I couldn’t react if I wanted to. His hands then gripped me painfully as he forced me onto the ground. My head connected with the concrete, and I yelped in pain.
This couldn’t be happening. Not again. I thought wildly.
“Please,” I begged my gift to come.
He laughed, obviously thinking I was talking to him. It was distorted. When I was younger, I used to lay in the tub and hum to myself. The distorted sound had been so funny to me back then. His laugh in that same distorted tone, wasn’t.
I was vaguely aware of the cool air hitting my thighs as I heard a zipper being pulled down. I could hear him panting above me. He smelled nice. Shouldn’t the devil smell like brimstone and fire? I thought hysterically. His hands grabbed my thighs in a bruising grip, making me wince, as he forced my legs apart.
I closed my eyes and felt a steady hum begin to course through my body. I could feel my gift wanting to break free and I allowed it to. I allowed it to take over. I wasn’t going to try to control it. If it ended in my death, so be it.
I felt the warmth fighting the effects of whatever was making me feel sick and drugged.
I heard a startled cry and opened my eyes as I saw Bradford being lifted away from me. His body was convulsing like he couldn’t breathe. He was making gasping sounds, and I watched in cool detachment.
The door was suddenly thrown open and the overhead lights came on. Drake, Jaxson, and Will were framed in the doorway. They all looked like they had been dragged out of bed. Jaxson was in his normal pajama bottoms and bare chested. Drake was wearing boxers and a T-shirt.
I knew the scene was an odd one to walk in on. My sweatpants were down to my ankles and Bradford was blue and gasping. His dark eyes were bulging out of his face as he gripped his throat. Invisible hands had wrapped themselves around it and was squeezing the life out of him.
“Blake!” Drake called out in consternation.
Jace, Remy, Noah, and Troy came tumbling in the room followed by Adams, Yaris, and the other group that had been in the dayroom.
“Blake!” Jaxson called as he advanced forward, but he was thrown back as if there was an invisible force field around me and Bradford.
“She’s killing him!” Adams cried shrilly.
“Blake, stop!” Noah demanded.
I looked over at him slightly disembodied from it all… like I wasn’t really there. It was like everything was playing out in front of me like a movie and they weren’t talking to me. Each one of them was just a character on a screen.
I felt my energy begin to wane, but the gift wanted Bradford dead. I knew it. It was angry that he had attempted to harm me. I vaguely heard alarms going off in the distance. I saw bright red lights flashing from our alarm system. It seemed to shake me o
ut of my odd like trance.
I looked over at Drake, panicked. I can’t. I silently yelled. It won’t let me!
He was a great problem solver. I knew he could figure it out.
We need to grab her, I heard Drake urge the guys.
They rushed me as one and nothing happened to them. I felt them grab me and haul me up. I could feel them warring with my gift. They were trying to force it to comply. The gift struggled for a moment like it didn’t want to hand over control again. Like it wasn’t done wreaking havoc. I felt the gift slowly retreat. I immediately went limp and leaned into Drake.
“Is he dead?” I asked in a detached voice as Jaxson knelt to pull up my sweats.
I thought I saw Bradford’s chest rise and fall, but his lips were a disconcerting shade of blue. His face was a molten purple.
Will knelt next to him. “No. He’s still breathing.”
“She attacked him!” Adams screeched as Paul and several operatives came into the room, tasers and guns at ready. “I told you she was unstable and couldn’t be trusted.”
“What happened?” Will asked calmly as he looked at me.
“He tried to rape me,” I said impassively. I felt numb. Everyone’s voices seemed like they were far away. “My gift didn’t like that.”
Adams snorted. “As if! He can have anyone he wants. Why would he want her?”
I heard one of the guys snuffle. “You should know, he has you all the time.”