Excalibur {Complete}

19

Zak led the way to where the hummer was left behind. How he knew where to go was a mystery to me, but then again, he had been around the city limits and other places more than I had. Zak was sure to know those streets like the back of his hand. So, I let him lead and I followed, carrying Tristan with me. The manipulation of air around Tristan to make him light enough for me to carry was easy enough but I was starting to feel a headache creep into the right side of my skull, next to the temple. So, there are limitations... I was beginning to wonder. I wasn't sure how long I had been using those enhanced abilities, but it seemed that I couldn't use them forever. I was tempted to see how far I could push it, of course at the same time, I was pretty sure I was about to test that too.

When we found the vehicle, it was indeed covered by concrete. I wasn't sure how intact it was, but it actually didn't look too bad from what I could see of it. Had the hummer been one of the smaller cars that had been buried, it most likely would have been a crushed tin can. As we approached the car, I was eyeing the concrete that layered it and not really paying attention to anything else. There was a loud honk behind us. I twisted around quickly, my heart pounding hard. I recognized the black truck immediately; the bulky Toyota pulled up slowly next to us and stopped. The door burst open and Jace cam flying out of the driver side with a handful of other guys with him. I gave a tired smile as he rushed over to us.

"Are you all right? What happened?" Jace's rapid fire of questions made me sigh as I shifted to hold Tristan better.

"I'm fine, but these two aren't. Can we save the explanations for later? I want to get them back to Kilia."

Jace nodded slowly, his gaze narrowing at me as he looked between Tristan and Zak. I was pretty sure I knew what he was thinking, but he didn't say anything. I frowned a bit and kept my thoughts to myself. I knew I was different, I knew I wasn't the same anymore. Yet again the one who had caused it was Alik. He was always running things. It was like it was his sole task to utterly destroy me in the worst, painful way possible. This time, he'd really managed to wreck things. I wanted to cry, to scream in frustration, if I had the courage, I probably would take my own life. However, I couldn't do any of those things, so I forced myself to reign in those emotions.

"Jace, can you take him? I'm going to clear out the hummer," I said softly and started to hand him Tristan's unconscious form.

Jace made to take Tristan, but gave me a confused look, "What? Valkyrie... There's no way!"

I waved my hand at him and he went silent. Turning to the buried hummer, I took a deep breath. I knew the Toyota couldn't carry us all and I didn't want anyone left behind either, thus the reason for my insistence to unbury the second vehicle. As I stood there, my concentration slowly beginning to focus in on the layers of rock, I heard Jace and Zak behind me. Because I had expanded my senses by activating more of Excalibur, I could hear them both as they talked some distance behind me. I could hear every soft breath they took in between words. It was such a strange feeling and I almost lost myself to it in fascination.

"What the hell is going on? Did you see his eye? The pale blue one was glowing like a fucking light bulb! Is he all right? I'm not imagining things am I?" Jace sounded worried and confused. The worry startled me a bit. I was sure he would have been put off by my change.

"Alik gave him Excalibur," Zak said, anger in his tone. Now that I had been expecting, yet his anger didn't seem to be directed at me, another strange development, "I don't know if he is all right. I know nothing about that drug. We'll have to watch him. Maybe Kilia can help him. And no, you weren't imagining things, his eye was glowing. Alik's did that too, and so did Dane's."

"Shit. All right... Tristan's going to be pissed."

"I know."

As my focus changed, tunneling in on the concrete, I didn't hear anything else from Jace or Zak. I tried not to let it get to me, telling myself that they were only looking out for me and nothing else. Still I couldn't shake the feeling of being alienated. This strange new development was making me think differently. Coupled with the fact that Alik had essentially shown me that I could definitely turn into a monster very easily... It just didn't sit right with me. I wasn't sure why –although I think over time I realized it better- but I just felt like I didn't belong anymore. I let out a breath and pushed those thoughts aside to concentrate on the concrete. I would deal with the estranged feeling's later.