’ll still be going to the hospital, to see about Eric and the officer you hurt, but not because you put me there,” I said.

“What makes you think I won’t?” he asked.

I ignored his question. I knew the answer but wanted to wait, to make it a surprise. “Why did you attack Eric?” I asked.

He glanced at the officers. “Why?”

“Eric,” I said. “My friend. Grace’s boyfriend.”

His aura burst with anger. “I’m Grace’s boyfriend.”

I shook my head. “That’s not what I was told.”

“Then someone lied to you,” he said.

“No, I can tell when someone’s lying,” I said. “I can see it. Rachel told me Grace dumped you.”

“That bitch doesn’t know her head from a hole in the ground,” he said.

“That’s not a denial,” I said. “Rachel told me that you had a problem. You constantly accused Grace of cheating on you.”

He took to shaking his head almost constantly. “No. I never did.”

“Rachel admitted that she tried to convince Grace to date other guys, so you’d have a legitimate reason to dump her,” I said.

His eyes burned with anger. “I knew it.”

“But Grace refused to,” I said.

He stared at me.

“You have a funny way of showing your girlfriend that you love her,” I said. “Sending her new boyfriend to the hospital. Kidnapping her. I’m not sure you’re sending the right message.”

The anger in his aura was pushing him. He wanted to lash out. “I would shut up if I were you,” he said.

“Why Dan?” I asked. “Don’t you care about the truth?”

“I said shut up,” he said.

“The truth is, she dumped you because you were jealous of nobody,” I said. “You were scared of losing her. And you ended up being the very reason she wanted to leave.”

“No!” He screamed and came at me.

I had been waiting. I knew he would do this, eventually. It was a matter of pushing the right buttons. Anticipating his move, I brought up my shield to deflect the blow.

His fist, black and metallic, slammed into it.

The shock of his strength made my arm go numb, but otherwise, I wasn’t hurt. Surprisingly I didn’t even have a headache.

Confusion overrode his anger. He looked at my arm and noticed my shield shimmering in the summer sun. “What the hell is that?”

“You have metal fists,” I said. “I use a shield. Is that a problem?”

He frowned at me. “A shield can be broken.”

I wasn’t sure about that, but I knew what my shield could take.

He reared back to throw another punch. I didn’t doubt that my shield would protect me, but I wasn’t sure if my arm could take the concussive hammering of his strength either. I pushed him.

Fifteen feet away, Dan landed and rolled onto his belly.

The officers who had been pointing guns at Dan had backed away. Both of them had confusion in their auras. It was bad enough that the guy they were trying to arrest was indestructible and could throw them around like rag dolls, but then to watch me, a college freshman, make that guy fly back like that without touching him? Yeah, they were overwhelmed.

Dan was on his feet again.

I knew simply throwing him around wasn’t going to hurt him. If bullets couldn’t hurt him, landing on grass or even hitting bricks wouldn’t be any worse.

He started running toward me.

I knew that was coming too. Dan was stuck with using his fists. He couldn’t shoot at me at all. All I had to do was keep him at bay and the easiest way to do that was to keep him off his feet, literally. Like with Charlie the night before, I reached out and grabbed him. Dan had Charlie beat in physical strength, but I wasn’t going to wrestle him to the ground. Instead, I picked him up and held him about a foot off the ground, just far enough so that even if he stretched out his toes, he could do nothing more than skim the blades of grass. The only problem was I knew I couldn’t hold him for long. A physical confrontation would only end with him winning. I had to find another way.

“What the hell?” he screamed. “Fuckin’ too chicken to fight me?”

I strained to hold him up. He didn’t feel as heavy as I thought he would, but I didn’t have the strength to do what I was doing for long. “Like you were afraid of taking on an officer who was only using an Asp. You went and used your metal hands.”

I glanced back at the officer in question. He stood there watching and his aura ran deep with confusion. He didn’t understand what was happening. I looked around for that other officer who had shown up to check on Patrone. He stood by the sidewalk, holding a weapon with a really big drum and barrel. I didn’t know what it was, but I was sure it wouldn’t help.

I looked at Dan again. I met his eyes and let him see my anger. I let him see my sympathy for the officers he had hurt. “You’ve injured several officers. For that alone, you’ll do time. If Officer Patrone dies, it’s a capital offense and you know what they do to cop killers here in Texas, Dan.” He didn’t know I had helped the one I pointed out. Of course, I wasn’t yet convinced that he would be okay, but that was information Dan didn’t need to know just yet.

He laughed again. “I can’t be killed.”

I shook my head. “Wrong. You can die, just like anyone else. You still have to breathe, eat, and drink. Just because you can withstand damage doesn’t mean you’ll live forever. You’re powerful, but you don’t have that kind of power.”

Real fear crept into his aura. His face contorted with the anger that was already there. “They can’t starve me to death or suffocate me. It’s illegal.”

“Maybe not. Even if they can’t electrocute you or give you a lethal injection, you can still be imprisoned in a nice deep hole where you won’t be around anyone else.” I couldn’t move while I was focused on holding him off the ground. “All they’ll have to do is drop food down to you once in a while. You may be effectively indestructible, Dan, but you won’t be free.”

“As if they could even get me into such a hole,” he said looking around at the cops. “They can’t even get me in their cruisers.”

“You broke their regulation cuffs, right?” I asked. I knew he had. I had seen it. He nodded. I nodded in return. “I’ll have something ready for you when you get back.” He was confused for a second. His eyes widened as I threw him as hard as I could, sending him skyward back over his house.

The officer with a sea-green aura stared at me as I walked toward him saying, “Quick, give me your cuffs.”